In Act 1: Scene 3, before Shylock even says a word to Antonio, he lets the audience know how much he hates Antonio. He loathes him because he is more successful in business, he has humiliated him in public, insulted his religion and called him names such as “dog” and “misbeliever”. Shylock tells the audience how he will get revenge on Antonio for not only taunting him but for the persecution that the Jews had suffered by Christians as well, “If I can catch him once on the hip, I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him. He hates our sacred nation…Cursed be my tribe if I forgive him!”. This highlights the fact that if Shylock can catch Antonio upon a weak spot, he will take revenge on him. This is further developed in Act 3: Scene 1, when Shylock says, “The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.” This reveals that from all the cruelness he has received from the Christians, he will be cruel back but his revenge will be more severe.
When Bassanio asks to borrow money, in Antonio’s name, from Shylock, Shylock seems so excited at the fact that Antonio, a rich Christian whom was his enemy, would borrow money from him. He prolongs his deliberation to make Bassanio think that he is unsure of giving the money to him, so Bassanio would have to beg. Shylock fantasises about Antonio’s ships at sea crashing and all of his wealth being lost. It is for this reason that Shylock makes up a hideous bond.
“If you repay me not on such a day…
Let the forfeit be nominated for one equal pound
Of your fair flesh.”
In the eyes of the audience, Shylock is now seen as a bloodthirsty monster, as his only reason for this hideous bond is ‘a merry sport’ and later he says,
“A pound of flesh, taken from a man,
It is not so estimable, profitable neither,
As flesh of muttons, beefs or goats.”
The motives of Shylock’s bond are not quoted until Shylock’s impressive speech in Act 3: Scene 1. Shylock seems intensifingly greedy
Act 1, shows Shylock as a cruel, greedy, old man but there is an aspect of it in which his character is made more human. He is extremely faithful to his religion.
“I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following; but I will not eat with you, nor pray with you.”
According to the Jewish religion, Jews must eat specially prepared, kosher food and must say Jewish prayers which is why Shylock refuses to eat and pray with the Christians. Although he does dine with them later in the play, he says he goes in hate.
The audience is made to feel sympathy for Shylock when his most trusted possession fails him. He placed his absolute confidence in his daughter, Jessica, as well as his house and wealth, Act 2: Scene 5, lines 9-19 and 27-39 demonstrate how much Shylock trusts his daughter. In Act 3: Scene 1, lines 66-76, Shylock says how he would rather see Jessica in her coffin, with all the stolen belongings, than have her back. This conveys Shylock as a cold, greedy, unloving father. Although, I feel that Shylock does really care for his daughter, but he doesn’t want to look defeated by the Christians, Salario and Solanio, as they took part in the elopement of Jessica and Lorenzo. He wants them to think that he’s still the same greedy Jew who will not be affected by the loss of his daughter. Shakespeare attaches a small amount of humanity to Shylock when he finds out that Jessica stole his ring, when he says,
“It was my turquoise, I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor. I would not have given it a wilderness of monkeys.”
It shows that Shylock did have feelings for something other than money, Leah his wife.
Our sympathy for Shylock does not reach its climax until his famous speech in Act 3: Scene 1.
“Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passion? 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?”
At this point in the play it seems that Shylock is no different from any other man except for the fact that his religion has made him an outcast from Venetian society. The speech does not cancel out any disgust we feel from Shylock’s cruel bond to Antonio but it shows how revenge is a human fault and not some ferocious and inhumane Jewish ritual as the Elizabethan audiences would have thought.
At the beginning of Act 4: Scene 1, any pity the audience has for Shylock is void. The Duke of Venice asks Shylock to show mercy towards Antonio but Shylock refuses, as he hates Antonio. Our perception of Shylock as a bloodthirsty monster is fortified when he is offered double the amount of money owed but chooses to have the flesh that is worthless to others but would certainly would satisfy his hunger for revenge against Antonio.
“If every ducat in six thousand ducats
Were in six parts, and every part a ducat,
I would not draw them; I would have my bond.”
Even when Portia tells Shylock that to show mercy is a great power than justice, Shylock says, “My deeds upon my head.”. He will still have the bond. Portia then tells Shylock that he can have the bond but if he sheds any blood, he will lose all of his wealth and land. Shylock, seeing no way out of this, decides to take the money owed, but Portia isn’t finished with him. She tells Shylock that Venetian laws state that if a foreigner tries to take the life of a Venetian, his life is in the hands of the Duke. This is particularly unfair because Shylock is a Venetian, not a foreigner, it’s just because he is a Jew.
Our pity towards Shylock is heightened when he is totally stripped of his dignity. Half of the money he owns, he can keep, but the other half must be given to Lorenzo and Jessica. He is also forced to change his religion to Christianity, the religion that he has hated for so many years. Shylock agrees. Shylock leaves without friends, family and the very thing that got him in to this mess, his faith. He leaves as nothing.
So in conclusion to the question “Shylock: villain or victim?”, I say that Shylock is the victim of the play, although he does act in villainy sometimes. Although Shylock had every intention of taking the flesh, he didn’t actually do it. By the end of the play, Shylock had only said his feelings of hate toward Antonio- he hadn’t abused Antonio physically or verbally as Antonio did to him, so Shylock was really innocent compared to Antonio. Shylock is an alien in a society, which has a minority of Jews. The characters are obviously living in a society full of racism and hatred between the Christians and the Jews and this is what causes Shylock to act in the way he does. Can he really be blamed?
