The running away of Shylock’s daughter (with some of his wealth as well) makes the audience sympathise with him because by doing this Shakespeare makes the audience think that everyone is turning on Shylock and he is lonely. By including lines like “my own flesh and blood to rebel” and “I say my daughter is my own flesh and blood” Shakespeare shows the audience how much he loved his daughter and how much he wants her back, this also makes the audience sympathise with him and it gives them a sense of injustice that he didn’t get what he disserved from the courtroom scene.
The fact that Antonio has stolen Shylock’s customer’s by producing unfair competition. That makes the audience sympathise with Shylock because what Antonio was doing was unfair and cruel. By including lines like “I am as like to call thee so again” and “I spit on thee again”. Shakespeare is showing the audience that Antonio has no respect for Shylock and it gives the audience a sense that Shylock doesn’t get what he disserves from the courtroom scene. Again this only applies to modern audiences because in the days Shakespeare wrote hid poems Jews were hated by people that lived then and therefore didn’t have the same opinion as modern day people who have different views.
The fact that the law, unfairly, is put across Shylock makes the audience sympathise with Shylock because the court judged him by his religion and not the law. In the end Shylock has to convert to Christianity or face death, which also makes the audience sympathise with Shylock because it is unfair and undermines the law. Shakespeare uses the line “A Daniel come to judgement” to show how much Shylock thinks that the court is unfair, this also gives the audience a sense that the court used the bond to force this on Shylock, and that Shylock didn’t get what he disserved from the courtroom scene.
The fact that Shylock chooses death rather than money makes the audience despise Shylock because he is trying to kill a Christian and it shows he is bloodthirsty and takes the bond to far. When Shakespeare uses the line “If every ducat in six thousand ducats were in six parts I would still not draw them” it makes the audience think that he gets what he disserved from the court scene because of his desperate attempt to kill because of someone that is innocent in their eyes, a Christian. He is innocent in their eyes because in Shakespeare’s days people hated Jews and had a bad opinion of them, which adds to the despised opinion.
The fact that Shylock shows no mercy during the courtroom scene makes the audience despise him because it shows that he wont forgive Antonio and make things right. When Shakespeare includes the lines “the flesh nearest his heart” and “wherever pleases me” to make Shylock sound like he wanted revenge by killing. This would give the audience a sense that he gets what he disserves in the courtroom scene.
The fact that Jessica, Shylock’s daughter, was imprisoned in her father’s house makes the audience despise Shylock because by Shakespeare doing this the audience would think that he isn’t allowing his daughter to do what she wanted and is allowing her no freedom at all. Shakespeare includes the line “She is my flesh and blood” which makes the audience think that he is dependent on her and doesn’t want her to disturb him. It is no real surprise that she ran away. This gives the audience a sense that he does get what he disserves in the courtroom scene.
The fact that he cared more about the money and jewellery makes the audience despise of Shylock because they will think that he doesn’t care about his daughter running away, he just cares about the money which she ran off with! By this the audience will think that he is uncaring and greedy, also selfish. Shakespeare includes the line “She is damned for it” to make Shylock sound like he wants revenge on his daughter now. This gives the audience a sense that he gets what he disserves in the courtroom scene.
The way that the audience (modern or Old (Tudors)) interprets the things that happen in the play plays major part in how the audience judges Shylock because of the evolution from Shakespeare to modern day. Nowadays people don’t have hatred for Jews because of the evolution of the religion all over the world, but then people didn’t understand religion and interpreted it wrongly, which was an unfair disadvantage for Jews, individually and generally.
By Daniel Parkin, 10GAB
