Firstly Antonio lends money without interest, because he makes his money other ways, but Shylock makes most of his money though money lending with interest. So Shylock loses most of his customers to Antonio and therefore his profit. We know this annoys him when he says,
“I hate him… for that he lends out money gratis and brings down the rate of usance here with us in Venice.”
Shylock says that Antonio looks down on him and insults and spits at him. Finally, and this is the root cause, Antonio hates Shylock because he is a Jew and Shylock hates Antonio for his Christianity. Sadly because of their upbringing, both men think that they are in the dominant religion. They are narrow minded about their beliefs and this brings about the conflicts.
They were the most obvious set of enemies in the play and the hate they share was based around money. Money plays a huge part in the Merchant of Venice, it is very important in business. Their businesses revolved around them lending money, so when Shylock started losing custom to Antonio he believed Antonio was trying to bankrupt him. We are not told whether this is true or if Antonio is just generous in not charging interest to his clients.
Money is probably the most important factor in this play, obviously it is very important in business and work and it could make or break a man in one deal, as shown by Antonio and Shylock when Shylock suggests a lump of Antonio’s flesh to be taken instead of three thousand ducats to confirm a business deal.
“Be nominated for an equal pound of your fair flesh to be cut off, and be taken from what part of your body pleaseth me. ”
Being a busy trading centre in Venice it was imperative that if you wanted to succeed you had to have money to spend and be willing to risks with it. You would also need to have good friends who would help you, and put in a good word for you, but wouldn’t stab in the back or gossip about you.
This leads to another couple of factors, which come hand in hand, gossip and rumour. In such a close, compact community where everyone seems to know everyone else there are always going to be vicious rumours circulating.
The two resident gossips who seem to always be creating rumours and trying to find new things to gossip about are Solanio and Salerio. As well as merely gossiping, they also keep the audience up to date with the play, by talking to each other about past events. Although useful to the audience they are quite the opposite for the characters in the play, they confuse issues and annoy many people.
“I say my daughter is my flesh and blood”(Shylock)
“There is more difference between thy flesh and hers, than between jet and ivory: than there is between red wine and Rhenish”. (Salerio)
Here you can see Salerio trying to separate Shylock and his daughter, which is obviously very cruel. He says that they are opposite and really gets Shylock's emotions going before they move on to talk about whether Antonio's ships had been lost at sea and to see if Shylock will stick to his bond of one pound of flesh.
“Let him look to his bond… He was wont to lend money for a Christian courtesy, let him look to his bond”.
From this you can see that Shylock is very stressed with Antonio, and it seems that for the first time he seriously considers the “bond”. We are left wondering if he would be so angry if it was not for the gossiping and rumours that abound.
Shylock is an interesting character, because you seem to think that he is bad, but there is also a distinct feeling that his bad traits are forced upon him by his situations. Shakespeare has a great talent for making the reader change sides and feel many different things for one character. We naturally always assume there is a “good” person and a “bad” person in plays. In the merchant of Venice, it is easy to assume that Antonio is the good man and Shylock the villain. If you look deeper though, there are many suggestions otherwise.
“He hath disgraced me and hindered me half a million… heated mine enemies, and what is his reason? I am a Jew…”
In this passage you really feel sorry for Shylock and feel that Antonio has been unfair in his assessment. It is a touching speech and makes you wonder whether Antonio is to blame for Shylocks' sour exterior. This feeling is disrupted when you remember a few scenes back you heard Shylock say of his daughter when she ran away with some of his money
“I would my daughter were dead at my foot and the jewels in her ear. Would she hearsed at my foot and the ducats in her coffin…”
This kind of comment about your only child shows a huge greed and disgusts most of us who feel that love is more important than money. But with all the pressures and time that it would have taken him to make that much money he must have been very upset especially when he hears that she swapped a ring of his, that she had stolen from him, for a monkey.
“Though torturest me Tubal, it was my turquoise I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor. I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys”.
This shows that not only were the valuables she stole worth a lot on monetary terms, they were also worth a lot sentimentally to Shylock. Using the tactic of giving many views on a character Shakespeare makes his play much more interesting and all the characters gain a lot more depth than the good/bad person image.
Shakespeare does appear to take Antonio’s side overall, because in the end the audience all feel that he is generous, brave and kind. Shakespeare probably made Antonio appear to be the good person because he was the main Christian character. The fact can not be escaped that this play has more than a hint of racism. There are two main and definite communities, the Jews and the Christians.
This play would have been written for an almost entirely Christian audience, so it makes sense that the characteristics that Christians think are good stand out in its Christian roles. The world at this time was very racist, so it would almost be the norm to hate someone for his or her race. The hatred between Antonio and Shylock was based around many things, but as Shylock said plainly,
“I hate him, for he is a Christian”.
This type of comment is strewn around the play and shows there was a huge prejudice, but not only on the Jews side. Although trying to make Antonio and the Christians stand out as being good people, Shakespeare again shows another side to them.
“He hath disgraced me… Heated mine enemies, and what is his reason? I am a Jew.”
Here Shylock is complaining about Antonio and his ways to injure and torment Shylock because of his religion.
The final blow, which really upsets Shylock, is when his daughter, who he did not get on with very well anyway, runs off to marry a Christian. This annoys him endlessly and brings out the real anger in Shylock. He is said to have been running around Venice shouting madly and shaking his fists.
“Oh my daughter! Fled with a Christian! Oh my Christian ducats!”
This shows that she had broken a very strict divide between the Jewish and Christian communities.
I believe that Jessica and Lorenzo had the only real love in the play – shown quite clearly by what they were prepared to do for each other. Jessica was willing to go against her families’ wishes and break her faith to be with Lorenzo. Lorenzo was willing to go against his religion and what other people would say was despicable behaviour to be with Jessica. This showing they have a true love for one another.
“Beshrew me, but I love her heartily… and therefore like herself wise, fair, true, shall she be placed in my constant soul.”
These, although just words could well be true, because the pair have obviously been a couple for some time.
There is another possibly more important relationship, between Portia and Bassanio, it is the reason for the whole story about the pound of flesh. Bassanio borrowed three thousand ducats from Antonio to travel to Portia. Antonio had loaned the money from Shylock the contract being that if he failed to repay the debt a pound of his flesh would be removed. Even though they got married, I believe they could not possibly have the same love as Jessica and Lorenzo. Despite the proposal of love from Bassanio to Portia, when asked to confess the truth,
“Confess and love had been the very sum of my confession”.
I do not believe you can practice love at first sight, so even though Portia promises him many ducats to help Antonio, this shows no real commitment, just wealth and generosity.
In this play I feel that everything has a price tag, and largely human relationships can be bought and sold for financial gain. Friends, enemies, lovers, all evolve through financial activities. Venice back in Shakespeare’s day was a busy, bustling, buoyant commercial centre. Change was inevitable with people coming and going, money swapping hands, and huge risks involved in day to day life. Merchants chanced their fortunes being tied up in the ships and the goods they carried. A constant uncertainty being the fear that they might lose everything if the ships ran into stormy seas or rocks. Despite much talk and action revolving around finance I still feel that passion manages to emerge in the form of love, hatred, friendship and selflessness. These act to enrich the lives of the characters and to add depth to the story line.
