"The Merchant of Venice": Shylock: Victim or Villian?

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Fatima Salman

The British School of Bahrain 90306

Shakespeare Coursework

Shylock: Victim or Villain?

       Since the thirteenth century, Jews who practised their own religion were banned from England and only readmitted by Oliver Cromwell in the seventeenth century. During Shakespeare’s time, which was the sixteenth century, Elizabethans had barely any knowledge about Jews. This fear of the unknown  eventually led to the disappointing prejudice and antisemitism in England. Traditionally, Jews have been blamed for Jesus’ crucifixion which as become the justification for the hatred of the Jews, The Killing of the son of God. With this much knowledge about the Jewish race Elizabethans were prepared to believe anything, already having created myths and tales for themselves.

       “The Merchant of Venice” opens with Antonio, a successful Christian merchant, a loyal and generous friend agreeing to lend his money to the irresponsible Bassanio. Antonio is mainly portrayed as a loyal friend to highlight his goodness and willingness to go through drastic measures to help out a friend, Antonio says to Bassanio, “My purse, my person, my extremest means lie all unlocked to you occasion.” These two characters are shown to have a history which is very important to the storyline as it give Bassanio’s plan some support to which the play revolves around.

       In addition, Bassanio’s plan is further supported by the grand and poetic language used to describe Portia.  Shakespeare uses phrases like, “Of wondrous virtues” to emphasize Portia’s beauty and significance and most importantly, the merit of her value. This is also crucial to the storyline as it gives valid reason to Bassanio’s need for a loan, showing how she is worth the risk for both Bassanio and Antonio.

       The saintly portrayals of Portia and Antonio are used at the start of the play to build up and prepare the audience for Shylock’s appearance. In Act I scene (iii) Shylock is introduced immediately as a greedy and deceptive man by his first sentence, “Three thousand ducats –well.” This contrasts strongly with Portia and        Antonio’s characters instantly identifying Shylock as the bad guy.  In this scene Shylock is shown to be scheming against Antonio and Bassanio, which the audience will not have responded positively to. This is shown by certain stagecraft techniques such as the [aside] in lines 38 -48 where Shylock shows the audience his hate for the “Christian” and plans to avenge the Jews and “Feed fat the ancient grudge”. Shylock is duplicitous; when he says “Well” he is actually considering his revenge rather than the sum of gold and when he describes Antonio as a “Good” man, he means that he is good for loaning interest to. The audience will be repelled by Shylock’s immorality and start to sense some trouble.

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        Shakespeare intensifies the evilness of Shylock’s character, taking it from a two- faced deceiving man to a shameless bully. For example, in the Bible, Jacob is portrayed as a villain, however, Shylock sees him as a role model and uses his example to bully Antonio and put him under pressure. This will make the audience hate Shylock, seeing him torment their hero; Shakespeare does this to foreshadow the trouble at the courtroom scene.

       In Act II scenes (iii) and (v), Shakespeare, carries on to build up Shylock’s tedious character now, portraying him as ...

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