In Act 2 Scene 2 we have further examples of Elizabethan people’s prejudice against Jews in Launcelot’s soliloquy. Launcelot is a servant of Shylock’s who brings comedy to the performance, he is a clown who is having a battle with his conscience over whether or not to run away from Shylock’s service. He seems to be struggling to decide between what he should do and what he wants to do because his conscience says he should ‘budge not’, however the ‘fiend’ tells him to budge. The problem is that the fiend he refers to is a devil, so he must decide which devil he will side with, Shylock or the ‘fiend’. He refers to Shylock as ‘a kind of devil’ and ‘the very devil incarnation’. These insults are more evidence of the sustained metaphor running through the play that Jew equals devil. He decides to run away to work for Bassanio because the fiend offers him ‘more friendly counsel’ in other words, tells him what he wants to hear. He decides Shylock is the more evil of the two and leaves his employment.
In Act 2 Scene 3 we hear from Shylock’s daughter who again, adheres to the metaphor about Shylock. As she bids Launcelot farewell, she refers to how ‘our house is hell’, using alliteration to describe her torment, and talks of how Launcelot brought excitement to her home’s usual ‘tediousness’ this gives the audience the impression that her life is not happy, and that Shylock is the cause for this. She speaks of how she wants to end her ‘strife’, marry Lorenzo and become a Christian. She uses Launcelot to send a message to Lorenzo planning her escape from her father, but this must be kept a secret as Shylock would go insane if he knew his daughter planned to rob him and run off to convert to Christianity ‘I would not have my father see me in talk with thee’. She is ‘ashamed’ of her father and comments on how she is different to him ‘ I am not to his manners’, but secretly I believe that she is sad to be leaving her father, and feels she is betraying him somehow.
On the other side of the coin, when Shylock learns Launcelot is to work for Bassanio he tells his former servant what a hard time he will have at the Christian household. Shylock talks of how he will not be able to ‘gormandize...sleep and snore.......rend apparel out’, in other words he will not be able to eat greedily, sleep a lot or tear his clothing. Shylock genuinely believes that Bassanio will be a harder master than he is.
During this conversation Shylock calls for Jessica ‘ Why Jessica, I say!’ which implies that he treats her like he treats his servants, and orders her around. This shows us that he is a strict father, who does not like to be disobeyed. Launcelot mocks Shylock by telling him ‘My young master doth expect your reproach’. This is a deliberate misuse of language, he was meant to say approach, but uses the sentence to mock him. I do not know if Shylock has earned this mockery because we do not know if he really did treat Launcelot badly or not, but Launcelot certainly would not have dared mock Shylock to his face when he was Shylock’s servant. Only since he works for Bassanio has he plucked up the courage to say what he really feels. This implies that he was scared of Shylock, and makes me conclude that he was probably treated badly so perhaps Shylock does deserve this mockery. I do not believe that Launcelot thinks Shylock is a good father, as he doesn’t really treat Jessica like his daughter, more like his prisoner, and will not let her see the Christian masque for fear it will corrupt her Jewish sobriety. Also in Jewish society, the belief that the religious side of a person is passed on through the mother means that for a woman to leave the faith is doubly as sinful as a man leaving the Hebrew faith. This could be the reason why Shylock is so overprotective.
