‘I am as like to call thee so again, to spit on thee again, to spurn thee too.’
This blatantly shows his disrespect for Shylock and his open hatred for him. However, this doesn’t represent clearly his hatred for Shylock’s race, and when, Shylock says, in an aside, on his first sight of Antonio in the play, ‘I hate him for he is a Christian’ This is a general term of racism he uses, and it would be easy to accuse Shylock of being a villain from this evidence. But, further on, in the aside. He exposes information about Antonio lending money without interest, and so therefore bringing down the interest rate in Venice, which means that Shylock, who only gains money from lending money with interest, earns less. This clears Shylock of racism on this account, and merely shows his loathing for Antonio, who has personally brought Shylock’s quality of life down.
The mistreating of Shylock is evident throughout the whole play. Shylock says,
‘…Suff’rance is the badge of all our tribe; you call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog, and spit upon my Jewish gabardine’ and even in the court room, the judge is biased against him. He says to Antonio’
‘I feel sorry for thee; thou art come to answer a stony adversary…’ Meaning that Shylock is cold hearted and unfeeling. This is an unprovoked statement from someone who should be fair and unbiased, which shows the level of prejudice against Jews at that time in Venice.
Shylock has a daughter, and had a wife. He has one servant, and lived with them and a reasonable amount of money and jewels. When the play starts we find that his wife has recently died, and he now lives only with his daughter, Jessica, and his servant, Launcelot. Jessica has fallen in love with a Christian, Lorenzo, and will soon elope with him, and Launcelot plans to leave Shylock’s services to work for Bassanio, another Christian. Immediately then there is deceit against Shylock in his own house-hold, and this causes the reader to feel sorry for him, but also to suspect that he can’t be that much of a father or master if people who know him so well would willingly leave him.
Just before Jessica and Launcelot leave Shylock, he is invited to a meal with Bassanio and Antonio. He finds out that it is a masque and gives Jessica clear instructions on shutting the doors and windows, and not looking out on the party outside. This seems a kind and thoughtful protection of his only child, but then he says,
‘…But stop my house’s ears-I mean my casements…’
He refers to her not watching the masque and shutting the doors and windows, not for her own protection, but so that she can protect his money and jewels. This is a selfish and greedy thing to say, and it’s sad that this is one of the last things he says to his daughter knowingly. However, he is distraught when he finds her gone, and cries and morns for her, but then when he talks to Tubal, another Jew, he says, ‘I would my daughter dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear; would she were hears’d at my foot, and the ducats in her coffin!’
This is disloyal, selfish and a horrific thing for a father to say of his daughter. And in this moment he seems so much of a villain that it is hard to consider the other side of the argument. But, if you use empathy and think about how you would feel if your wife had died, your daughter and your servant had left you, your daughter had taken all of your wealth, and you had been slandered all your life for your religion and race, you would probably be a bitter and unfeeling person too. I don’t think that this means Shylock isn’t a villain or is right to say that in any way, but I believe he has been provoked into this state of mind, and has the reasons to be this way. In terms of his household and family life, I think Shylock is a villain, but not necessarily without reason.
Shylock’s attitude to money is obsessive and greedy, I think he is naturally like that, but this has been worsened by the way that he ahs been deprived of it. He is only able to do one form of work, and if that means charging high interests then so be it. He doesn’t feel guilt or have a stab of conscience when he makes Christians pay back the money and more because of the way he’s been treated by them. Antonio says when they first agree their bond,
‘If thou wilt lend this money, lend it not as to thy friends…but lend it rather to thine enemy, who if he break thou mayst with better face exact the penalty.’
It is Antonio’s idea, and he tells Shylock to keep the agreement and exact it as brutally as if he were his enemy. This moment, explains a lot of Shylock’s unfeeling behaviour later on in the play, because it explains how he can do those kinds of things to people and not feel hatred towards himself for it.
