‘When I was with him, I have heard him swear…
That he would rather have Antonio’s flesh
Than twenty times the value of the sum
That he did owe him’.
Upon learning of Antonio’s financial ruin, Shylock declares:
‘I’m very glad of it. I’ll plague him, I’ll
torture him, I am glad of it’.
It is simple to define Shylock as a villain if you examine these quotes. He appears ruthless, cruel and savage and is persistent in his attempt on taking Antonio’s life. Shylock is a usurer, with a lust for gold. Throughout ‘The Merchant of Venice’, Shylock is portrayed with a soul of avarice, yet the keynote of his character appears not to be avarice, but hatred. In the trial scene (Act 4, Scene 1), Shylock’s hatred dominates, and his character is depicted with a heart of stone. He has ample opportunity to accept in repayment many more times what he has lent out, but insists on having his pound of flesh, ‘There is no power in the tongue of man to alter me’. With Antonio dead, Shylock could raise the cost of borrowing to suit himself. His claims on Antonio and his determination for revenge, provide the main story line and most of the dramatic tension.
The Christians in ‘The Merchant of Venice’ are in no doubt that Shylock is a villain and treat him as such. Throughout the course of the play, Shylock is stripped of his name, reduced to something other than human and is equated with the devil. Shylock is referred to by name only three times; in the trial scene, The Duke twice identifies Shylock by name, and Portia does so once. In the course of the rest of the play, Shylock is most often referred to simply as ‘the Jew’. However, in many cases, even the simple title ‘Jew’ is stripped away, and Shylock is no longer a man, but an animal: Gratiano curses Shylock with ‘O be thou damned inexecrable dog!’ Whose ‘currish spirit govern’d a wolf’ and whose ‘desires are wolvish, bloody, starved, and ravenous’.
In (Act 2, Scene2), Launcelot Gobbo identifies Shylock as ‘a kind of devil’, ‘the devil himself’, and ‘the very devil incarnation’. Shylock’s own daughter, Jessica, identifies his house as ‘hell’ and Solanio identifies Shylock as ‘the devil…in the likeness of a Jew’. Antonio further cements this association by noting how Shylock’s arguments remind him how ‘The devil can cite scripture for his purpose’.‘The Merchant of Venice’, is full of contradicting and opposing attitudes. If Shylock is believed to be the ‘villain’ of the play then the Christians can also be viewed to be ‘heroes’.
The character, Antonio, is a small speaking part yet he represents the vast majority of the Christians in the play. Bassanio, who is greatly indebted to him, naturally thinks him to be ‘The kindest man, the best condition’d and unwearied spirit in doing courtesies’. This testimony is echoed by all others (except, of course by Shylock). Salanio refers to him as ‘The good Antonio, the honest Antonio – O, that I had a title good enough to keep his name company!’ The people of Venice high and low respect him. In ‘The Merchant of Venice’, Antonio would have been viewed as the hero at least by an Elizabethan audience. Antonio has many excellent personal qualities, and is loyal and a generous friend. He is trustworthy, responsible and a good Christian. On the surface, Antonio appears to be the model gentleman.
Towards the end of the play, we witness the great courage and dignity with which Antonio faces what he thinks is certain death ‘I am arm’d and well prepar’d…fare you well’. Antonio’s readiness to spare Shylock’s life when he is released from essaybank.co.uk from the bond supports Salerio’s view that ‘A kinder gentlemen treads not the earth’. Antonio appears as a charitable Christian who lends money freely. He presents a sharp contrast to the miserly and extortionist Shylock, who preys upon the hardship of others in order to, increase his own material wealth. Portia can be described as the ####### of ‘The Merchant of Venice’. She possesses all the graces; she is rich, beautiful, clever and honourable. Portia is unselfish and offers the amount of the loan ‘twenty times over’ to secure Antonio’s release from the bond. Although describing herself as ‘an unlessoned girl, unschooled, unpractised’, she is impressive in the trial scene where she manipulates the course of events to allow Shylock every opportunity to relent, whilst revealing his cruel, unforgiving nature. Portia appeals to Shylock with her great ‘quality of mercy’ speech. She speaks of the highest qualities a human being can hope to possess, qualities that are sadly lacking in Shylock. Portia, being the only character, apart from the Duke, to seek legal advice, rescues Antonio from the life-threatening bond and secures a fitting punishment to deny Shylock the opportunity to repeat his display of heartless revenge. In ‘The Merchant of Venice’, Portia represents a direct contrast to Shylock. She is young, he is old; she is generous, he is mean; she is gracious, he is snarling; everyone speaks well of her, everyone speaks ill of Shylock. I have identified many sections in ‘The Merchant of Venice’ where Shylock is portrayed as the villain and the Christians heroes. However, in part, Shylock may also be perceived more as the victim in this play rather than merely the villain. Long before Shylock plotted against him, Antonio seemed to take a pride in spurning Shylock, treating him in public with rudeness and contempt. This type of behaviour appears to contradict with the rest of his character. Youwould imagine that such a man would instinctively shrink from insulting anybody so grossly, but Antonio seems proud of it and tells Shylock that he will probably abuse him again, ‘spit on him again and spurn him, too’. In ‘The Merchant of Venice’, Shakespeare does not treat Shylock as simply evil for evil’s sake. He makes him human. Shylock has good reason to resent Antonio. He says:
‘You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog,
and spit upon my Jewish gabardine,
and all for use of that which is mine own,’
When Shylock shows a seeming kindness to Antonio he takes it as a sign that ‘The Hebrew will turn Christian: he grows kind’. Kindness in a Jew is beyond Antonio’s conception.
