“Fair sir, you spat on me Wednesday last,
You spurned me such a day, another time
You called me dog, and for these courtesies
I’ll lend you thus much moneys?”
Antonio demonstrates his hatred of Shylock be replying with,
“I am as like to call thee so again,
To spit on thee again, to spurn thee too”.
After the scene shows Shylock’s demoralised side, Shakespeare twists the character and portrays Shylock’s need for harsh revenge,
“let the forfeit
Be nominated for an equal pound
Of your fair flesh, to be cut off and taken
In what part pleaseth me”,
This makes me think that Shylock is very hard, cruel natured. On the other hand Shylock also said,
“I would be friends with you and have your love,
Forget the shames you have stained me with”,
Which may be interpreted that Shylock wants to banish the strife between them but I think he was just trying to secure the bond. Either way I think the Elizabethans would have found this funny, but it makes me feel sorry for him because I think the reaction he would have got from the other characters and even the audience would have been very patronising and belittling.
The next scene is Act two, Scene three; where the audience is introduced to Shylock’s daughter, Jessica. Jessica is talking to Shylock’s servant who is about to leave him (to work for Bassanio) they both are talking very unkindly towards him. In the Trevor Nunn production the atmosphere is very warm between them, singing and dancing etc, but that is just the interpretation of the director. I think the relationship would have been close between them being as they both had the same mutual feelings towards Shylock. She talks about how she thinks her domestic life with Shylock is very bad and compares it with hell, “Our house is hell, and thou a merry devil”. I think she means her life is hellish and her father dominates it, like the devil to hell. She goes on to say that she is ashamed to be his daughter,
“To be ashamed to be my father’s child.
But although I am a daughter to his blood,
I am not his manners”.
Jessica also talks about ending the strife between Christians and Jews and become a Christian herself. After hearing her say this I feel more sorry for her than I do for him, mainly because it sounds like Shylock is a very hard person to live with. If she sees her father in the wrong it makes me think that he is.
Act two, Scene three is two friends of Antonio mimicking Shylock and mocking his recent loss of his daughter and jewels/money. As the play is supposed to be a comedy I suspect that this is one of the moments the Elizabethans would have found funny. I sympathise with him though because they show no sympathy with his losses at all. Even though Shylock later proves his interest is more concerned with his money than his daughter, in the production (channel four- The Merchant of Venice) it shows Shylock in an earlier scene with Jessica showing a lot of affection towards her, stroking her hair while talking to her etc. Shylock must have been distraught and extremely embarrassed that his daughter ran away and to have the Christians mocking him would have made his remorse and revenge for Antonio even worse.
Act three, Scene one is the same two friends of Antonio (Act two, Scene three) now mocking Shylock to his face. Shylock responds to this by expressing why he hates Antonio, I find what he said very moving and definitely convincing. He talks about Antonio turning everyone against him, laughing at his losses, and ridiculing his religion. In his next quotation he stresses how he is human and not as different from them as they make out, and how he doesn’t deserve to be treated the way he is.
“Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?” the way he says this with such emotion and compassion makes me sympathise with him completely. He goes on to say that Jews have the same existence on earth as Christians do, “fed with the same food, subject to the same diseases”,
“If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?”
I therefore sympathise with Shylock because he’s been treated like he’s not even human and I can understand why he wants Antonio punished so badly. I question my sympathy when Shylock starts to talk to his friend after leaving Antonio’s friends. Tubal tells Shylock that Jessica as been spending all his money and trading his jewels very foolishly. Shylock replies with, “I would my daughter dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear!” wishing his daughter dead over jewels makes me think he deserves this treatment, but on the other hand I can’t help but think, if one is treated like a dog- does one not start to act like a dog? Knowing that Shylock is really getting upset and enraged, Tubal goes on to tell him that Jessica traded his most prized jewel (from his late wife) for a monkey, this is the biggest loss for Shylock to hear and replies with “thou torturest me” therefore that would have been pure ammunition for Shylock to seek revenge on Antonio.
Act four, Scene one is the climax of the play; it is the trial of Antonio’s forfeit. The atmosphere in this scene is very intense, as demonstrated in the channel four production. It shows Antonio with all of his friends pleading for mercy and showing him great support, and shows Shylock isolated by himself at the other side of the room. Even though this is just the director’s interpretation, I get the sense of grouping from the written play because of Antonio’s friends trying to convince Shylock to take the money. I sympathise the fact that Shylock is by himself, but because he comes across so blood thirsty (sharpening his knife on his boot) I think it’s no surprise and he deserves it. I don’t sympathise with Shylock at the begging of the trial because he shows absolutely no signs of being merciful, saying he bought this flesh and will not be persuaded to give up his bond. He compares Antonio’s flesh to animal imagery, saying that it would be the same for him to turn around and tell them to set free their animals they have bought, as it would be for them to tell him not to take his bond. Shakespeare convincingly shows Shylock’s blood thirsty, manipulative side when Shylock is offered thrice the amount owed to free Antonio, but to Shylock I think it’s not about the money, it’s about his desperate need for the ultimate revenge. Shylock proves how desperate for this revenge he is when Portia (disguised as a lawyer) tells him he may have the bond he places the knife right by Antonio’s chest with the most spiteful look on his face (channel four production). The tables then turn on Shylock when Portia announces he may not shed a drop of blood. Shylock, now with the impression of desperation, says he will now take the money. When he his told he can’t have the money and only the bond I sympathise with him because after a lifetime of manipulation from the Christians I think he deserved the money. On the other hand Portia gave him enough chances to change his mind, be merciful and take the money. I think he was just too aggravated by the loss of his daughter and the mocking from the Christians to show mercy but I still think he deserved the money. The biased Christian court then tells him because he attempted murder, he is to lose his religion and become a Christian, and Lorenzo and Jessica will inherit his wealth. I sympathise with Shylock being forced to become Christian, because he already lost his daughter, wealth, dignity and now his religion- that seems really unfair. But I don’t sympathise with Lorenzo getting his money (even though this would be the worst torture possible) because he valued his wealth too much. The way that Jews were treated in Elizabethan time makes me think the audience probably would have found this acceptable.
On the whole I don’t sympathise with Shylock because he had many chances to change his fortunes but was too stubborn, stuck to his ideas and drove anyone close to him away. I think that the fact he was a Jew was not his downfall with the Christians, it was his evil villainous rage, therefore I find it hard to sympathise with most of his consequences. I think that Shakespeare wanted you to think that Shylock was the villain because, superficially, he seemed to be anti-Semitic and was portraying him the way an Elizabethan audience would have wanted a Jew portrayed. I think that they would have interpreted Shylock in the same way they stereotyped Jews at the time. He would have been portrayed as a rich miserly moneylender hell-bent on getting his bond from his sworn enemy, the Christian- Antonio. I think, because Shakespeare also showed Shylock’s compassionate side, that he might have been trying to comment on the racial, segregated abuse Jews got at the time or the intolerance, anger and revenge both religions displayed on each other.