Shylock can be revealed as a villain because mean attitude towards business and his dislike of Christians, but it is only because of people like Antonio who make Shylock feel this way. In Act I: Scene III, we see how Shylock feels towards Antonio when he says, aside, “I hate him for he is a Christian.” Antonio also lends out money, but without interest rates. Since Shylock has high interest rates, most people who would want to borrow money from someone who would not charge interest, so Shylock would lose business and Antonio would ‘bring down the rate of usance here in Venice’. Shylock clearly shows his hatred towards Antonio, when ‘Thou [Antonio] call’dst me a dog before thou had cause, but since I am a dog beware of my fangs.’ This suggests that Shylock was a victim because of his religion and his beliefs. Such names as these and ‘misbeliever’ evoke feelings in Shylock which can lead him to take part in villainous doings.
Shylock wanted revenge on Antonio who because of the way he was treated. A sense of victimisation is conveyed when Antonio admits ‘I am as like to call thee [dog] again, to spit on thee again.’ Shylock tells the audience how he intends to get revenge on Antonio, ‘I’ll plague him, I’ll torture him.’ The audience also learns a little about Shylock’s villainous side when his daughter Jessica tells of what she had heard: ‘I have heard him swear… that he would rather have Antonio’s flesh than twenty times the value of the sum.’ Shylock however only feels this way because the way he, and his race, had been treated for years by Christians like Antonio. This loan is giving Shylock a chance to take revenge on him, so these reactions by Shylock convey him as a villain because of his victimisation.
Shylock had a lot of money; he can be shown as a victim as his daughter Jessica, who disliked the way she was treated by him, had run off with a lot of his money, and also with a Christian who he has spent a long time protecting his daughter from. Shylock was a victim of his daughter’s harsh actions, as he was left on his own and without his money. The audience would see Shylock as someone who is a caring person when he finds out about his ring being stolen: ‘It was my turquoise, I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor. I would not have given it a wilderness of monkeys.’ This suggests that Shylock cares about other concerns rather than just business and money.
The audience later feels even more sympathetic towards Shylock when he proclaims a strong message in his speech to Christians about himself and his race. He is questioned about his insistence on taking revenge by taking a pound of Antonio’s flesh. In his speech, Shylock talks about how there are no differences between himself, and also other Jews, and Christians. He is teaching them about how revenge is a normal way of life, how everyone would take it if wronged.
‘Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with 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? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not take revenge?’
From this small speech, we see how he has had to put up with cruel treatment because of his race and also Shylock’s point of view on this whole issue in a clearer way. We see him as a villain only because of his victimisations. Shylock however is immediately forgotten to be more of a victim than a villain when he admits: ‘I would my daughter were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her. Would she were hearsed at my foot, and the ducats in her coffin.’ This conveys him as a cruel, pitiless villain since he would rather have his money than his own daughter. He has always treated his daughter unequally, so he becomes a victim of her stealing his money because of his villainous behaviour.
