When Shylock first comes on stage, he instantly talks about ducats,
“Three thousand ducats, well.” Act 1 Scene 3
This also sets a bad image of him as the sort of person who cares more about money than anything else. He then talks about his great dislike of Christians which also would not go down very well with a Christian audience.
The rest of Shylock’s speeches in this scene are about ducats and Christians, and he already does not seem like the sort of person you would like to get involved with. Shylock makes a very effective speech in this scene which shows that he knows his place in society very well.
“Yes, to smell pork, to eat of the habitation which your prophet the Nasserite conjured the devil into” Act 1 Scene 3
This line shows Shylock’s religion and the differences between Judaism and Christianity.
“I will but with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following” Act 1 Scene 3
Here Shylock tells the audience what society will let him do with a Christian.
“But I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you.” Act 1 Scene 3
In this line, Shylock tells the audience what he must not do with Christians because of his religion and beliefs. This is one of the most important lines in the play as it tells us a lot about the historical and religious context of the play.
Shylock then goes on to insult Antonio, whom everyone already likes which sets the audience against him yet again. He also insults Christians
“I hate him for he is a Christian” Act 1 Scene 3
This would upset and insult many of the members of the audience of Shakespeare’s era. He also talks about money yet again, and moans about the fact that Antonio does not charge interest which stops Venetians from borrowing money from him as he charges high rates for it. Shylock says all of this to the side and not to either of the characters on stage which gives the effect of him being two-faced.
Shylock and Antonio then have a very long discussion about religion and money until, in the end, Shylock agrees to lend them the money on the condition that, if they do not pay the money back within the three month time limit, Shylock will extract one pound of flesh from a place on Antonio of his own choosing. He chooses that it should be cut from Antonio’s breast, nearest to the heart. This is a very effective part of the play as it shocks the audience into thinking that Shylock is a very evil character that you would not like to get involved with.
The next time that Shylock is mentioned in the play is in Act 2 Scene 2 when Launcelot, Shylock’s slave, has his monologue. In this he talks about wanting to rid himself of the “Jew” Shylock. He talks about him being an evil man and depicts him as the devil.
“Certainly my conscience will serve me to run from this Jew my master.” Act 2 Scene 2 lines 1-2
Here Launcelot is having a battle with his conscience trying to work out whether or not to flee from the Jew. He then goes on to say
“To be ruled by my conscience, I should stay with the Jew my master, who – God bless the mark – is a kind of devil.” Act 2 Scene 2 lines 22-24
Here he is calling Shylock a devil because of his religion. This is another section of the play in which Shylock is not on stage yet the bad image of him is still being painted in the audiences’ minds.
Launcelot also continues to call Shylock the devil after these lines, calling him the human version of the devil.
“Certainly the Jew is the very devil incarnation.” Act 2 Scene 2 Line 26
He then decides that he will leave the Jew his master and ignore his conscience which is telling him to stay.
Whenever Launcelot is talking about Shylock, he always talks about his master using “the Jew” as his name rather than calling him Shylock. This de-
values Shylock even more as a respectable person seeing as even his servants call him “Jew” instead of “master”, “sir” or even his real name, Shylock.
In the next part of this scene, Launcelot talks to the side just as Shylock did earlier in the play instead of talking directly to the character on stage with him,
“Old Gobbo” his father, but Shakespeare cleverly uses the words to show a great difference between the way he talks to the side and the way Shylock does. Launcelot sounds like more of a comic, playful character that is up to mischief when he speaks to the side whereas Shylock sounds spiteful and two-faced.
In the next very short scene, Jessica talks to Launcelot about him leaving them. She talks of her own house as being hell and this brings it down in value as a place which is not to be desired.
“Our house is hell, and though, a merry devil, didst rob it of some taste of tediousness.” Act 2 Scene 3 Lines 1-2
This extract also shows the comedy in Lancelot’s character and makes you want to trust him. However, there is also a hint of malevolence in Launcelot as he has now also been referred to as a kind of devil. However, this does not turn the audiences’ minds against him as he is a very jolly playful character.
When Launcelot has left the scene, Jessica has a very short monologue in which she tells the audience how ashamed she is to be related to her father.
“To be ashamed to be my father’s child. But though I am a daughter to his blood, I am not to his manners.” Act 2 Scene 3 lines 17-19
She also subtly tells the audience that she is not very religious and does not follow the Jewish rules.
She ends the scene by saying that she is going to end the troubles by becoming a Christian.
“O Lorenzo, if thou keep promise, I shall end this strife, become a Christian and thy loving wife.” Act 2 Scene 3.
In the following scene, Lorenzo talks to his friends about the plan to steal
Jessica from her father. They plan to take her during the masque and they will make her the torch-bearer as her first feat as a Christian. Lorenzo talks about the ways that Shylock could get into heaven after his death and also about the only way she could ever do wrong.