Shylock often puts money and wealth as his top priority, like when he goes out and asks Jessica to look after it, and when she elopes he’s more upset about the loss of his wealth than of his child. But he’s not necessarily a bad person, just greedy, and has become almost paranoid from the way the Christians have treated him. I don’t think many people are heroes exactly as far as money is concerned, and it’s even difficult to be a villain in your attitude to money, but Shylock definitely has a bad attitude towards it and this can be expressed in a villainous way.
In the trial scene, and the most important part of the play, Shylock is put under immense pressure and seems as if he’ll lose before the trial even starts. In the Duke’s opening line, he seems to condemn Shylock because of his race, and throughout the trial, he is clearly much more civil and respectful in his attitude towards Antonio than to Shylock. When Shylock comes into the courtroom the Duke makes a long speech about the stubbornness and malice in Shylock as if he is the accused, although Antonio is the one in debt and in trouble.
‘Shylock, the world thinks, and I think so too, that thou but leadest this fashion of thy malice to the last hour of act’
Even though the Duke is exaggerating in the world being against Shylock, this statement expresses how much Jews were despised then, and how biased the courtroom is against him. Shylock has a high chance of getting his bond if he stays with his opinion because the court has to set an example for the rest of the trials they may cover of this nature, but he is loathed by almost everyone in the room.
When Portia arrives, dressed as the scholar, immense pressure is put on her and Shylock to let Antonio off, but she leads everyone to believe that she will not, and Shylock is determined for revenge and justice to be done, and has been previously instructed to carry out the bond by Antonio. During the trial Shylock is shouted at and insulted, but he just replies as calmly as he can and sticks to what he believes. This is very calm behaviour of him, and it’s almost as though he’s given up, and is just holding onto something in which he just about has control over. All of this pressure builds up his hatred towards Antonio, and makes him want to hurt him and seek revenge more and more. This explains a lot of his cold-heartedness.
When the twist in the trial comes, everything turns against Shylock. He first of all learns that he cannot take a pound of Antonio’s flesh with blood, so therefore it is impossible to continue, so he says he will take the money instead, but then Portia reminds him that he previously refused to take anything but his bond. You can imagine that he is feeling, embarrassed, frustrated and angry, and probably upset at this time. But then the court announces that half of Shylock’s money belongs to them and the other half to Antonio. Antonio refuses to take his half, but then mocks Antonio for being bankrupt anyway and for losing the case, and asks the court to make Shylock leave his religion and become a Christian. This is possibly one of the worst things done in the play. It may be seen as an act of kindness, and could seem like the end of Shylock’s persecution, but it won’t stop it, and his faith is all that’s left of Shylock’s own life. In making him leave what he has been brought up to be and what he can rely and fall back on, the Christians are forcing him into yet another situation he is unwilling to partake it. This means a change of customs, traditions and lifestyle that he will have to do. He’s lost his family, wealth, any respect he had left and now his religion. This just shows the extent to which the bullying of the Christians in the play will go to.
The trial scene shows Shylock as a villain, but not acting cruelly without reason. The trauma in his life has grown to an amazing extent and there seems to be no escape from it. I think the only way Shylock stops people hurting him emotionally, is to push them away, and to make his life as good as he can for himself. He’s grown to act independently, selfishly and for his own means.
In conclusion, I think that Shylock is a selfish and greedy person, and more of a villain than a hero. But all of his actions were provoked, and he was just coping with situations that were forced upon him, that he was generally out of control of and he had to deal with them in a way that he thought would be best. I think he has been unwilling to be in his life situation throughout the play, and so just acted in a way that would help him the most. Through all of the bullying from the Christians, who seemed determined not to stop until he had nothing left, he sought revenge, and the bond he casually agreed upon with Antonio gave him the perfect opportunity. If you look in depth at the behaviour of everyone in The Merchant of Venice, Shylock is not the only villain in it. The behaviour of the Christians is malicious and shocking, and clears Shylock of his unfeeling behaviour, giving him the perfect reason. He is naturally a selfish person, but not really a villain. He just had to stop people discriminating against him in any way he felt necessary. The question, “Is Shylock a hero or a villain?” is a one-dimensional question being asked of a three-dimensional character.