Is Shylock a man more sinned against than sinning?
I believe that Shylock is more sinned against than sinning. He suffers a great number of injustices because he was a Jew, and also because of his occupation as a userer who lends money out with interest.
Shylock is treated unfairly and is ostracised because of the fact that he is a Jew. For example, Shylock is called a “dog Jew” by the other characters and spat upon by Autonio. When his daughter and money goes missing and he walks down the street, lamenting, the children on the streets follow him around, mimicking him. This tells us that the people of Venice learn to discrimination against Jews at a very young age. In Act 2, we can see the degree of discrimination against Shylock, that even his daughter runs away from him, betraying her father and religion. Even the law of Venice discriminates against Jews. The law states that if a non-christian spills even a drop of Christian blood, the non-christian will be sentenced to death. This shows that the law favors and protects the Christians more than Jews, displaying obvious bias.
