Ryan Webb
How much do you think the character shylock, from Shakespeare’s ‘The merchant of Venice’ has been influenced by the environment in which he lives and do you think this type of environment shapes our society today?
Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice centres around the conflict of a Christian merchant; Antonio, and a Jewish money-lender; Shylock. Their relationship is fuelled by a passionate hatred, and concludes with the ultimate sacrifice. The character Shylock, is treated extremely badly because, it seems, of the simple fact that he is Jewish.
Shylock though, appears to be a very nasty person too, maybe because of the way that he is treated or perhaps he is just nasty at heart. Today, in out modern society Religion plays a huge part and still shapes how different people are treated and how they live. For example, because of terrorist attacks by small minorities of Muslims now a lot of people today blame all Muslims for these attacks and disrespect them.
In act one scene three, the character Bassanio comes to Shylock’s house to borrow ‘Three thousand Ducats’ so he may woo Portia. Bassanio uses his friend Antonio to take the bond of three thousand ducats because he is a rich merchant. If the money is not paid back in three months then Shylock, who makes a very strange bond, may take a pound of Antonio’s flesh. This is because, as Shylock explains aside, because he hates Antonio because he disrespects Shylock because he is Jewish. ‘You called me a dog’ Shylock says this to Antonio in a subtle way to annoy him. After Antonio get annoyed at shylock and begins to lecture him Shylock take sit further by telling Antonio that he was trying to make him angry, ‘Why look how you storm’ this is Shylocks way of getting his own back at the people who give him grief. Shylock also says ‘How like a fawning publican he looks! I hate him for he is Christian: But more ….’ This is a sign of Shylock’s covert hatred towards Christians and especially Antonio. The part where Shylock says, ‘But more ….’ Shows that Shylock is a nasty person at heart because he doesn’t just hate Antonio because he is a Christian but he hates the person anyway.
