drink with you nor pray with you.”
We get our first insight into Shylock’s character when he meets with Antonio in Act 1 Scene 111 to discuss a loan. Antonio is a “good” Christian who wishes to financially help out Bassanio, an old friend, court a wealthy heiress. In a speech aside Shylock describes his contempt for Antonio. He gives several reasons. First and foremost, Antonio is a Christian. He is part of the large majority of the country who in Shylock’s eyes have shunned and changed his faith to the point of blasphemy. Secondly, Antonio himself lends money without interest, threatening the trade of all the money-lenders and usurers in Venice who lend money at interest for a living. Lastly, Antonio hates his beloved country- his “sacred nation.” Shylock finishes with;
“Cursèd be my tribe if I forgive him.”
This speech reflects Shylock’s bitterness generally towards all Christians, the main part of the Christian community hating the Jewish nation. To make matters worse, not only is Shylock persecuted because he is a money lender but Antonio actually practises the same trade without charging interest. We learn both the wicked and tragic sides of Shylock in this speech; his unwillingness to forgive and forget, and his lust for revenge. Not only does he hate Antonio, but Shylock has always wanted to kill him. In line forty of the same scene he states;
“If I can catch him once upon the hip, I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.”
Shakespeare, to remind the audience of Shylock’s inability to forget the past, may have placed the word “ancient” in that sentence with particular emphasis.
Further on in the same scene, Shylock gives one of his most important speeches to Antonio in reply to his request for a loan. This speech-although to Shylock’s favour-pictures him as a tragic, mistreated character, persecuted by all around him. He replies to Antonio’s request of a loan with a list of the abuse Antonio has given to him as a Jew in the past. According to Shylock- and Antonio doesn’t disagree-, Antonio has shouted at him publicly about his money lending and “usances”, has called him an unbeliever, a cut throat dog. He has not only verbally, but physically abused him. He has spat on him for being a Jew, and has kicked him “As you would spurn a stranger cur over your threshold.”
On line 130, Antonio responds to these accusations, not by denying them, but by threatening that they are likely to happen again. This shows his utter contempt for Shylock’s side of events and confidence in his own social status.
It is not only Antonio who abuses Shylock, but also Gratiano, who makes several extremely hostile remarks towards him throughout the play. He likens Shylock to something inhuman several times, as do many of the other “good” Christians Shylock reduced to the social status of an animal with;
“Oh be thou damned inexecrable dog!” (Act 4 Scene 1, Line 129);
“Currish spirit govern’d a wolf” (Act 4 Scene line 133) and;
“(Shylocks) desires are wolvish, bloody, starved and ravenous.”
Shylock is not only likened to an animal, but is also demonised in several instances. He is identified around six times in the play to the likeness of the devil. Only three times in the play is Shylock called by his name, each of those times in the official courtroom. Other times he is known only as “The Jew.” Solanio goes further, making references towards him as a “dog Jew.”
Shylocks and his daughter, Jessica are first introduced to us together in Act 2 Scene 5. Shylock is with her in their house, ordering her round the house. One could forget that she is in fact his daughter, not a servant. He talks to her impersonally, never asking her of her well being. Jessica is due to run away with Lorenzo that night and Shylock fails to notice any unusual, nervous behaviour, due to his apparent unconcern and lack of attention. He makes no mention of anything being her property, it is all ‘my house’, ‘my keys’ and ‘my doors.’ Nothing in the house is “ours” or ‘yours.’ He does however, seem slightly protective towards his daughter; calling her “my girl” and instructing her not to watch the unruly Masque outside lest it has a bad influence on her. Earlier in Act 2 scene 3 Jessica tells Launcelot;
“Our house is hell, and thou a merry devil didst rob it of some tediousness.”
We later learn that Jessica not only dislikes her father, but is deeply ashamed of him. She states later in the scene that she is only his daughter by blood, not by behaviour or likeness. She tells Launcelot that she will convert to Christianity as soon as she marries Lorenzo. This shows bad parenting from Shylock. He has neither cared for her, nor given any attention to her throughout her life and now she is old enough, she plans leave him as soon as possible. Jessica wins the sympathy of the audience throughout the play, suggesting that there are actually some good Jews.
When she does in fact leave in Act 2 Scene 8, Shylock is distraught. Not for his daughter, but for his money. Solanio tells us that Shylock repeatedly shouts in the streets;
“A sealèd bag, to sealèd bags of ducats,
Of double ducats, stolen from me by my daughter!
And jewels, two stones, two rich and precious stones,
Stol’n by my daughter! Justice! Find the girl!
She hath the stones upon her, and the ducats!”
. The fact that Shylock cares more for his money than his daughter would have been seen to be comic by Elizabethan audiences despite the underlying seriousness. His own servant, Launcelot speaks of him with hostility. Despite of him sharing nationality with Shylock, he identifies Shylock in Act 2 scene 2 as “the very devil incarnation”, “the devil himself” and “a kind of devil.” He tells Gobbo in the same Scene ;
“I am famished in his service; you may tell every finger I have with my ribs.”
In the court scene in Act 4 Scene 1 we see Shylock at his cruellest, demanding the life of Antonio despite having been offered what he required three times over. We learn that the real reason for the bond was to murder Antonio. He has Antonio apparently trapped under the law and can not only get rid of a business rival, but can do so with the help of justice. Nothing can go wrong as he delightedly prepares to take a pound of flesh from Antonio’s body, preparing his scales and “whetting his knife.” This scene shows him as an exaggerated monster with a lust for blood and money, relishing any chance of taking flesh from Antonio. He rejects the large amounts of money offered by Bassanio, showing all he wishes is Antonio’s life. In Act 3 scene 2, Jessica declares;
“I have heard him swear to Tubal and Chus, his countrymen, that he would rather have Antonio’s flesh than twenty times the value of the sum that he did owe him…”
When the crunch for Shylock comes, one can only feel relieved for Antonio’s sake. However, when the punishment is in fact turned back on Shylock in increasing degrees of harshness it is impossible not to feel sorry for him. Because he has plotted against a Venetian he must now convert to Christianity, give up all his possessions and give anything he has when he dies to Jessica and Lorenzo. For Shylock, this is a feat worse than death.