'Is, 'The Merchant of Venice' a racist play? Discuss'.

Authors Avatar

GCSE English Coursework – Chris Thurston 11JR

‘Is, ‘The Merchant of Venice’ a racist play? Discuss’

The Merchant of Venice was written by William Shakespeare and includes a number of smaller stories linked together to produce one play. The ideas for these have been adapted by Shakespeare from other plays at the time. This play however, is seen by many to be racist, as the main theme of these stories is around the discrimination and revenge of a Jew named Shylock. In this essay I will discuss whether or not I feel that The Merchant of Venice is a racist play and how changes of attitude over time, have effected how these issues are looked upon.

Racism is a form of discrimination, a way of judging someone on their skin colour, nationality or origin. Racists feel that members of these ethnic minority races have lesser abilities than members of their own. It is because of the narrow minded-ness of these people racism is still a problem at today. However, the idea of racism is modern; the word race didn’t appear in the English dictionary until 1508. Before 1508 the world’s ancient societies divided people purely by religion, status and class; not by physical distinction. In Elizabethan times, the times of William Shakespeare, this would not have been such a big issue. The discrimination shown in his plays would have just been treated as a technique the author used to invite the audience to dislike a certain character. Jews however were often shown as murderers in plays such as ‘The Merchant of Venice’. Take for example ‘The Jew of Malta,’ a play more successful at the time than Shakespeare’s. The main character in this play, written by Christopher Marlowe, was called Barabas and was shown as a sinister man.

After Barabas’ money is confiscated by the Christian government of Malta he commits hideous murders and evil deeds whilst seeking revenge. The most heinous of these is when he poisons a number of nuns and then mutters, “how sweet the bells ring now the nuns are dead.” Barabas is shown as a cartoon character or a clown by what he wears in the play. When interpreted in acted plays he might have been wearing a bright red wig and a false nose which is a parody of a clown. To exaggerate this Barabas’ would always show a large amount of energy and humour on stage.

As well as being shown as a murderous villain, the humour that he showed would also encourage the audience to like as well as dislike him. This technique is used by Shakespeare in the same manner, but he does not use humour, he brings out sympathetic feelings in the audience for Shylock at certain times in the play.

‘The Merchant of Venice’ is seen as a comedy, but one that delves very deeply into a number of other styles. Racism is one of these. I think it is possible that Shakespeare did not want to portray his play as a comedy otherwise people would come to see it without thinking about the undertones and messages hidden within.

I believe he did not classify Jews as sub-human and did not want to use the word Jew in a way that could be described as racist. Some of the lines that are highly controversial now, may have seemed fine to a Christian audience and to Shakespeare at the time. It is for this reason I believe he wanted to change the unbending attitudes of the populace of the time. He attempts to promote equality more than once during the play which would have been dangerous to do during that era that he was alive, because it was not openly accepted.

Join now!

When the Prince of Morocco chooses the wrong casket Portia says “a gentle riddance” which in itself is not a racist comment, people can offer opinions whether they do or do not wish to marry someone. However, the following comment of “let all of his complexion choose me so” can be considered racist by the modern audience whilst the Elizabethan audience would not have considered it so. Shakespeare may have been referring to the Prince’s status and class rather than race but I do not think this is so.

But apart from other minor racial comments ‘The ...

This is a preview of the whole essay