'The Merchant Of Venice' - Shakespeare

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Gary Chew 10A

In ‘The Merchant of Venice’ does Shakespeare treat Shylock fairly?
How would a modern audience feel about the play?

Is Shylock a victim to Anti-Semitism or is he just getting what he deserves?

        The play, ‘The Merchant of Venice’, depicts a Venetian society divided by racial hatred and shows the hostile attitudes aimed at Jewish people, such as Shylock who plays an important role in this compelling play.
        
Written between 1596 and 1598, Shakespeare interweaves two tales, one portraying a greedy, resentful creditor bent on exacting a pound of flesh, while the other involves a marriage suitor’s choice between three chests and thus winning a wealthy woman’s hand in marriage.
        Set in the city of Venice and Belmont, William Shakespeare initially wrote the play as a comedy, which has evolved though the centuries developing into a dramatic work that sparks controversy throughout the modern world about anti-Semitism and prejudice.

        Anti-Semitism is the prejudice or hostility toward Jews as an ethnic, religious, or racial group, which can range from individual hatred to, violent persecution. The highly explicit ideology of Adolf Hitler's Nazism was the most extreme example of this phenomenon, leading to the genocide of the European Jews.

        The only two recorded performances of this play, in the seventeenth century, were staged in the spring of 1605; commended by King James I at Whitehall Palace.
        William was born in Stratford-on-Avon in 1564 and spent his childhood in a wealthy middle class. The boy enrolled at a grammar school in Stratford and later became an illustrious poet and dramatist in London. Shakespeare altogether created 37 plays, 2 narrative poems and 154 sonnets in his lifetime.
        There were virtually no Jews in England in the period Shakespeare compiled this play and very little chance that Shakespeare would have even encountered a person who was Jewish. This reveals that Shakespeare would not have treated Shylock justly, but only on hearsay.

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        Shylock causes great concern in the Christian community of Venice; he creates the problem of insisting that Antonio forfeit a "pound of flesh" and keep his expired bond. When the argument goes to trial, it presents a problem for the government of Venice. The duke, along with Antonio's friends, asks Shylock to drop the case and demonstrate mercy toward Antonio. Shylock will not do so and sticks to his vindictive alternative, his forfeit.

        The writer portrays Shylock as the villain purely because of his faith; he is Jew in a predominantly Christian society. Shylock is the stereotype caricature of a malicious, ...

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