“In the light of your study of Shakespeare’s presentation of Shylock in Act 1 Sc 3 and Act 4 Sc 1 of “The Merchant of Venice” would you agree that Shylock is more a victim than a villain?”
The Merchant of Venice was written in 1599 by William Shakespeare, The impact of contemporary Elizabethan was clearly shown in the play, although it is set in Venice. The play shows a character of great qualities but with a side of evil, which is one of the many reasons the play is so great. The character is called Shylock and I will be basing my coursework around him. You could say that Shylock was almost created by the very negative attitude towards Jewish people in the 16th century, it’s as if Shakespeare has produced the perfect stereotype of a Jew in the Elizabethan worlds eyes. At this time Elizabeth I was the Queen of England, the whole country had just settled from civil war over religion and were at enemies with Spain. The Jews were almost a worldwide punch bag, they were being blamed for many different things and were being tortured and killed because of this. They were thought of as foreigners even if they had been born in that particular country.
The Jewish people have descended from nomadic tribes in the Middle East. In the 13th Century BC. they establish towns and villages in the present-day area of Israel. Jewish kingdoms and states were situated around Jerusalem, the site of the temple. Judaism, the religion that evolves in this period, demands ethical behaviour, individual responsibility, tolerance and social justice. Jews believe in a single god, prohibit human sacrifice and practice communal worship. Many of the teachings of Judaism enter into Christianity and Islam and influence other religions and cultures. Judaism does not encourage conversions but has always accepted converts from other religions. The killing of millions of Jews and other "non-Aryans" in the Holocaust is the greatest crime against humanity recorded in history. It was made possible by a unique combination of factors: the total control over the machinery of a modern state by the totalitarian regime of the National Socialists; the active cooperation or passive consent of a large part of the German population; the collaboration of like-minded regimes and people in the occupied territories; and a deeply rooted anti-Semitism common to all Christian countries in Europe. The catastrophic loss of humane standards in German society took place after the prolonged political and economic crisis of the 1920s. These facts show that Jews have been mistreated in such a inhumanly manner that its hard to believe.
