Surprising, Shylock values more of his money than his daughter Jessica, even before her parting to a Christian, Lorenzo. He is also rather obsessive about his faith of being a Jew, which is why he refuses to eat, drink and pray with the Christians (Act 1 Scene 3) but most importantly, he does care for his wealth. This is why he expresses his grief in the trial scene when the state and Antonio will take away his possessions: ‘you take the means whereby I live’ (line 373), as he rather wants to die than lose all he has to his enemy. Also, as we see in the Act 1 Scene 3, Shylock also lends out money, as it is part of his traditions but with lots of interest so in the end he does make a huge profit to his cherished wealth. In contrast, the way he treats his daughter Jessica must reflect why she hates him. Although we do not see mistreatment from Shylock to his daughter in the text, Jessica does express her grief in being ashamed to be Shylock’s child (Act 2 Scene 4) because he is such a lone figure. By getting married to Lorenzo and escaping from her father’s home, she could escape the trappings with her father and his society. This scenario is similar to that of Portia, who herself was trapped in her father’s will and the caskets in Belmont. However, the contrast here was Portia went along with her father’s will while Jessica did not. The impact of this situation did not affect the culprit Jessica but instead Antonio. Shylock felt anger before the situation where he was suffering at the hands of the Christians and after Jessica’s exit, the condition only made Shylock angrier at Antonio and his feel for the need of revenge increased. Yet the fortunate coincidence was the ending turned out fine for both of Shakespeare’s women. Jessica was able to run off with her true love and similarly, Portia was able to marry Bassanio, her true love after him choosing the right casket. Nevertheless, Jessica’s theft in stealing most of Shylock’s wealth along with the Christians does make it extremely unfair for Shylock because he is taken advantage of in her escape. Similarly, the final outcome in the trial scene is extremely unfair for him because of the loss of all he values such as his religion and money. Although Antonio does try to express some mercy for Shylock from changing his sentence, the mercy he shows is not moral for him at all.
The play shows many examples of Shylock’s treatment by the Christians, which has always been unpleasant and anti-Semitic. He has been related as a dog and has been spat on the beard by Antonio, yet he still feels no guilt in asking Shylock for rather large sums of money. This shows how the Christians view him as an object of ridicule, hence the reason why Shylock seeks revenge so he could get one back for the mistreatment that he had suffered for what seems like quite a long time. His speech especially in lines 42 to 57 in Act 3 Scene 1 is very powerful, involving lots of repetition and listing the wrongs he had suffered at the hands of Antonio. This speech is almost a plea by Shylock for justice and showing the pain he had suffered for some time.
Nasty personal characteristics do not affect your right to justice as we see for Shylock in the trial scene. He is granted justice by the court, which is all he wants: ‘the duke shall grant me justice’ shows him at a point where he is at his most bitter and evil manner. Portia and the Duke approved of what he wanted- a pound of flesh from the breast of Antonio, yet as the ending goes and as Portia says, he gets more justice than he wanted: ‘thou shalt have justice more than thou desirest’ (line 312). Although the ending seems unfair to Shylock, he did get what he wanted most, the letter of the law and his tragic downfall almost seemed inevitable by refusing to be merciful, hence not bringing him salvation as Portia describes in line 195/6.
Shylock was extremely obsessive with the law as we see throughout the trial scene, yet his judgement or his code of justice was based on what was written in the bond. In lines 88 to 104, the Duke does plead for mercy from Shylock, realising the certainty that Shylock’s actions would lead to a brutal death. Nevertheless, Shylock’s response does show that he desires his view of the law and only the law. When Portia asks Shylock to have a surgeon nearby to stop Antonio from bleeding to death, his response was ‘is it so nominated in the bond’ (line 255), hence showing the extreme mercilessness of his actions. Shylock was offered many times by Portia and the Duke to change his decisions and show some mercy yet his compulsion with his code of justice shows the excessive justification he wanted.
It is not surprising that when Portia intervenes in the trial and asks Shylock, ‘then must a Jew be merciful,’ his response is ‘on what compulsion must I?’ Shylock is strictly sticking to the letter of the law so it is unlikely that Portia’s presence would change his decision. Nevertheless, Portia’s speech in lines 180 to 201 was a powerful display for the quality and reason for mercy. She describes it as the ‘mightiest in the mightiest’ (line 184) and that it is ‘enthroned in the heart of kings’ (line 190), yet Shylock’s obsession with justice means that the speech makes little impression on him. This is strange, even for Shylock because justice is what he demands in the trial, yet Portia shows that justice will not restore things the way they are unless we also have mercy, hence the statement ‘mercy seasons justice’ is true. This should encourage Shylock to be merciful to Antonio, but since he refuses to do so and wants to give judgement against the Merchant of Venice, this proves how his code of justice lacks humanity and mercy in the deed.
