Solerio and Solanio constantly mock torment and make fun of Shylock’s religion throughout the play. This is shown when Solanio says:
‘As the dog Jew did utter in the streets:
My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter!’
Here, they are laughing at Shylock’s obsession with money, and the fact that he has lost his daughter Jessica because she has eloped with a Christian. As Solerio and Solanio are only minor, unimportant characters in the play, Shylock is seen as a victim because even they can make fun of him and are superior to him.
Shylock’s daughter, Jessica, elopes with Lorenzo, a Christian, and Shylock is left without some of his money, and alone. She has stolen all Shylock’s jewels and money, and also his turquoise ring, which was given to him by his wife Leah. The ring was very precious to Shylock, and he is very angry with Jessica for selling it for a monkey. This portrays him as a victim because even his own daughter cannot stand to be around him, and hates him. Jessica says she is ashamed to be her father’s daughter, and describes her house as hell:
‘Alack, what heinous sin is it in me to be ashamed to be my father’s child!’
During the play, Shylock becomes more and more isolated. Firstly, his servant Lancelot leaves his service to work with Bassanio, and then his daughter leaves him to elope with Lorenzo. Both Bassanio and Lorenzo are Christians, which again suggests that he is a victim of racism.
In the courtroom, we feel sympathetic towards Shylock because he loses everything: his money, his house, his religion, and he is forced to leave his money to Jessica and Lorenzo. He is forced to convert to Christianity, and I think this was the worst punishment for Shylock because his religion is very important to him, and he already hates Christians. Forcing Shylock to convert to Christianity is practically racism because it is like saying that Christianity is the ‘right’ religion and you are not supposed to be Jewish. Shakespeare’s audience would see this as them giving Shylock a chance of salvation.
Jews had little legal rights, and Christianity was the favoured religion. The punishment Shylock receives is very harsh; it would have been much less severe if the criminal were a Christian. The laws at the time when the play was written were in favour of Christians. Jews had few rights they could not claim inalienable citizenship in any country and they depended on the mercy of the society that they lived in. Likewise, after he loses the trial, Shylock's life was in the hands of the Duke:
‘ If it be proved against an alien…He seek the life of any citizen…the offender’s life lies in the mercy/ of the duke only’
Shylock is naive in the way that he believes that he can take on the Christians and win when the foundation of Venation law is designed to serve the best interests of the Christians. Shylock’s punishment is overly harsh with Antonio forcing him to convert to Christianity. Shylock’s life is spared but he may be better off dead because he has little to live on, half of his wealth has been distributed among his sworn enemies. Although Shylock pursues his revenge fervently he still has the audience’s sympathy because of the unfair and harsh punishment he receives. It strikes a modern day audience as a martyr.
Portia uses persuasive legal language to convince the Duke, and also the audience that Shylock is guilty. The audience knew Shylock had no chance of winning because of his religion, and he is seen as a victim because of the unfair way in which he was treated because he is a Jew.
In the play, many people refer to Shylock as the devil,
Antonio: ‘The devil can cite scripture for his purpose’,
Solanio: ’lest the devil…here he comes in the illness of a Jew’,
‘A third cannot be matched unless the devil himself turn Jew’,
They also refer to him simply as ‘the Jew’. This suggests Shylock is hated solely because of his religion.
Shylock makes us feel sorry for him because he shows that the Christians’ racism is really affecting him. He says:
‘If you prick us do we not bleed…if you poison us do we not die?
And if you wrong us,
Shall we not revenge?’
He is saying that Jews are human just like Christians, and he is trying to justify his want for revenge on Antonio by saying that Antonio has ‘wronged’ him. This portrays Shylock as a victim of racism.
However there are also a lot of ways in the play in which Shylock is seen as a villain.
The way he behaves towards other people is seen as very villainous. He treats them and talks to them depending on how it will affect him financially for example he saw that Antonio had a lot of equity. He is very selfish. A lot of his hatred for Antonio is due to the fact that Antonio lends out money without interest, which is bad for Shylock’s business:
‘Gaoler…tell me not of mercy:
This is the fool that lends out money gratis.’
Here, Shylock is telling the Gaoler not to tell him to show mercy, because Antonio lends out money without interest. He holds a grudge against Antonio for this.
However, Bassanio seeks Shylock out and asks to borrow money from him in Antonio’s name. Also in this scene we learn of Shylock’s hatred for Antonio and the Christians:
‘ How like a fawning publican he looks!
