How far is Shylock's Jewishness shown by Shakespeare to be responsible for his actions and attitudes?

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How far is Shylock's Jewishness shown by Shakespeare to be responsible for his actions and attitudes?

It is important first to establish that views on Jews and usury at the time were very different from what they are now. Anti-Semitism had been present in England ever since Jews first arrived. Stories had been contrived of them stealing babies, drinking sacrificial blood and forcing adult circumcisions. Jews had been banished from England since 1290 and only around 1000 converts to Christianity remained in London around the time Shakespeare was writing. Then in 1594 extreme anti-Semitic feelings were aroused when Queen Elizabeth I was visited by the Portuguese pretender to the throne, Don Antonio. A Portuguese physician, Lopez, was tried and convicted (almost certainly wrongly) of attempted poison of both the queen and Don Antonio. He was hanged, drawn and quartered. This prompted a huge surge in anti-Jewish attitudes in the public and 'the Jew of Malta' was revived a year after the incident.

At a first glance therefore, the play would appear to be anti-Semitic with Shylock traditionally being played by a big nosed actor with a bright orange wig. He hoards money, isolates himself from Christians and most importantly, is a usurer. It had been forbidden in the old testament of the Bible but Jews had translated this to mean they were prohibited to charge interest from other Jews only. This is where another root of hatred of the Jews stems from as Christians would have seen the Jews as arrogant in that respect. Shylock is also unnecessarily vengeful and malicious however, and this is not connected with the fact he is a Jew.

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There can be no question that Shylock is presented as an evil character that we are intended to hate. In his first scene he states his hatred of Antonio and unfurls his scheme to try and murder him and as the play progresses, we see more and more of his personality. We learn that he is puritanical in that we never see him jest and seems to take no pleasure from the usual past-times (he hates music for example). He is so driven by profit that he would rather kill his own daughter than lose his wealth and he goes ...

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