Shylock : Victim or Villain?
Shylock Victim or Villain?
In the productions of `The Merchant of Venice' the
character Shylock seems to be the most important throughout the play.
However, he can be played in different ways. He can be portrayed as a
victim or a villain. Even during a single production the audience's
sympathies change towards him.
Shylock can be seen as villain in many ways. One of these is his
desire for revenge on Antonio. Shylock doesn't like him because he is
racist towards him and has disrespected him for a long time. Therefore
when Bassanio asks him whether he will lend Antonio money Shylock
keeps him waiting before he gives him an answer so he can think about
the risks involved. You can see that Shylock avoids answering Bassanio
straight away. When Bassanio would suggest how the loan would be dealt
with shylock would repeat what he said and then say `well...' for
example when Bassanio said, "Ay, sir for three months," referring to
the payment of the loan. Shylock then said, "For three months; well."
Shylock did this to delay his final answer. This suggests that he is
trying to show them who is making the decision and who has the
control.
Shylock dislikes Antonio very much for calling him a misbeliever, a
dog and spitting on him. Even after Antonio doing all of this Shylock
was seemingly friendly to Antonio and even offered to be his friend,
"I would be friend with you and have your love." However might not
have been sincere and was very suspicious especially under the
circumstances, and therefore gives us an idea of how inconspicuous he
was with his revenge which makes a good villain. "If I can catch him
once upon the hip, I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him." He
pretends to be his friend but really wants revenge on his enemy for
all the years of impertinence. He also says, "If it will feed nothing
else, it will feed my revenge," he is referring to the bond and how he
is using that as a way of revenge.
However Antonio was rather cruel for all those years to him but the
revenge Shylock had planned was very extreme. Asking for a pound of
his flesh may have started off as a joke but still wanting to cut off
his flesh ...
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pretends to be his friend but really wants revenge on his enemy for
all the years of impertinence. He also says, "If it will feed nothing
else, it will feed my revenge," he is referring to the bond and how he
is using that as a way of revenge.
However Antonio was rather cruel for all those years to him but the
revenge Shylock had planned was very extreme. Asking for a pound of
his flesh may have started off as a joke but still wanting to cut off
his flesh even after being offered three times the original agreement,
this proved how much Shylock really wanted Antonio hurt. Choosing a
pound of his flesh over money says a lot, as Shylock is very fond of
money but is obviously fonder of the possibility of seeing Antonio
dead.
Furthermore Shylock's attitude towards money shows him as
more of a villain. Money is such an important detail in his life and
would be very upset if he were to lose it, as he was. When Jessica
fled she took his money and jewels. When she did it was as if he was
more upset over losing his money than his daughter. After he found out
about his daughter who had left with his money he shouted out on the
streets, "My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter! Fled with a
Christian! O my Christian ducats! Justice! the law! My ducats and my
daughter! A sealed bag, two sealed bags of ducats, of double ducats,
stolen from me by my daughter! And jewels, two stones, two rich and
precious stones," Shylock's repetition of the word `ducats' indicates
that he was far more annoyed to have lost his money and jewels rather
than his daughter and that was the only reason he noticed he noticed
her absence and wanted her to come back.
Shylock's relationship with his daughter says a lot about him. Shylock
was a very controlling, overprotective father but not in a caring way
but more of a possessive way. He would even lock her in her own home.
He didn't even trust her, his own daughter.
Another way of portraying Shylock is through his cruelty and
insistence on his supposed justice. When he insisted on sticking to
sticking to the bond to get his `justice' that was quite spiteful and
unnecessary especially after he was offered more money instead. In the
trial the Duke asks how he should hope for mercy rendering. He then
responded with, "What judgment shall I dread, doing no wrong?" He
feels as though he is doing nothing wrong and that he is being
completely fair on asking what was agreed upon if Antonio should not
pay on time. He also says, "The pound of flesh, which I demand of him,
is dearly bought; `tis mine and I will have it. If you deny me, fie
upon your law!" he acts as if he the rightful owner to the flesh and
that he is entitled to the flesh and if he refused it than the law is
immoral and right by not giving him justice.
Even Jessica commented on how shylock wanted `justice'. She said, "He
would rather have Antonio's flesh then twenty times the value of the
sum that he did owe him."
Another completely different way of looking at Shylock is to see him
as a victim. As Shylock was a Jew he wouldn't have been treated the
same as Christians. He would be treated like he was inferior. Antonio
called Shylock many cruel names referring to his religion. His main
reason for not liking Shylock was because he was a Jew. When he said,
"Hie thee gentle Jew," this pun was an implication that kindness is a
Christian quality, not a Jewish one. This would be very offensive to
Shylock.
He was not only treated badly by Antonio but by Bassanio as well.
Antonio the one asking him for money treated him with no respect and
said that he wouldn't take back all the spiteful things he had said
about him. After he asked Shylock for the money Shylock stated all the
things Antonio had called him in the past, "You call me a misbeliever,
a cut-throat dog, and spit upon my Jewish gabardine." Antonio then
said that he would do it all again, "I am as like to call thee so
again, to spit on thee again, to spurn thee too." Even after all of
that Shylock lent him the money, and to be fair Antonio was well aware
of the consequences of not paying the money back on time.
We can sympathise with him when he says, "I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew
eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections,
passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by
the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us do we
not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we
not die?" Here he says how it is unjust that he is treated differently
because of his faith and that he like Christians has feelings. He
shows how all people are equal.
He was even let down by his own daughter and her fiancé. They just
left without warning with his money and jewels. He was left alone.
After Jessica eloped the people of Venice treated him with little
respect especially Salarino and Solanio. They mocked him and tried to
wind him up for amusement which they found easy to do considering what
he had just been through. For example they deliberately mentioned that
they knew of Jessica's plans, Salarino said, "I, for my part, knew the
tailor that made the wings she flew withal," they were really rubbing
in the fact that they knew of Jessica's plans.
At the court, even the duke was prejudiced against him and referred to
him as `the Jew'. The duke was quite biased as he was against Shylock
from the beginning he was against him because he wanted to stick to
the bond that was previously agreed upon. He was also embarrassed in
front of the courtroom as Portia, who at the time was dressed as a man
to defend Antonio, had found a loophole to the agreement and Shylock
was left looking like a fool. She said, "Prepare thee to cut off a
pound of flesh. Shed thou no blood, nor cut thou less nor more but
just a pound of flesh." To cut off an exact pound of flesh and have it
shed no blood is impossible to do. Therefore Shylock lost the trial
and not only left with no pound of flesh he wasn't allowed the money
to replace it, instead he had to pay penalties for attempted murder
and he also had to give up his faith, which at that point was all that
he had left.
In conclusion, I think that Shylock was mistreated by Antonio in the
past and he had a right to want revenge but it shouldn't have been so
harsh. No one deserves to have a pound of flesh to be cut off. I
thought that Shylock should have paid the penalty at the end but it
was unfair to make him become a Christian.
By Elizabeth Sima Toorani (10F)
