Whether Shylock is seen as the villain or the victim of ‘The Merchant of Venice’ depends on point of view. I think that there is scope for his character being interpreted either way, varying with viewpoint, sympathies, and personal translation of the character.
A major difference in viewpoint is between two relevant audiences – Shakespeare’s contemporary audience, and the modern-day audience. Shakespearean audiences would be more likely to take the play at its face value, and judge Shylock accordingly. At that time, plays had a relatively simple set out and construction. Most plays had an obvious ‘villain’ and this is the role that Shylock would fulfil for them, and nothing more. Modern audiences read more into plays, and deeper into characters, and Shylock can no longer be looked on as a straightforward villain. The modern audience is more sympathetic to Shylock, and there is quite a lot to sympathise with. Shakespearean audiences were more than likely extremely anti-Semitic and so from the very beginning of the play Shylock is hated because of his religion. Anti-Semitism was very common at the time, with plays such as ‘The Jew of Malta’ being very popular, so ‘villainous Jew’ was the common opinion. Nowadays, religion is not such a narrow-minded issue, and audiences are more able to judge Shylock free from racial prejudice, considering Shylock as a possible victim in the play.
Not only were Shakespearean audiences anti-Semitic, the other characters in the play certainly are. They are all Christians, and although religion doesn’t seem to play a major role in their lives, they condemn and hate Shylock for his religion, and then for his person, for most of them he is a figure of darkness ‘the fiend at mine elbow’. They also hate him for his job, as a usurer, but it was one of the only jobs available at that time to Jews, which seems especially unfair. Even Jessica, Shylocks daughter, feels that there is something undesirable about being Jewish, when talking to Lancelot she says, ‘I shall be saved by my husband, / he hath made me a Christian’ as though Judaism was something to be ‘cured’ of, as well as being ashamed of it. It is a widely spread view through all of the characters that being Jewish is synonymous with some kind of evil, or wrong, and so the audience gets a very negative view of Shylock from within the play itself. Most of the insults in the play, while projected at Shylock, are to do with his religion, such as ‘harsh Jew, dog Jew, faithless Jew’, and this constant abuse has a strong affect on the audience. However it can have two different affects, one, of prejudicing the audience against Shylock, as they side with the ‘good’ Christians, the other is to make the audience feel sympathetic towards Shylocks position, and the insults he has to endure. Very quickly on meeting Shylock he himself introduces his religion into the conversation with Bassanio, ‘Yes, to smell pork, to eat of the habitation which your prophet the Nazarite conjured the devil into’ which makes us aware of the issue of conflicting religion, and he also brings up is hatred of Antonio (as a Christian) fairly quickly into the conversation. At first the audience therefore feels dislike towards Shylock, as it seems he hates Antonio for no good reason other than is own personality, but then we discover the reason for his hatred, Antonio’s prejudice towards him as a Jew, ‘You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog, / and spit upon my Jewish gaberdine,’ and this actually makes us feel, contrary to our original idea of Shylock, that he is the victim, at the hands of the Christians.