The result to this trial scene is the twist that occurs, where rather than Shylock gaining his justice triumph and sweet revenge from the death of his enemy, Antonio gains justice and wins from the downfall of his murderer. According to Venetian law, Shylock must give half of his wealth to Antonio, the other half to the state and his life at the Duke’s mercy. This development is not only ironic but also comical and adds to the comedy theme of the play because Shylock had so much to gain from the trial, yet he loses all he has to his victim that he came to close to killing.
Shylock had suffered dearly as a result to what had happened in the trial scene. Given the extreme penalties the court could exact on Shylock, we could say that he was a victim of his own code of justice. By being merciless, not only does he suffer once again at the hands of his enemy but also at the hands of the law that he always referred to in this scene. The law that was once Shylock’s only way in giving him justice, revenge and also long term profit was also the law that proved to be him downfall. Such severe penalties would not only have lost him all his wealth, but also his pride in being a Jew and would have given him more shame and humiliation in front of the fellow Jewish friends like Tubal and of course, the Christians. Although showing mercy to the Christians would mean that he would not get his revenge, he would most definitely have got fairness in his justice by receiving a huge cash payment in ducats hence becoming much wealthier. The fact that he stuck to the letter of the law meant that he lost his revenge over the Christians plus being unable to get fair justice from a cash payment, yet he also lost our respect and sympathy because of his greed and evil manner. Therefore, his code of justice left him with nothing but humiliation, especially after Antonio’s final request to quit the fine of half of his wealth but instead give it to Lorenzo and Jessica after his death. His final words in the play, ‘I am content’ (line 389) show that to huge extent he has realised that he was a victim of his own code of justice.
Through most of the play, the Christians of Venice follow the attitude Antonio has to Shylock. They not only dislike but also treat him as a person to laugh at and to let their anger on. Only three main people represent the main characters of the Christians of Venice apart from Antonio: Bassanio, Gratiano and Lorenzo. We hear little about their attitudes in the beginning of the play, however it was they who plotted Jessica’s unexpected escape from Shylock’s home with his wealth. Their scheming plot does not only show how Gratiano and Lorenzo take advantage and benefit from Shylock’s presence but also how disloyal Jessica is towards her father. Bassanio, in contrast, has shown little hatred and aggression for Shylock earlier in the play. Although he referred to Shylock as villain in the trial scene, his words are not as harsh as those said by Antonio and his other close friends. He does seem rather soft in his approach to Shylock and a good example would be in Shylock’s entrance in Act 1 Scene 3, who rather mocks Bassanio as he begs him for cash. However, if Bassanio did bring an aggressive approach to Shylock then it would be less likely that he would get his loan off him, therefore he cannot afford to let out any aggression or force.
The trial scene contrasts little to the values and attitude the Christians show in the beginning of the play to Shylock. Bassanio does beg for mercy from Shylock and asks Portia to ‘curb this cruel devil of his will’ (line 213), again showing little aggression in Shylock’s actions and more pleading for forgiveness. However, Antonio shows very little mercy because as lines 70 to 83 show, he knows that Shylock will not forgo his rights to the forfeit and accepts the inevitability of the law’s judgement and the determination for Shylock to pursue his case. Rather than expressing his hatred to Shylock, he accuses him of being harsh and ‘hard hearted’, therefore accepting no desire for friendship and mercy. This shows how unworthy Antonio feels- almost like his attitude in the first scene in the play about his concern for laying his wealth on ships at sea. This is the only contrast to his manner at the start of the play and lines 114 to 118 justify exactly that. Gratiano is another figure of whom we get to know more of in the trial scene. He, like all the other Christians does hate Shylock and this is shown by the vicious and cruel words in lines 128 to 138, which show more frustration rather than anger. However, his display does contrast the mood for the Christians in this scene who are rather pleading for mercy rather than expressing their rage at Shylock. Gratiano abuses him with language of wild nature, saying that a dead wolf’s soul entered his body while he was still in his mother’s womb. These words are purely out of frustration, yet they are extremely harsh compared to the ones that are said already in the play. However, Gratiano does echo words of a more promising kind and those that were said by Shylock in this scene, such as ‘upright judge’ and ‘Daniel’. This comes to good effect because it shows Gratiano mocking Shylock words, which may also add to the comedy theme for the audience in the play. The same words that described Shylock’s hopeful claim for justice were also used to lead him to his tragic downfall.