There is little affection between Shylock and his daughter Jessica, there is no affectionate speech between the two as Shylock leaves for the night. He does not wish her good night or kiss her goodbye, he merely orders her to ‘lock up my doors’ and not to ‘gaze on Christian fools’. These instructions to lock the house and stay indoors were given because Shylock learned there would be ‘masques’ or pantomimes or plays, and he considered these to be ‘shallow foppery’ or foolish games. Jessica must feel trapped by these orders, like a prisoner in her own home. Shylock does not wish to leave that evening because he hates Christians and does not wish to dine with them. Also because he had a dream about ‘money bags’ which in Elizabethan times were believed to be bad luck. However he leaves the house and Jessica and goes to the masque. When he leaves, Jessica is heard to say these two lines ‘Farewell, and if my fortune be not crossed, I have a father, you a daughter lost’. This is a goodbye from Jessica to her father, in which she says she does not have a father, and he no longer has a daughter, I interpret this to mean that she will not speak to him when she changes religion and renounces her Jewish upbringing, and that he would not speak to her, because of his hate of Christians. The way that she has cheated him is so terrible, that I would not be surprised if when they do meet again, Shylock has Jessica arrested. The question that must be asked at this point is was Jessica considered a good character because of her plans to convert to Christianity, and does not have a Jewish heart, or is she genuinely good? I believe that modern audiences would interpret this very differently to Elizabethan audiences. In the present day, Jessica would be considered ‘good’ because she expresses sorrow for what she does to her father, but in Elizabethan times, I believe this would be seen as guilt because of the respect a daughter was supposed to have for her father, not because she realises what she did to him was wrong. When the play was written I believe she would’ve been seen as a ‘bad’ character, had she not converted to Christianity.
In the next scene Act 2 Scene 6 Jessica is clearly ashamed of what she has done, ‘I am glad ‘tis night, you do not look on me, For I am most ashamed of my exchange’. In these sentences by being ashamed of her exchange she tells us she is ashamed of wearing boy’s clothing to escape, exchanging her father for her lover, changing into a thief from a lady, and changing religions. She is sorry she has to do this to her father, but it must be done for love, as Shylock would never permit her to associate with Christians, let alone marry one.
Shylock reacts terribly when he discovers his daughter has fled with a Christian. He told the duke what had happened and the duke went with him to ‘search Bassanio’s ship’. However, they were too late, the ship had set sail, but Antonio assured the duke that Lorenzo and Jessica ‘were not’ in his ship. Then it was reported that the eloping couple have been seen in a gondola together. We find this information out in Act 2 Scene 8, where once again the Christians keep up this portrayal of Shylock as the devil, as a ‘villain’ and a ‘dog’. They laugh at his misfortune, as they do not see Shylock as another human being, just as a devil, and find particular delight in the fact that the children of Venice follow him through the streets and humiliate him further by imitating the words he calls out in distress. This also shows that the children are raised to be prejudiced, as you are not born racist, even they make fun of the Jews. The words which he shouts give us a clear insight into how he is feeling, ‘My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter! Fled with a Christian! O my Christian ducats! Justice! The law! My ducats, and my daughter! A sealed bag, two sealed bags of ducats, Of double ducats, stolen from me by my daughter, And jewels, two stones, two rich and precious stones, Stolen by my daughter. Justice! Find the girl! She hath the stones upon her, and the ducats’. He is concerned about his daughter, but Shakespeare concentrates more on the fact that he has lost his precious stones and his ducats, and the fact that he lost them to a Christian. Shakespeare influences the audience’s attitudes about Shylock, and once again makes him seem like a money-hungry scoundrel. However he does allow us to see that Shylock is grieving the loss of his daughter too, but the emphasis is definitely on the loss of his money.
Salerio and Solanio participate in the ridiculing of Shylock again in Act 3 Scene 1, using the word ‘devil’ to describe him once again, and when Shylock expresses his disbelief of the situation he now finds himself in, ‘My own flesh and blood to rebel’, they make fun of his sorrow by making a joke about him having uncontrollable sexual urges even at his age and refer to him as an old rotting carcass ‘Out upon it old carrion, rebels it at these years?’. We have to feel sorry for Shylock at this point, although there is no doubt that Elizabethan audiences would have found this hilarious. The humiliation is so relentless for him, he is never allowed a kind word from a Christian. It is no surprise that he hates them so if this is the sort of treatment he receives from them. Even Tubal, Shylock’s friend, is scorned by the Christians ‘Here comes another of the tribe; a third cannot be matched, unless the devil himself turn Jew’. This shows Venetian society hates Jewish people altogether, and even teaches their children to be prejudiced against them as we have seen in an earlier example.
