In Act 1 Scene 3, Line 104, Shylock starts to talk about how Antonio has been treating him, calling him misbeliever which is considered racist, a dog and how Antonio has spat on him on several occasions. Shakespeare’s audience would have laughed at this and would have felt no sympathy for Shylock. However the modern audience would not laugh at this but they would start to feel sorry for Shylock and begin to hate Antonio.
Shylock sets up a bond for the money he is loaning to Antonio, if Antonio does not pay the money back within three months Shylock can take a pound of flesh from Antonio’s body. The original audience would have not liked this mainly because Shylock was a Jew, but the modern audience would approve of this because they already have a lot of sympathy for Shylock and would want shylock to have a sort of insurance policy for himself.
Also Solanio and Salerio mock Shylock in many ways, the Elizabethan audience would have enjoyed this, however the modern audience are already feeling guilty and sorry for Shylock for what has happened to him in the scenes before they will have even more sympathy for him.
Soon Shylock finds out his daughter has run away with Lorenzo, a Christian. Now the greed of Shylock is really seen by the audience Shylock begins to shout out “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, 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.” The modern audience would immediately be able to see how much greed and love Shylock really has for money. He does not say bring his daughter back, he says bring his daughter back because she has the jewels and ducats. He may be angry that his daughter has fled with a Christian but he is much more angry when he knows his money is gone too. The modern audience may still feel sympathy for him but may dislike him a bit because he is caring much more about his money than his daughter.
Shylock now begins to give his reasons to why he hates Christians, he makes a speech talking about this and how Jews are equal to Christians, this speech by Shylock must make the modern audience feel that it is fine if Shylock takes revenge on Antonio because Shylock has been getting bad treatment from the beginning.
Act 4 Scene 1, The court case against Antonio begins and Shylock is trying to take advantage of his bond. Portia and Nerissa come in dressed up as men. Portia and others start to make fun of Shylock and Shylock is called “The Jew” Even by the duke, who is supposed to be impartial, as the scene continues Shylock gets fooled if he does not take exactly one pound of flesh from Antonio’s body he will have to die, this would have probally been something the original audience would have liked but the modern audience will feel guilty and sorry for Shylock he has been out numbered, humiliated and then is about to lose his life. The modern audience must have hated Portia for getting Shylock into this situation and must have had a huge amount of sympathy for Shylock.
To conclude I think the modern audience respond in a totally different and opposite way to the original audience. The modern audience will have sympathy for Shylock even thought the can see his obsession with money, they feel sorry for him and like to take his side, even when he is making the speech on why he hates Christians.