“I hate him for he is a Christian; But more, for that in low simplicity He lends out money gratis,”
Antonio then starts an outraged speech about Shylock. He, as so often done before, called Shylock a “Devil” and that he had an “Evil soul”. He also refers to him as being “a goodly apple rotten by the heart”. Shylock does not seem to be moved by this and carries on about the bond, but when Antonio interrupts and asks, “shall we beholden to you?” Shylock starts a long and poignant speech about how he had to put up with Antonio’s remarks of him being a “Dog”.
Shakespeare has made Shylock a very complex character. He is not a stereotypical character but has been developed, and in this play, we are able to feel sympathy for him and feel fury, anger and irritation towards him. Shakespeare has a lot of empathy for Shylock’s character, but nearly breaks tradition by the way he uses Shylock. He has researched his character and made us understand what Jews are really like. He shows that we can sympathize with Jews who were disliked for their religion. Shakespeare has shown us a complex character who was often disliked for being a Jew. He is frequently forced into the way he behaves by the way Christians treat him and as a consequence of how they behave around him and speak to and about him. He is repeatedly judged, and in this play, we can see that people are often only judged from the outside instead of getting to know the individual.
Shylock is often treated very badly and people do not have a high opinion of him. They talk about him in a very spiteful manner, and are not concerned of how they might suffer if someone talked of them in a similar way. They call him numerous names, which are very disrespectful and unpleasant. “Dog” is an expression which is used to portray his character in a very inhuman way. It tells us that they had no respect for the Jews and are not able to communicate in an appropriate manner. Antonio also tells him that he has an “Evil soul”. This shows disrespect and lack of decent communication. Characters who talk of Shylock talk of him with no respect and ignore his feelings. They overlook that he is also a person who has the same feelings and thoughts as themselves. This makes us feel sympathy towards him, as he is still a person in society who ought to be valued and appreciated. An audience today would feel a lot of sympathy towards Shylock at this point as, nobody should have to tolerate this kind of behavior from other citizens towards you. An audience in Shakespeare’s time would not have felt sympathy for Shylock for it was tolerable to be criticizing a Jew.
Although we can feel a lot of sympathy for him there are also several faulty characteristics about him. His daughter deserts him and it seems like they had quite a close bond. Even though he treats her like a servant, he seems regretful to have to treat her like this and to have to lock her away for safekeeping. He cares about her, as he wants to make sure she is secure while he goes out to eat with a Christian to prevent spending his own money. After his daughter has gone, he does not seem to care for her at all. The only thing he is worrying about is the money and Jewelry that she took. He says “I would my daughter were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear”. “Ill luck, Ill luck” is a phrase he uses to explain his grief for his lost jewels and money. “Thief” is the word that Shylock uses to describe his daughter after leaving him with the money. In this scene there is little sympathy for Shylock as he treats his own daughter with little value and lack of love. In today’s audience, they would feel no sympathy as everyone should be accepted equally, but all he cares for is his money instead of his own relatives. In Shakespeare’s time, they would most likely start to detest Shylock even more then they did before. They would feel sympathy for his poor daughter who is treated immorally and roughly by her own father who she seemed to have quite a close relationship to. He does not support her in her decisions and does not believe her character and how she portrays herself towards other people. Only caring about money is not a way of showing his loving affections towards his own daughter. Shakespeare at this point wants us to dislike Shylock’s character to expand his understanding of Jews and their ordinary character.
In act 3 scene 1 Shylock has a very dominant and overpowering speech. It talks of how Jews are treated heartlessly und inhumanly.
“Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?”
It is a speech to show us how a Jew is the same as a Christian with a separate faith. Everyone should be treated the same whatever their faith or race is. Shylock says,” half a million” had, “laughed at my losses”. This indicated again that Jews were treated with no respect and no indication of showing that Jews had any feelings. They did not show any sign of concern for Shylock’s feelings or any other Jew. This Speech showed that Jews did have a little bit of power and had the freedom to express their opinion but this did not improve their social status. This speech showed that there is a lot of emotion in Jews as well as Christians and that they have feelings that need to be considered. In Shakespeare time the audience would have thought that the Jews had no right to have such power and that they had no feelings, and were not able to express such opinions as this. Today’s audience would feel sympathy for Shylock, as he is an acceptable character who needs to be cared for and who needs more friendliness from Christians and be accepted by them. They should not be treated like Dogs, nor should they be judged by appearance or religion.
Act 4 is probably the most important act in the scene. This scene is all about justice and Jews and Christians having the same rights. In this scene, Shylock finally is able to have the pound of flesh he asked of Antonio that came in the bond. The bond was that if Antonio did not return the 3000 ducats Shylock would be able to take a pound of flesh any where of his body. This would kill Antonio, as Shylock was most likely to choose to cut out his heart. Bassanio came to the court case with triple the amount of money owed to Shylock. When he offered it to Shylock he did not accept it and wanted to carry out his bond. After this the duke speaks,” How shalt thou hope for mercy, rendering none?” Shylock insists that he is doing no wrong and that thy should proceed. In this part of the act we feel no sympathy for Shylock, as he will not accept thrice the money and let Antonio go. Portia then, a lighthearted young woman dressed as a man, came to try to see if she could change Shylock’s mind, but was unsuccessful. She then had no choice but to let Shylock go ahead. Shakespeare uses dramatic devices very well here. While all the disagreements are going on Shylock is sharpening the knife he is going to use to kill Antonio. Once Portia has given Shylock permission to take a pound of flesh from Shylock, he jumps up and shouts “Most learned judge! A sentence: come, prepare.” At this point in the play we do not feel any sympathy for shylock, for he is about to kill a human. This is something nobody should be able to do even if it was a bond. Right after the uprising of his power, Portia brings some news that he is not allowed to spill a single drop of blood or cut off any more or less than a pound of flesh. This was of course an impossible task and so Shylock finally gives up. The Duke then divides his money that he was supposed to be given by Bassanio. Half would go to Antonio and half to the general state. All his wealth would go to Jessica, his daughter, after he had died. The duke had made Shylock promise that he had to become a Christian. This would practically kill him as nobody would accept him as a Christian, and before he was very true to his own religion. Having done all this he leaves the courtroom exclaiming that “I pray you give me leave to go from hence; I am not well.” We now have a little more sympathy for Shylock as his life was practically taken away. His daughter has deserted him and he had nobody who he could talk to or trust.
Overall, this essay shows that we can feel sympathy for Shylock, but many of our emotions are against Shylock. We feel that he has been treated dishonestly and unjustly, but he has not treated others with respect either. His daughter said that it was “Hell” living in her father’s house. This shows us that shylock was not a very affectionate person. He accuses people of calling him “Dog”, but then expects it to be all right to kill a Christian. This is not how a Jew should behave, especially when they are very strong believers. Others Jews have also disobeyed him as killing is against their religion. After the court scene, shylock does not reappear. This is most likely because the play is a romantic comedy, and having a scene with shylock at the end would ruin the romantic and humorous atmosphere. The audience in today’s times would respond very differently to an audience in Shakespeare’s times. This is because many people were against Jews and so could not connect with Shylocks character. Today we are able to understand his personality and find out the actual feelings of Shylocks nature. We are able to interpret his feelings and can relate to him better as we are a society that has many different cultures and races mixed in it. We know that everybody has their own religion and we accept that they have their own freedoms and rights.
