Shakespeare’s portrayal of Shylock in “The Merchant of Venice” is more complex than is originally thought. Shylock is a tormented character, even the Christ like figure of Antonio seems to hate him for his religion, but he is also a tormentor. His speech, in Act 3 Scene 1, is full of emotive language, such as ‘hurt with the same weapon’ and ‘If you prick us, do we not bleed?’, persuading the audience to think that he is in the right of taking revenge on Antonio. However, in the same speech, he shows hints of his hatred towards Antonio, and how he will do anything to get revenge on him; ‘The villainy you teach me I will execute…’
Emotional blackmail is used by Shylock, for us to feel sympathy towards him. By using emotional language such as ‘laughed at my losses’ and ‘hath a Jew not hands’, Shylock is cleverly twisting the minds of the audience, to make him look a tragic figure, who is just as human as a Christian. The same speech, does, however, show a more inhumane side to Shylock, as the long list of traits he describes Jews as sharing with Christians are manly physical; ‘hath not a Jew hands’. The only real emotion and non-physical characteristics that Jews and Christians are shown to have the same of is ‘passion’ and this cynical thinking by Shylock makes us feel contempt for him.
In the next act, the prison scene, Shylock rejects every opportunity to withdraw and show mercy, and the audience begins to despise him even more, and all previous sympathy is lost. By saying ‘If you deny me, fie upon your law’, Shylock is directly insulting the Christian law, and this would offend the audience, making them fell contempt towards him. He also says, in the same act, ‘If you deny it, let the danger light upon your character and your city’s freedom,’ where he is openly ill-wishing Venice. Although this may make us feel contempt towards Shylock, some may sympathize with him, as no one listens to him, because of the fact that he is a Jew. And because no one is listening to him, he has nothing better to say than to ill-wish the Christians themselves.
Shakespeare openly shows Anti-Semitism in the play, and probably the best example of this is when Shylock loses everything, and yet the audience is informed by rumors, none of which are acted out on stage. This shows us how unimportant Shylock is showed to be, as nothing is shown on stage, which devalues the human rights of Shylock. The main reason for this, is because he is a Jew, and although today’s audience may be offended by this thought and sympathize with him, the Elizabethan audience would have found this very amusing.
When Shylock says ‘hurt with the same weapon’, we initially sympathize with him as he is suggesting that he does not want to kill Antonio, because if he was in Antonio’s position, he too would fell the pain. He is hinting that he is being forced into the murder, for the sake of the venician law. By using this type of emotional language, we are persuaded to sympathize with Shylock; however, by saying this line he is saying that he has felt pain before, and that it is in his full right to bestow pain upon others, as they have bought pain onto him.
This brings me onto the two main themes in the play; Justice and Mercy. Shakespeare, being a Christian, has shown Mercy to overcome the power of Justice, as at the end of the play, Shylock is forgiven. This shows that Christian values are more valuable than the Jewish values, and this causes us to feel sympathy towards Shylock, as no justice is shown to him. He is however, shown mercy, which, although is initially a good thing, but having been given mercy, he is also forced to convert into Christianity and loses half of everything he has. As this play is a comedy, the ‘happy ending’ is that the two Jews in the play convert to Christianity, and this makes today’s feel sympathetic towards Shylock, as his only sin in the play is to be Jewish, and by him converting to Christianity, he is shown Mercy.
Shylock, potentially the main character in ‘The Merchant of Venice’ is shown to be cunning, cynical and his hatred towards Christians makes the audience feel contempt towards him. On the other hand, the Anti-Semitism throughout society in the 17th century makes today’s audience feel much more sympathetic towards him, and his situation.
In my opinion, the way Shakespeare portrays Shylock, as a money-lender, who is not accepted in society, and is degraded by the fact that he is Jewish, makes me feel sympathetic towards him and the situation he is left at the end of the play.