I hate him for he is a Christian;’
Shylock also displays elements of assertiveness in his refusal to ever forgive the Christians. We also learn of his intent regarding Antonio’s life:
‘ If I can catch him once upon the hip,
I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.’
When Antonio and Bassanio come to Shylock asking for a loan. Shylock sees this as an opportunity to make money and get revenge on Antonio, so he treats Antonio like a friend:
‘I would be friends with you, and have your love,
Forget the shames that you have stained me with.’
In an aside where he is speaking only to the audience, Shylock reveals his true feelings towards Antonio:
‘I hate him for he is a Christian…Cursed be my tribe if I forgive him!’
He has shrewdly planned to trick Antonio out of his money, and even his life by hiding his hatred behind a façade of friendship. This shows Shylock to be false and devious.
Perhaps Antonio receives the terms of the bond in this manner because he is confident that he will be able to repay the bond. Shylock feels justified in exacting revenge upon Antonio because he blames him for all his problems and is bitter about the manner in which Antonio has treated him in the past. He is also resentful of the ridicule and torment of his race by the Christians. Through the bond he feels he will be able to avenge the treatment of his ‘clan’:
‘ To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else,
It will feed my revenge…the villainy you teach me I will execute,
And it shall go hard but I will better the instruction. ’
The way he behaves towards his daughter Jessica also shows Shylock to be a villain. Shylock treats Jessica more like a servant than his own daughter. He simply orders her to lock his house up and keep it safe while he is out, and mentions nothing of her well-being:
‘Hear you me, Jessica: Lock up my doors.’
After he tells Jessica this, Shylock goes out to eat with Christians, and Jessica steals his money and jewels. This suggests she is so frustrated with the way her father treats her, and she just wants to get away. Shylock does not notice her strange behaviour on the night she elopes with Lorenzo indicating that he is not a very attentive father. Conceivably Shylock is too preoccupied with generating yet more wealth to concern himself greatly with his daughter.
After Jessica has eloped with Lorenzo, Shylock is more concerned about the jewels and money she has stolen than actually losing his daughter:
‘I would my daughter be dead at my foot,
And the jewels in her ear!’
Shylock’s obsession with money and the vicious way he talks about his own daughter shows his villainous nature. As soon as Jessica runs away, it fuels Shylock's hatred for Antonio. When Antonio finds out his ships have sunk and Shylock finds out, Shylock’s anger intensifies and he says:
' I'll plague him; I'll torture him: I am glad of it.’
Shylock seems like even more of a villain because of the contrast between him and Antonio. Through the majority of the play Antonio is portrayed as such a decent, well respected, forgiving and kind man that Shylock’s cruel and unkind nature is emphasised because he seems so evil next to Antonio. Antonio shows Shylock mercy in the trial even when Shylock has been so vicious towards him, and Shylock refuses outright to show Antonio mercy. Shylock tries to justify this by saying that he has sworn an oath to have his bond, so he cannot go back on it. He refuses to take the three thousand ducats he is offered. This makes him seem like a villain to us.
When Portia says that Shylock cannot have his pound of flesh, Shylock knows he is beaten, but still asks for as much money as he can get; first three times the bond, then twice the bond, and then the original three thousand ducats. This shows his obsession with money, and his determination to get revenge.
When Shylock realises Portia is right, and he can’t have his pound of flesh, he expects Antonio to show him mercy when he has shown Antonio none. This suggests he is very selfish, and suggests he is a villain.
Shylock’s character is very complex, and it is hard to say whether he is a victim or a villain because his role changes throughout the play. In parts, we see him as a lonely man who is victimised because of his religion, but in other parts of the play we see him as a cunning, sly, devious villain that is obsessed with money.
Antonio and many of his friends are anti Semitic, but in places Shakespeare lets Shylock speak from the heart and we suddenly see him as a human being, not an alien stereotype.
We can only guess at the way in which Shakespeare intended Shylock to be portrayed. I feel that Shakespeare intended Shylock to be victim; he was created to challenge the pre-conceptions and ideologies of the Elizabethan era. I also think that it is not dynamic enough for us to simply categorise Shylock as either victim or villain.
In conclusion, I feel that ultimately Shylock is a villain. The way he treats those he is close to, for example his daughter Jessica exposes his vindictive and ultimately evil character. He lets his lust for vengeance engulf all other aspects of his life and his complete lack of mercy towards Antonio renders him a villain in the eyes of the audience.
By, Edward Musa