“If e’er the Jew her father come to heaven, it will be for the gentle daughter’s sake. And never dare misfortune cross her foot, unless she do it under this excuse, that she is issue to a faithless Jew.” Act 2 scene 4.
In scene 5, Launcelot tells Shylock that he will be leaving to work for Bassanio. Shylock and Launcelot have a long discussion and Launcelot gives Jessica the message about the masque which is planned for that night. Shylock overhears about the masque and bids Jessica to go inside the house and lock all the windows and doors, and not to leave the house. However, even though at first she obeys and does indeed go inside the house and lock all the windows and doors, when Lorenzo and his friends turn up to take her away, she hastily leaves the house and bears the torch for Lorenzo.
When Shylock next appears on stage, he questions Salerio about his daughter. He once again sets a bad image of himself by talking about the loss of his ducats at the same time as the loss of his daughter which makes it seem as though he does not truly care about his daughter. He makes a very effective speech in which he talks about the similarities between Christians and Jews.
“Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is?” Act 3 scene 1
He then goes on to talk in greater detail about the senses listed above.
“If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?” Act 3 scene 1.
This is one of Shylock’s most effective speeches in the play as it really gets the audience thinking about other religions and it does make you feel a little bit of sympathy for him. He then goes on to talk about revenge in a lot more detail.
“If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why revenge.” Act 3 scene 1
At the end of this speech Shylock gives his first hint of what is to come later on in the play when Antonio misses the deadline for the money.
“The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.” Act 3 scene 1
When Tubal comes on stage and tells Shylock that he was unable to find Jessica, Shylock talks more about his ducats and the jewels that she had taken with her than he does about having lost his daughter.
“I would my daughter were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear. Would she were hearsed at my foot, and the ducats in her coffin.” Act 3 scene 1.
Not only does this turn the audience against him even more, it takes away any feelings of sympathy that he may have gained with his aforementioned speech on the similarities between Christians and Jews.
In Act 3 Scene 3, Antonio is arrested by Shylock and a gaoler and we as the audience get our first ideas of the court case. Scenes 4 and 5 pass with little or no mentions of Shylock.
Act 4 Scene 1 is the last time we meet Shylock, and it is certainly the most dramatic of all the scenes. It has plenty of emotions scattered throughout it and really keeps the audience hanging on to every word, anxious to know how the play is going to end. The duke and Bassanio beg with Shylock to forgive Antonio and to take thrice the amount of money owed him, but Shylock is stubborn and refuses. He decides that he wants his bond, and nothing else.
It looks like a lost case for Antonio, until Portia and Nerissa come in dressed as a doctor and his clerk. Portia instantaneously picks up the case and takes over, and we soon learn just how clever she really is. It looks like she has won the case, but Shylock still refuses to take the money and prepares to extract his flesh from Antonio. The tension builds up as he sharpens his knife and Antonio is held down. Shylock steps up to the chair and is just about to make his first cut, when Portia calls out.
“Tarry a little, there is something else.” Act 4 Scene 1.
Portia then explains to the court that the bond only allows flesh to be cut from Antonio, and if Shylock spills even one drop of Christian blood all of his money will be given to the state. Shylock then decides to take the money after all.
But, as always, things are not as easy as they seem. Portia forbids him to take the money, and says that as he planned to take the life of a Christian his life is in the hands of the judge. The judge decides to spare
him his life, but on the condition that he gives one half of his goods to Antonio and that, on his death, the rest of his estate should go to Lorenzo and Jessica. He also must become a Christian.
This is the last part of the play that Shylock appears in, and he goes off stage at the end of this Scene looking very forlorn. Here, there is once
again a hint of sympathy for him but it is overridden by all of the bad feelings already given towards him.
In conclusion, I believe that Shakespeare uses the language very well to express emotions and to involve the audience with the play. He manages to gain our attention by making characters say things to the side, so it is almost like they are letting us in on a secret. I believe that the play would have done very well in Elizabethan times as it portrays many of the feelings of that era, such as hatred of Jews. It also depicts Venice as a place where things can go wrong and not just as a perfect place full of wonderfully rich people that everyone loves and where everyone gets on perfectly. It also does not use prostitution as a main theme so it would not have offended anyone who did not agree with such a thing.
Shakespeare is an extremely clever writer who knows exactly how to get inside his audiences heads and change their opinions on things, with just a few lines of text he can change your image of someone from bad to wonderful, and just by changing around a couple of words on the page he can create a totally different image.
The presentation of Shylock’s character is very bad throughout the play, he is exemplified as someone who is evil and should not be trusted. He juxtaposes Shylock and Antonio throughout the play as good and evil, Antonio being the good one. Because he makes Shylock seem so bad and evil it makes Antonio seem much greater than he would do if the worst character in the play were Bassanio.
The play is a great success overall and Shakespeare creates the effect that I am sure he wanted to. If the play was not excellently written then it would not still be around today and being studied by so many students all over the country. I am almost certain that the play will still be around for a lot longer and will continue to be enjoyed by many others in the future.
