Shylock is also seen as villainous in the way he treats his daughter Jessica. In Act 2 Scene 5, he treats Jessica in the same way he may have treated Launcelot, because he treats her like a servant as he orders her to lock up the house, ‘Hear you me, Jessica: Lock up me doors.’ Once Jessica has done this Shylock goes out and eats with Christians, this is when Jessica steals Shylock’s money and jewels, the reason she does this is probable because she is fed up with the way she is being treated by her father and wants to leave. Shylock is shown as a villain because of the way he has treated his own daughter.
When Shylock finds out about the way his daughter has left taking his money and jewels with her, Shylock is amazingly more worried about his money and jewels, ‘I would my daughter be dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear!’ The way he says this displays how he would not be bothered if his daughter were dead if he could have his money and jewels back. Again Shylock is portrayed as a villain for the way he cares more about his money instead of his daughter.
In the courtroom, Shylock is offered three thousand ducats by Antonio so that Shylock does not take a pound of flesh from his body. Shylock refuses to accept the money saying that he has sworn an oath to the bond, which means he is unable to go back on it. When Portia says he cannot have a pound of Antonio’s flesh, because if any blood is drawn from Antonio’s body then the bond is broken and Shylock will be jailed. This is when Shylock knows that he has finally been beaten, but he still tries to get all the money he can from Antonio. First he asks for three times the bond, this is refused, and then two times the bond, and finally the original payment. This clearly outlines Shylock’s great addiction to money, and his willpower to get back at Antonio. After all this Shylock anticipates Antonio to show mercy towards him even though Shylock has shown him none. This shows that Shylock is selfish and because of the way he still tried to get money out of Antonio puts him across as a villain.
I will now outline the ways in which Shylock is shown as a victim.
As the play begins, we can see that Shylock has suffered a lot of abuse especially at the hands of Christians, in particular Antonio. Antonio humiliates Shylock publicly and criticises him about the way he lends money, in this way Shylock can be seen as a victim. In Act 1 Scene 3, Shylock says to Antonio, ‘In the Rialto you have rated me about my moneys and my usances, for sufferance is the badge of all our tribe.’ This draws sympathy to Shylock because of the way he has been treated and humiliated, but he does nothing about it. He does not stand up for himself, and because of this it shows him as a victim.
Anti- Semitism and racism is often thrown at Shylock throughout the play from the Christians. An example of this is shown in Act 1 Scene 3, as it says that Antonio has spat at Shylocks gabardine, which is a traditional coat worn by Jews, and that he also spat on his beard. These two things symbolise Shylocks religion, and upon which must make him feel hurt inside.
Salerio and Solanio continuously mock and make fun of Shylock’s religion throughout the play. In Act 2 Scene 8, Solanio says. ‘As the dog Jew did utter in the streets: My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter!’ They are both laughing at the fact that Shylock has an obsession with money and also because he has lost his daughter Jessica as she has eloped with a Christian, Lorenzo. Solanio and Salerio only play small characters in the play, and Shylock is seen as a victim because even they make fun out of him.
Jessica, Shylock’s daughters runs away with Lorenzo who is a Christian, this leaves Shylock with no money and he is now alone. She has stolen all of Shylock’s money and his turquoise ring. The ring was very precious to him, and makes Shylock very angry with Jessica as she sold it to a monkey. This portrays him as a victim, as his own daughter hates him. Jessica says that she is ashamed to be her father’s daughter, and describes her house as hell when she was with him, ‘Alack, what heinous sin is it in me to be ashamed to be my father’s child!
Shylock becomes more and more isolated during the play. First of all, his servant Launcelot leaves him and goes to work for Bassanio, and then his daughter leaves him to flee with Lorenzo. Both Lorenzo and Bassanio are Christians; this suggests that he is once again a victim in racism.
Sympathy is shown towards Shylock in the courtroom, as he loses everything, his house, his money, his religion, and he is then forced to give his money to Jessica and Lorenzo. The worst punishment of all, is when he is forced to switch to Christianity, this is because his religion was very important to him, and it makes it worse because he already hates Christians. This again is another form of racism, because it is virtually saying that Christianity is the best religion and that you cannot be Jewish.
When the play was written, Jewish people had little rights; this was because Christianity was the preferred religion. A lot of people in the play refer to Shylock simply as a ‘Jew’, this is suggesting that is being hated only because he is a Jew. Portia uses influential language to encourage the Duke and the audience that Shylock is guilty. He is then found guilty again because of his religion, this again finds him as the victim for he is a Jew and has been treated unfairly.
Solanio is one of many in the play who consign Shylock as the devil, ‘…lest the devil…here comes in the illness of a Jew’, Antonio also speak of him in the same way, ‘The devil can cite scripture for his purpose’, the final person to do so it Salerio, ‘That’s certain, if the devil may be her judge’. This is because they felt that as he is a Jew, which they hate, he is like the devil, who is seen as a person who is evil and a person that everyone hates, which is the exact way Christians felt towards Shylock.
‘If you prick us do we not bleed…If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?’ this is said by Shylock as he tries to take sympathy from the audience and readers. He is trying to get the point across that Christians are just the same as Jews as they are both human beings, they just follow a different religion. This displays Shylock as a victim as he is being racially abused once again.
Shylock’s role in the play changes a great deal, because one moment he is being discriminated because he is a Jew and the next moment he tries to trick Antonio into giving him money that he knows Antonio cannot not pay back. Overall, I do not think that Shylock can be described as a villain or victim because he shows parts in the play where he is both.
