Another way in which Shakespeare allowed the audience to see Shylock as a villain was by a plot in the play, the bond. One specific aspect of the bond allows Shakespeare to portray Shylock as a villain, by the punishment Antonio would suffer if he broke the bond “a pound of flesh”, chosen by Shylock. The idea of using this in the bond makes the reader think that Shylock could be quite gruesome and abnormal-which is often related with villains. Here, Shakespeare manipulates the reader’s reaction towards Shylock by using a plot of the play.
Also by adding an original punishment for the breaking of the bond, Shakespeare gives the play an interesting twist which emphasises the view one is supposed to have of Shylock. By twisting the plot and influencing the audience’s opinion of Shylock, Shakespeare makes Shylock the minority in the play. This idea of a minority again gives the audience an idea that the other characters in the play feel antagonistic towards Shylock, influencing the portrayal of Shylock to the audience. The audience sees the majority as “right”, because their side of the argument, or battle seems to be most popular and more people were backing the majority’s side, and so the assumption is made that the audience will also follow the crowd and take the majority’s side. However, in some acts of the play, by only allowing the audience to see through the eyes of the supposedly good side of the conflict, Shakespeare prevents the audience taking pity on Shylock. For example in Act 2, scene 8, when Shylock is seen lamenting the loss off his daughter and his ducats, Salanio just starts mocking him, making sarcastic remarks like, “As the dog Jew did utter in the streets: / ‘My daughter! O my ducats! O my ducats! Fled with a Christian! O my Christian ducats!’”, (Act 2, Scene 8, line 14-16). This act of mockery that Salanio and Salerio carry out also implies that none of what Shylock was saying was taken seriously, as he was distressed and all Salerio and Salanio did was laugh at him. This quotation also emphasises that all Shylock really cares about is his money, and his reputation, by the fact he seems distressed with his daughter running of with not any old person, but a Christian. Here, the audience can take pity on Shylock for the distress he is going through, however to lift these moods, Shakespeare adds mockery to the situation.
Though Shakespeare intends Shylock to be the villain of the play and have no feelings Shylock can make the audience think otherwise in other areas in the play. One of the most obvious times that the audience is made aware that Shylock may have feelings is in Act 3, scene 1, when the audience sees the great distress his daughter has caused him by running away with a Christian and taking all his money. The audience may really feel for Shylock when Salanio and Salerio make situations worse by not helping, and merely mock him. The way in which Shakespeare portrays Shylock as quite human, is by using very valid and true language and rhetorical questions which Salanio and Salerio struggle to rebut against. For instance Shylock asks Salanio and Salerio, “Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?”(Act 3, scene 1, 55-56). By putting the audience at an awkward position, Shakespeare has made the audience question Shylock’s character and whether or not he is as bad as what the other characters in the play had made him out to be. Particular individual words that Shylock has said like “...senses, affections, passions...”, (mostly the abstract nouns), are the words that most imply that Shylock does feel and is emotionally, as well as physically, the same as Christians. This aspect of these individual words shows the audience that Shakespeare used words, which would bring up emotions for the audience and therefore was able to manipulate what the character said to portray another side of Shylock that was less obvious.
Another way in which Shakespeare was able to show Shylock was actually quite human, in a way is related to the previous point. At certain areas in the play, for example while in distress about his daughter running off, or the greed Shylock showed when he sharpened his knives in the trial, ready to win, Shylock shows quite obvious signs of emotion, whether it be anger, distress, sadness, self pity, greed. These telltale signs backup Shylocks speech in Act three, scene one, when he was trying to speak of the Jews’ and Christians’ common humanity. This plea for acceptance really shows the audience that Shylock is trying say he also has feelings. For example when Shylock speaks of his “own flesh and blood to rebel”, (Act 3, scene 1, line 32), the audience can pick up that Shylock is feeling many emotions at one time like disappointment and sadness. This quotation simply allows Shylock to express emotion, allowing the audience to see it and make assumptions of him other than villainous. By picking up that Shylock has emotions Shakespeare enables the audience to start to sympathise to Shylock, thus making him look quite human. This emotive material in the play also could influence the audience’s own decision about what they think should be the outcome of the story and all the plots.
In conclusion in order to obtain these different views of Shylock Shakespeare had used different methods of manipulating his characters to create certain, wanted ideas to be
portrayed to the audience. But in each case Shakespeare had obviously though very hard of how to convince the audience the views he wanted them to have, at certain points in the play.