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)