Shylock also says how he is humiliated and how he is a victim of racial hatred. He says “He hates our sacred nation, and he rails even where merchants most do congregate on me, my bargains, and my well-won thrift, which he calls interest: cursed be my tribe if I forgive him”. This makes the audience feel sympathy for him and also start to feel a little bit of dislike toward Antonio. This is ironic as Shylock is meant to be the villain and he causes the audience to feel sympathy toward him.
Shylock is presented as a moneylender and Antonio frowns upon this but Shylock tells him about the story of Laban and Jacob, this is to show how a figure in the bible has gained from other people’s misfortune. This story is where Jacob was told by laban that he could have any ewe that was born that was not white, so Jacob took different coloured sheep and added them to the flock and they bred thus giving birth to different coloured sheep. Shylock tells this story to Antonio after Antonio says how it is wrong to manipulate something to gain from it. This makes us feel like Shylock is only trying to earn a living and the majority of the audience will agree with Shylock. After Shylock tells Antonio the story, Antonio hits back with “The devil can cite scripture for his purpose, an evil soul producing holy witness, is like a villain with a smiling cheek, a goodly apple rotten at the heart.” This causes a split in the audience as some people think Antonio is telling the truth and has a point while others may think Antonio is jealous.
Shylock then goes to tell Antonio about all the times Antonio has humiliated him, “In the rialto, you have rated me about my moneys and my usances: still I have borne it with a patient shrug, You call me misbeliever, cut throat dog and spet upon my Jewish Gabardine, and all for use of that which is my own. Well then, it now appears you need my help: Go to then, you come to me and you say so, Shylock, we would have moneys, you say so” This is a detailed account of how Shylock has been humiliated in the past by Antonio, Shakespeare does this so the audience feel a great amount of sympathy to Shylock but hatred toward Antonio even though Antonio is meant to be the “Victim” of the play.
The last major point in this scene is where Shylock states that if Antonio can’t pay the debt then a pound of flesh can be removed from wherever Shylock wants. This speech by Shylock brings out the merciless Jew in him and shows him for his true self. The audience would be shocked by this proposition and would feel sympathy toward Antonio and not want him to take the deal. At the end of the scene, when Shylock exits, Antonio say “Hie thee gentle Jew. This Hebrew will turn Christian, he grows kind. This is ironic, as Antonio does not actually think that Shylock is gentile after the bond that they have just sealed.
Act 3 Scene 1 is a very short scene but it is significant so it is hard for shakespeare to try and manipulate the audiences feeling by presenting the characters in different ways but it is needed for our understanding of the play, the most important part of the scene is when; Shylock accuses Solanio and Salerio of knowing about his daughter's elopement with a Christian and the theft of his money, "You know, none so well…of my daughter's flight" (line 23). This is where Shylock becomes more of human character with feelings and emotions and not just the humiliated villain, but a more complex character. The audience would feel a little sympathy for him at this moment because he has lost his daughter. He tries to say to Salerio and Solanio that he is also a human and not different to everyone else just because of his religion, "I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?" (lines 54-56). He justifies his cause for revenge against the Christians because of their prejudice against Jews and vows that he will kill Antonio (because he is convinced that he helped his daughter escape) if he doesn't pay the money, "Let him look to his bond" (line 43). The audience would feel very angry towards Shylock at this point because he is saying that he wants to kill Antonio because he thinks that he has something to do with his daughter disappearing but they would also sympathise with him as he reveals his anger and sorrow for the loss of his daughter. He also seems more concerned about his money than his daughter which shows that he is an evil person who thinks that money is everything, "I would the daughter be dead at my foot and the jewels in her ear" (line 83). After that the audience would feel sympathy for him because we are told that his daughter sold his engagement ring for a monkey. At the end of the scene he learns of Antonio's ships sinking and seems happy about it because now he thinks that Antonio might not be able to get the money, "I am very glad of it, I'll plague him, I'll torture him" (line 110). The audience would feel neutral towards Shylock because he is upset about some things in this scene but he is also saying some very provocative things, which would make the audience angry towards him. Salanio and Salarino seem to be taunting Shylock over the loss of his daughter and this would make the audience feel sympathy for him as he has nobody with him to help hom grieve for his loss and nobody seems to be supporting Shylock
Shylock's main scene in the play, is Act 4 Scene 1 - the trial scene. Near the beginning of the scene, in his biggest speech, he says that he feels like killing Antonio, "But say it is my humour; is it answered?" and he is justifying the bond. The audience would probably feel very angry towards Shylock because he said that he wants to kill Antonio because he just wants to and that he is being very vindictive, he shows this when he says, “More than a lodg’d hate, and a certain loathing I bear Antoni, that I follow thus.”. He praises Balthazar (Portia in disguise) because he feels that he is going to win the trial and that the law cannot stop him killing Antonio, "O noble judge, O excellent young man". This is flattery and he thinks he is going to win the case. Shylock makes a fair point in lines 89-103. He is saying that the bible does not encourage slavery and says about hypocrisy in Christians. He is saying that he is not the only person who does bad things, "You have among you many purchased a slave." The audience would feel ashamed and embarrassed by this point because they know that they are going against the bible. Balthazar keeps saying how Shlyock should show mercy and Shylock doesnot listen and wants the bond to be carried out, the audience would feel sympathy toward Antonio as he thinks he is about to die and they would feel angry toward Shylock for not giving Antonio mercy. When Balthazar is finding the loopholes in the bond, Shylock quickly backs off the claim and tries to get out as quick as he can. The audience would think that he deserves his punishment at this moment. His punishments quickly pile up and a modern audience would probably think the punishments are too much but Shakespeare's audience would think they are fine and they would have thought that it would have been giving Shylock a favour by telling him to change his religion. Towards the end of the scene, Shylock feels almost suicidal because he has lost everything, "Nay, take my life and all, pardon not that". We feel sorry for him because he is a broken man and his life is worthless. At the end of the scene, Shylock says that he feels sick and must leave the courtroom, "I pray you give me leave to go from hence, I am not well". We would now think that he is the victim of the story because he has been severely punished. The audience would have sympathy for him because he is destroyed. Shakespeare does this deliberately for Shylock to leave the play when the audience would feel sorry for him. Other people in the play hate Shylock for a number of reasons. Probably the main reason is that he is a Jew and everyone apart from Tubal in the play is Christian so they are prejudiced against him. They call him "Jew" in the play and they only use his real name a few times.
In Elizabethan times the prejudice shown to Shylock in the play would be perfectly normal because Jews were banned in England since 1290 and were seen as evil people. Nowadays we are shocked at the prejudice because we are living after the holocaust when Hitler attempted to wipe out the whole Jewish race and now everyone has a degree of sympathy for Jews. The anti-Semitism shown in the play would be seen as comedy in the Elizabethan period. Shakespeare's play was so successful because Queen Elizabeth's doctor was executed for high treason in 1954. He was a Jew. Shylock has been seen as both the victim and the villain of the play. A victim because he loses all his money and has to change his religion at the end of the trial scene. Also he is the victim of lots of prejudice from the Christians like them spitting on him and calling him names. But in conclusion I think that ultimately Shylock is a villain. The way he treats those close to him, for example his daughter Jessica exposes his evil character. He lets his need for vengeance engulf all other aspects of his life and his complete lack of mercy towards Antonio, renders him as a villain in the eyes of the audience
