How does Shakespeare manipulate the audience response to Shylock in the trial scene?

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How does Shakespeare manipulate the audience response to Shylock in the trial scene?

William Shakespeare wrote the Merchant of Venice in the Elizabethan period. At this time England was a Christian country and all children born, were baptized and taught Christian beliefs and traditions from an early age. The play is set in the approximately 1596 and is based in the Italian town of Venice. Shakespeare set the story in Venice because he was raising controversial issues at that time and if they had been misjudged or misunderstood, he could have been killed. The story is about a Jewish moneylender called Shylock whose greedy antics get the better of him. Shylock is seen as a harsh man in the play but is understandably only trying to make a living in country that alienates and despises him based on his religious beliefs.

   With the story being written in the Elizabethan period, people who would have watched it will have condemned Shylock before the plot even started as he is Jewish. At this time in England, Christians hated Jews due to their profession of money lending therefore discriminated against them in nearly any way possible such as forbidding them to own land or trade in the country. Because of this, Jewish people were reduced to lending money to Christians and exploited any opportunity within this occupation that they could. This is what Shylock does and is also the reason for his humiliation later on in the play. He has a daughter called Jessica.

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   Prior to the actual scene of the trial Shylock is portrayed in two different ways; as a man making a living at one of the very few occupations open to him or, as a greedy cold materialistic man. Overall throughout the play I feel that Shylock is more of a cold character than anything else. This becomes applicable when he beats his daughter, Jessica, because she failed to lock the door of his house. This shows him as a victim and a villain; a victim because he is scared of the outside world and a villain because he thinks ...

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