Annelie Miles
The British School of Bahrain
Year 10
English Coursework
In your opinion, was shylock a victim or a villain in the society he lived in?
Shylock is a Jew who is looked down upon in his society for his religion, as that was how it was in the Shakespearean days. Because Shakespeare was Christian, he often portrayed Jews as villains in his stories, but in truth, was shylock actually a villain, or a victim?
The first time Shylock’s character actually appears is in Act 1, Scene 3. He is discussing with Bassanio the issue of lending him money under the assurance of Antonio’s bond. Bassanio asks him for three thousand ducats, stating that ‘Antonio shall be bound.’ After shylock knows this, he answers in a response to the proposition by saying ‘Antonio is a good man.’ He then goes on to describe the bonds that Antonio has with other countries, from the knowledge he had. After listing his bonds, shylock agrees to lend him the money.
In this scene, shylock is not being victimized, but he is not being a villain either, as, by taking Antonio’s bond for Bassanio, he appears to be a trusting, worthy, and pleasant man.
However, when shylock starts to talk abut Antonio after he has entered the room, his image is completely changed. Shylock immediately changes his mood and begins to speak about Antonio in a total change of attitude. The second line he says as soon as Antonio enters is, ‘I hate him for he is Christian.’ Reading this is actually shocking for us, as nowadays there are so many protests to stop racism all around the world. To hear this coming from a Shakespearean character really gives him a bad image, and at this point I started to look at him more as a villain. Making racial comments did not make him look very good at all, according to me, but there was also the fact that he kept making rude comments to Antonio’s face. A few minutes ago, before Antonio had walked into the room, he had been complimenting Antonio towards Bassanio. This striked him as two faced, which is not a good quality to have at all. Because of this, the ‘villain’ image stuck on him in my view, for the time being.