The merchant of Venice - With reference to act 4, scene 1, examine the interaction between Shylock and Portia. Is Shylock presented as a victim or a villain?

Shylocks greed and revenge on the Christian society is blown out of proportion in the court room scene (act four, scene 1) and he has to try to persuade the duke of Venice he is entitled to the pound of flesh as verbally agreed in the his bond with Antonio. The learned doctor from ………. who he sends forward to sort it out is actually Portia (Antonio’s best friend, Bassanio’s wife to be) At the time Shakespeare wrote this play, he was living in a male dominated society, and for one of his female characters to have so much power that they have the final say on the life or death of a human being would have attracted the attention of the audience. (also at the time the play was wrote, only men would be allowed to act on stage, so in reality the male playing Portia will be acting as a woman trying to impersonate a male, this added humour to the play) Portia, as like shylock, may have revenge on a cirtain something, in this case probably the male dominated society in which she lives. She has followed orders unquestioned from her father (she was only allowed to marry the man who picked the right casket her father had left) and lived under a male rule. I think that Portia feels special with this power and this may alter the way that she interacts with the other males, especially shylock in court.

At the beginning of the court room scene Portia does not call shylock by his name, but by “Jew” and this is how she identifies him throughout the play, this signifies racial prejudice towards him, but tends to make the audience believe she is siding with shylock. This may have shocked a Christian audience. Portia, for a while, allows Shylock to believe he is going to get his justice, with the use of language such as

 and his attitude towards Portia is positive because of this. Shylock calls Portia “a learned doctor”. As the scene goes on, tension is building in the audience as Portia is making the increasingly worried that Shylock will claim his pound of flesh. The peak of the tension in the audience would be when Shylocks atrocious cruelty and revenge starts to turn into reality Portia requests the weighing scales and shylock has them ready prepared inside his jacket. He starts sharpening the knife he is expecting to use to take his pound flesh on his shoe, and anger must be boiling. Shylocks mood is increasingly improving as Portia tells Antonio that he should “lay bare your breast”.