In the play, he continuously tries to protect his daughter from masques and people who he considers as foolish, dangerous and Christian.
“What, are there masques? Hear you me, Jessica, Lock up my doors, and when you hear the drum… Clamber not up to the casements…”
He strives to keep her locked up in his house so that he does not lose Jessica because she is Shylock’s only relative. He tries very hard to be a good father and he thinks that by keeping her in the house that she will be safe. So he is devastated when she elopes with Lorenzo mainly because he is Christian and she had taken a sentimental ring and traded it for a monkey:
“One of them showed me a ring that he had of your daughter for a monkey.”
She had also taken a lot of money. This continuous build up of horrific events and treatment towards him makes Shylock angry and very determined for his bond.
At the trial, he is blind with revenge trying to get revenge so that he can feel that he has got his justice from all the bad things that have happened to him. He thinks that what he is doing is fair because of all the things that have happened to him. But when things are turned against him he made to give up his estate to Lorenzo, a Christian, and Jessica’s eloped fiancée. This is another cause for Shylock to have a motive to kill Antonio because Antonio was involved in this situation of Shylock’s daughter running away.
During the trial the Christians in the courtroom constantly insult him, calling him such things as:
“Cruel devil, dog Jew, fiend, misbeliever, cut-throat dog, wolfish, bloody, starved and ravenous.
These insults are casually thrown at him by Antonio’s friends and in a court of law, where there should be no conflict like this from spectators. This name-calling is allowed and alienates Shylock. Shylock is offended and is heavily outnumbered. This trial is Shylock’s chance to show the Christians that he does have power and that he finally has a choice over someone’s destiny like the Christians have over him.
At the end of the trial he is forced to become a Christian, which is a very cruel sentence. This forces Shylock to change the way he lives and his principles too. This is the worst sentence that could be given to Shylock. He asks to be sentenced to death rather than become a Christian. He has lost everything including his family, his money, his house and now his religion that is a part of who he is:
“…That for this favour
He presently become a Christian…”
Antonio is the person that is allowed to decide Shylock’s future and makes him a Jew. These are the worst possible circumstances for Shylock as the person he hates the most, Antonio is able to choose the way he lives the rest of his life. At the end of the play Shylock is in a worse situation than at the beginning of the play. All this pain and suffering for Shylock because he is Jew is what many Jews at that time had to tolerate for having a different religion to the majority of people around them.
However, there are two possible views in this play and for the purpose of this essay I shall analyse both. Therefore I will consider Shylock as being a villain in the play.
Firstly, Shakespeare stresses the view of Shylock as being a miserable, miserly, greedy moneylender. Antonio describes Shylock as being this:
“Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly rotten apple rotten at the heart.”
Shylock is also narrow minded, bent on revenge and he hates Christians especially Antonio:
“I hate him for he is a Christian…”
Shylock devises a plan to kill Antonio in the way of a bloodthirsty bond. If Antonio cannot fulfil this bond, Shylock is legally authorized to take one pound of flesh from Antonio. This is evil and nasty way of revenge. From this moment on, Shylock is determined to exact his revenge.
He is also a very dictatorial father. He has strict religious rules and principles for himself and forces his daughter, Jessica, to follow them.
“Our house is hell”
Jessica dislikes the way Shylock makes her live and how overprotective he is of her.
Shylock’s first worry when Jessica runs away is that she has taken money, not that he lost his daughter. This shows his greed and that he’s concern is for the money.
“A diamond gone cost me two thousand ducats in Frankfurt!”
A worried father would be concerned about his daughter’s safety not how much money he has lost.
At the trial he is shown as the sinister man he is. He is deaf to all pleas of mercy from the duke, from Bassanio and the crowd in the courtroom. He shows no compassion towards Antonio. He wants Antonio dead. Shylock is then offered three times the original sum of the bond he denies. He just wants his revenge.
He also is certain that the law will support him in his quest for vengeance. He is certain enough to start sharpening his knife on his leather shoe. This awakens disgust in the audience and the audience becomes less sympathetic to Shylock’s cause.
All through the trial Shylock is confident that he will get his vendetta; this is shown by Shylock talking in assertions:
“I will have it.”
Shylock thinks that this bond is a “religious oath” that he must follow. He uses his religion to give him excuse to commit a sin.
When it appears that Shylock will have his way, he is told that a surgeon will be present. He demands that it isn’t in bond on many occasions. He is shown as being ruthless and does not want Antonio to live.
At this trial it is shown that Shylock sought the life of another man, a crime, a sin. He deserves to be punished. In his sharpening of the knife, Shakespeare makes sure that the audience loses pity over Shylock and encourages the audience to think wrong of Shylock’s intentions.
Until the tables are turned on him, Shylock is not swayed to stop this menacing act of revenge.
In conclusion, Shylock is a very complex character. Shakespeare created this character so that audiences would have different opinions of him. The choice that the viewer makes by deciding if Shylock is a victim or a villain depends on the background and the time the play is being shown. Certainly after World War II there is a more sympathetic view towards Shylock, comparative to the 1500’s where the majority of the audience would have been against Shylock regardless of the abuse he has to tolerate during the play. I think that Shylock had not expected circumstances to change enabling him to fulfil follow his bond. I think that only after his daughter had left him that he had seriously considered being able to get his revenge. I think he mostly a victim in this play because I don’t think that he meant for the bond to be unable to be met. He is subject to a lot of viscous treatment in the play and only at the trial does he get desperate for revenge. I also think that Antonio just barely being able to live was allowed to decide on Shylock’s future. Shylock’s sentence is cruel and unnecessary and again in a court of law he is discriminated against because of his religion. Yet, such is Shylock’s character that any audience’s opinions towards him will be varied.