Shylock’s explanation of the Christian’s irrational hate of Jews is particularly poignant, he tells us how he has been wronged by Antonio, and for the unjust reason that he is a Jew: ‘He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million, laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies, and what’s his reason? I am a Jew’. This speech sums up a lot of Shylock’s feelings throughout the play. Clearly from the earlier points in the play which are racist, Shakespeare would seem to be anti-Semitic, but if he is, why does he write such an eloquent thoughtful speech for Shylock? Why does he allow us to view him as a human being instead of a devil? Then Shylock follows this with ‘Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt by 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?’ This allows the audience to feel sorry for and relate to Shylock’s despair of his treatment at the hands of the Christians, and to pity the way he is treated, not a scorning pity, but to genuinely feel sorry for Shylock. Unfortunately, Shylock then goes on to justify his revenge against Antonio, and tells the audience how he wants his revenge, just like a Christian would want if a Jew had done this to him. This bloodthirstiness, however justified, counteracts the feelings of sadness the audience may have had on his part, and reinforces the view of Jews as ‘devils’.
In Shylock’s conversation with Tubal, he continually gets more and more excited, and relishes the prospect of Antonio and Bassanio’s humiliation, ‘a bankrupt, a prodigal, who dare scarce show his head on the Rialto, a beggar that used to come so smug upon the mart’. This shows he is enjoying the way that it is now Antonio who is ashamed to set foot into the Rialto, and not him. He is also excited about the retrieval of his bond and as Tubal tells him that Antonio’s ships have been wrecked he gets more and more delighted, ‘ What, what, what? Ill luck, ill luck?’ the repetition of words in this line shows his ecstasy at the thought of receiving his bond. However, during this conversation he is also considerably upset at the loss of his daughter, his money and a ring his dead wife gave him before they were married. The reason the ring particularly bothers him is because his daughter swapped it for a monkey, and it had so much sentimental value to him that he would not have traded it ‘for a wilderness of monkeys’. Once again Shakespeare allows us to see the good side of Shylock, but then Shylock quickly changes to his usual self again. He is unhappy at the loss of his money, and his daughter’s frivolous spending of it ‘fourscore ducats at a sitting, fourscore ducats’ Shylock’s repetition of the words shows his disbelief. However at the end of the conversation his spirits are raised by Antonio’s plight and the old, money-hungry, vengeful Shylock surfaces once again, ‘I will have the heart of him (Antonio) if he forfeit’. The play is structured so that Shylock learns of Antonio’s troubles after he has learned of Jessica and Lorenzo’s flight, and Antonio’s part in it. This makes Shylock angrier and more willing to take his bloody bond.
In Act 3 Scene 2 Bassanio, Jessica, Portia, Lorenzo and the other characters currently residing in Belmont learn of Antonio’s fate. Portia offers 10 times the amount of money to save Antonio but Salerio tells the friends of how Shylock is so keen to take Antonio’s flesh, (and life) that he ‘plies the duke at morning and at night’ and accuses the state of Venice of not holding it’s own laws if they do not give him ‘justice’. To which Jessica replies that she heard him say ‘he would rather have Antonio’s flesh Than twenty times the value of the sum That he did owe him’. I believe this statement to be true, but justifiably so, after the treatment he has suffered at Antonio’s hands, he feels he wants revenge. Who can blame him? If I was continuously embarrassed in public because of who I am I would also be looking for revenge, but perhaps the revenge he seeks is of a somewhat extreme nature. In Act 3 Scene 3 we see further proof that Shylock is no longer willing to listen to reason, and is eager to retrieve his pound of flesh from Antonio’s body. He reveals his hatred of Christians because he will not have mercy upon Antonio and insists upon taking his bond. He points out the way Antonio previously treated him, and uses one of Antonio’s insults against him ‘Thou call’dst me a dog before thou hadst a cause, But since I am a dog beware my fangs’. He repeats the words ‘I’ll have my bond’ five times, illustrating that his mind is made up, and will not be swayed, especially by the words of Christians. He wants to reap his revenge upon Antonio for all the ill treatment he has endured from the Christians. He is trying to take the loss of him jewels, daughter and money out on Antonio, a perfectly human thing to do, but Shakespeare once again makes us see the ‘evil’ side of Shylock when he will not have mercy, and wants to kill a man by cutting his heart out. He continues on his deadly mission in Act 4 Scene 1, or the court scene.