The famous ‘hath not a Jew eyes…If you ##### us do we not bleed’ speech of (Act 3, Scene 1), stresses the humanity that lurks beneath the exterior of Shylock’s public character. This great speech portrays Shylock to be a man equal to all others yet the victim of a prejudiced society. If Shylock was meant to be viewed as simply the villain or ‘murderous Jew’, it difficult to explain why Shakespeare included this speech in the play.
Shylock’s daughter is all he has in the world, and she is talked into running off with one of his enemies, a Christian. He hears a report that, while travelling through a distant city, she has spied a monkey that she fancied, and used a ring to purchase it. ‘That ring… I had it of Leah (his wife) when I was a bachelor. I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys!’ To him the ring stands for the bonds of affection and loyalty that ought to unite a family. It stands for what he has received in the past. However, thanks to Antonio and his friends, his only daughter has learned to despise her heritage and to throw it away to marry a Christian, Shylock’s enemy. He is cut to the heart displaying love and tenderness, a stark contrast to the demonic, murderous Jew that the Christians believe Shylock to be.
Throughout the play, Shylock is despised and persecuted for being a moneylender. Yet, the Christians are happy to have him around when they need to borrow money. It is when the time comes to repay that they complain. When the law appears to be on the side of the Jew, Portia is eloquent in speaking of the beauties of mercy. But when the shoe is on the other foot, it is cold mercy indeed that she and the other Christians have to offer Shylock. ‘Thou diest, and all thy goods are confiscate’ The play is full of passing references to the hypocrisy of Christians. Bassanio says in court, that he would gladly sacrifice his own life to save Antonio’s. However, in the trial scene, Bassanio has only to draw his own blade, stab Shylock and hang for murder. Again as Shylock points out, the Christians have slaves. If they are so enamoured of mercy, why do they not free their slaves? Shylock is a most complex and dominating character; he appears in only five scenes and yet for many people he is at the centre of the play’s interest. As an old miserly father he is comic, as a Jew he is savage and ruthless, as a usurer he seeks to ensnare the needy and Antonio, their protector. Yet, in all these roles he is also a man who suffers and triumphs, speaks at times with great nobility, and has a ‘kind of wild justice’ in his cry for revenge.
The ‘hath not a Jew eyes’ speech portrays Shylock’s humanity, yet I do not feel that a short speech of eleven lines outweighs the far more dominate themes of Shylock’s characterization in the play. In particular it is important to note how a mere seventeen lines after Shylock pleads with his persecutors to recognise his humanity, Shakespeare has Shylock ranting and raving over the elopement of his daughter and her theft of his money. Using very strong language, Shylock wishes that his daughter ‘were dead at my foot and the jewels in her ear! Would she were hears’d at my foot and the ducats in her coffin!’ This wish for his daughter’s death surely revokes much of the sympathy that was created by the former plea for the recognition of Shylock’s humanity. In the moment of this outburst, Shakespeare again portrays an image of a malignant, murderous Jew who, in this instance, is willing to kill his own daughter for the sake of a few ducats. It seems foolish to argue that Shakespeare’s Shylock is the same kind of exaggerated monster that populates earlier dramas, such as ‘The Jew of Malta’. Clearly, Shakespeare has invested Shylock with a degree of depth and realism that contributes to Shylock’s status as one of the great villains of the stage: a villain who is far more human than something like Marlowe’s Barabas.
In the play ‘The Merchant Of Venice’, Shakespeare has emphasised Shylock’s character as a man, rather than his identity as a Jew and a villain. Part of the play reveals how some Christians are bad men, as are some Jews. However, the genius of ‘The Merchant of Venice’ is that it portrays many differing attitudes, which allow us to make up our own minds as to the character of individuals rather than on race or religion.