The final focus in the scene is the request by Antonio to change the initial sentence. Instead of himself receiving half of Shylock’s goods, they will be kept by Shylock until his death where he will have to hand over the rest of his wealth to his daughter and son-in-law, Jessica and Lorenzo. The overall outcome is rather ambiguous to interpret because by Antonio doing this, he is attempting to be merciful so that he can be fully justified and fair to Shylock. His act of mercy may be true in one case because he is returning half of Shylock’s cherished wealth so Shylock has not lost everything. This shows that perhaps Antonio demonstrates the quality of mercy. Alternatively, Antonio’s request also means that Shylock will have to give away his wealth to his treacherous daughter who already ran away with most of his fortune. He would also be publicly humiliated and wounded by the fact that he would have to turn to the faith that he once disliked and so nearly exacted revenge on. These differences in opinions does make us wonder whether Antonio was acting mercifully when showing mercy to Shylock or if it was just a way of frustrating him even more so he could become completely defeated. In my opinion, although the outcome prevents the certainty of Shylock’s death as a result of the trial, I do not think that the mercy Antonio shows is really merciful, since it seems realistic that he should not after the merciless approach of Shylock for his pound of flesh.
Portia acts as Doctor Balthazar in the trial scene and appears to be interpreted as a rather ambiguous character. We never get a good impression on whether Portia does act on Shylock’s behalf or whether she is in the side of the Christians. Although she did realise the loophole in the bond that led to Shylock’s unfortunate downfall, she also granted Shylock justice so he was near to gaining revenge on Antonio. What this suggests is that maybe Portia planned ahead of what she was to do in the trial. What we question her is how far she planned ahead.
There are two ways one can view Portia in the trial scene. There is the gentle Portia who persuades Shylock to be merciful. She would represent the values of love, play and forgiveness, the opposite to Shylock’s hatred, literalness and revenge in the trial. Yet there could also be the ‘hard’ Portia who expresses the same values of Shylock. In my opinion, she shows both values- the gentle type when she intervenes ‘then must a Jew by merciful’ (line 178) and the hard type when she refuses to change the law for the sake of Antonio. This may be because she feels sympathy on Shylock’s behalf by the way he has been treated and how much he has lost at the hands of the Christians, which was the view I got from Trevor Nunn’s production. However I think that she shows more gentleness in her manner than her harshness because she does offer Shylock every chance to show mercy in this scene, which shows that she probably did know a way out for Antonio in this bond. Her continuous offering to Shylock to show mercy is because she feels pitiful for him and by Shylock being merciful, she realises that he could be prevented from his defeat. Nevertheless, the amount she planned ahead of this trial was up to an extent because she did refer easily to the correct areas of the law to support every decision. However in the production, it did show her being nervous and worried when Shylock was on the verge of cutting Antonio’s flesh. This suggests that what was to happen afterwards was unplanned and this could be due to looking at the knife that Shylock was to use to cut his flesh that took things to the extreme. Although critics described Portia as one of Shakespeare’s strong women, this scenario shows the sensitive side of her, as she was afraid in seeing a single drop of blood from the flesh being cut.
The fact that this play is classified as a Shakespearean comedy does affect how we assess the justice of the overall outcome. It is hard to see how this play is a comedy because it shows more in the way of tragedy for Shylock. The classification however does make us unaware of the main message that the trial scene brings. Portia represents all but the opposite of Shylock’s judgment in this key scene. What she tries to bring is the love and play from Belmont into Venetian society, which is harsh and judgmental by bringing about mercy. This is so that judgment itself can bring fairness. However, the fact that Shylock was unwilling to be merciful does bring worry as the society of Venice still is the same as before, even after Portia’s arrival. The comical convention does make it difficult to get this important message to the audience, even though Shylock’s defeat was essential to bring the play fully into that genre. The ending also affects how vindicated the outcome is, since Shylock is not mentioned at all in the final act of the play, therefore giving the impression that the characters are unaware of the threats that took place earlier. This brings into the ambiguous question on whether Shakespeare was anti-Semitic in the play. He does bring across the message of Shylock’s suffering in his speech in Act 3 Scene 1, making him seem powerfully human, yet he receives the same treatment as a villain in the trial. The way that the humans respond rather happily in the end does bring the sense of unfairness into the way he was treated finally in the trial and the fact that Antonio says ‘I dare be bound again, my soul upon the forfeit’ in Act 5 Scene 1 (lines 251-2) does show that the trial experience has not taught Antonio nothing and he is still willing to swear oath on Bassanio’s behalf. So although the ending does seem rather comical to the audience, its deeper meaning is quite serious and important in relation to the happenings of the play.
In conclusion to the answer of the title question, I think that the outcome is just for Shylock in the trial scene, yet it is deeply unfair since Shylock was unwilling to show mercy and his request for the letter of the law meant that he was a victim of his own code of justice. Shylock received justice but much more than he wanted, as Portia said in line 312. His unwillingness to show love and forgiveness which was offered to him many times by the Duke and Portia meant that he gained unfair justice as a result of what he really desired, which was revenge and his bond.