In the court scene, prejudice is shown by the duke even before Shylock enters the room when he calls Shylock an ‘inhuman wretch.....incapable of pity’, he is definitely biased against Shylock. The duke speaks to Shylock with little respect, and calls his intentions ‘malice’ to his face. The duke hopes Shylock will show ‘thy mercy’ to Antonio but
Shylock is unrelenting. When Shylock claims that ‘I stand for justice’ I think he does indeed think that if the bond is not taken, this will be unjust, but, he is also trying to prove that Christians cannot get away with wronging a Jew without getting their comeuppance for it. Antonio borrowed money from Shylock and he knew the penalty if he didn’t pay; if it was a Jew who was being made to pay the bond, would people be up in arms as they are for Antonio? Shylock intends to have his bond, and he cannot be reasoned out of it. The reason he gives for this craving of Antonio’s flesh is that ‘it is my humour’, he also mentions his ‘lodged hate and a certain loathing‘ for Antonio. He does not give the real reasons for wanting Antonio dead, racial hatred he has suffered, or the way he has been teased and humiliated by Antonio and his friends. Shakespeare makes us forget his real reasons, and makes us once again forget Shylock is a human, and think of him as an ‘inexecrable dog’.
When Shylock thinks he is winning he repeats his words and praises the young lawyer who he thinks is helping him ‘O wise young judge, how I do honour thee..........most reverend doctor.....O noble judge, O excellent young man....O wise and upright judge’, he also repeats his words, ‘An oath, an oath, I have an oath in heaven’. When he becomes the victim he is mocked by Gratiano, ‘O learned judge-mark, Jew-a learned judge....O Jew, an upright judge, a learned judge’, Shylock is very unhappy. He is told he can only have his bond if he does not spill any blood, which is impossible, and he wanted to kill Antonio, he did not want to have the flesh for any reason but malice towards Antonio. He asks the duke to let him go ‘Give me my principal, and let me go’ but this offer is refused a second time, because there is now a case against him, as a non-Venetian citizen he directly tried to take a Venetian citizen’s life and so half his money will go to the intended victim, Antonio, and half will go to the state. His life will also be taken from him. Shylock is now a broken man. The duke allows him to live, but wants to confiscate all his money from him. Shylock points out that without money for usury he cannot live, ‘you take my life, When you do take the means whereby I live’. Shylock is permitted to keep his money, as long as it goes to Lorenzo and Jessica upon his death, and Shylock must become a Christian. The man who thought of his religion as a ‘sacred nation’ must now become what he despises most. Shylock is now ‘not well’ from these late developments and leaves the courtroom, in disgrace. I should imagine that in Elizabethan times the audience found this hilarious, and laughed as the poor tormented character of Shylock left the stage. People in those times did not realise racism was wrong for it was so far widespread it was considered normal to be racist. Anything that wasn’t ‘normal’ was suspicious to people. In the present day, a lot of prejudice and racism still exists. It might not be tolerated by law but it definitely still exists, but I should hope that an audience watching this play would feel sorry for Shylock, and certainly be a lot more sympathetic than the Elizabethan people were. The modern day audience would see that Shylock’s hate of Christians developed over years of physical and mental torture he endured, and that his ‘ancient grudge’ with Christians comes from their mutual hatred, which Shylock did nothing to deserve. People treated him like an animal, simply because he was a Jew, I should hope that modern audiences have progressed to a degree of humanity where they too can see this.
It is actually impossible to decide if Shakespeare was anti-Semitic or not, there is evidence for both sides of the argument. The way Shakespeare makes Shylock such a vengeful character indicates he was prejudiced against Jews, but the way he gives Shylock a reason for his bloodthirstiness, indicates that at the very least he was more sympathetic towards the Jewish people than others at the time. If he was not racist, he would be among the very few Elizabethan people that weren’t as racism was normal in those days, however, who am I to decide that one of the best playwrights that ever lived fitted in with convention? It is impossible for anybody to know for certain, as we have no personal experience of Shakespeare, and unfortunately, because of this fact, it is unlikely we will ever know the truth.
