Through the bond he believes he will be able to get revenge on the bitter manner in which Antonio treated him in the past, ‘to bait fish withal: if it will need nothing else, it will feed my revenge… the villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction ’ (Act 3 Scene 1) as proved by this quote. Shylock also shows himself to be devious and cunning by hiding his hatred towards Antonio beneath a fake friendship in order to make Antonio become indebted to him, not just with money but also with his life ‘Ay, his breast. So says the bond, doth it not, noble judge? ‘Nearest his heart’: those are the very words’ (Act 4 Scene 1) as said in the court scene. He refuses to show mercy towards Antonio when asked by Portia (disguised as a lawyer) and the Duke. ‘If every ducat in six thousand ducats were in six parts, and every part a ducat, I would not draw them; I would have my bond.’ (Act 4 Scene 1). He would not even show mercy when bribed by Bassanio to repay him with double the amount he lent Antonio.
When Shylock loses his case, he expects to be shown mercy by Antonio by having some of his wealth returned to him: ‘you take my house when you do take the prop that doth sustain my house: you take my life when you do take the means whereby I live.’(Act 4 Scene 1). In this he shows himself to be arrogant in asking for mercy when he himself refused to show any towards Antonio. Antonio quits the fine for one half of Shylock’s possessions, but asks for two things instead: 1- to become a Christian, and 2- that when he dies, all his possessions go to Lorenzo (his son-in-law) and his daughter. ‘I pray you give me leave to go from hence; I am not well. Send the deed after me and I will sign it.’(Act 4 Scene 1) Shylock, now defeated, gives this excuse that he is unwell so that he can leave before he gets criticised and embarrassed even more by the Christians etc.
I also consider Shylock to have been victimised throughout the play, mostly by prejudice as he lives amongst Christians and is seen as an outcast. This is demonstrated a few times in his speeches. The first time we learn about the abuse he has suffered at the hands of the Christians is in Act 1 Scene 3 when Antonio goes to him asking to borrow three thousand ducats. Part of his reply is: ‘…many and oft in the Rialto you have rated me…Still have I borne it with a patient shrug…You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog, and spit upon my Jewish gabardine…’ but still he agrees to lend the money.
The most powerful speech Shylock gives about his abuse by Christians in general is in Act 3 Scene 1 where he earns most of my sympathy by saying: ‘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?’ In this speech we are shown that there is a human side in him, not just his inhuman evilness. His thirst for revenge is emphasized with what he is feeling because it is a natural human fault to want to avenge when you have been wronged.
At the end of the court trial, Shylock was left with nothing to live for. I found it especially unfair that his punishment reflected not his crime, but his race, and I found that Antonio forcing Shylock to convert to a Christian was quite harsh. I feel especially sorry for Shylock because his possessions were distributed among his enemies. On the other hand, he would have never ended up how he did, if he hadn’t started it (scheming against Antonio, making up the terms of the debt, showing no mercy) and as the saying goes ‘What goes around, comes around’.
Done by Leanna Wright 10x
