Now in a 21st century audience, even though there was still some anti-Semitism, the people would be fairly calm but back in Shakespeare’s time the audience would be getting quite rowdy. The way shylock is portrayed is the way a “typical Jew” of that time would have been like and the audience would have been booing and throwing whatever they could find.
Shylock is a usurer, which the Christians hated, with a lust for gold. Throughout ‘The Merchant of Venice’, Shylock is portrayed with a soul of greed, yet the keynote of his character appears not to be greed, but hatred. In the trial scene (Act 4, Scene 1), Shylock's hatred dominates, and his character is depicted with a heart of stone. He has plenty opportunities to accept in repayment many more times what he has lent out, but insists on having his pound of flesh, 'There is no power in the tongue of man to alter me'. With Antonio dead, Shylock could raise the cost of borrowing to suit himself. His claims on Antonio and his determination for revenge provide the main story line and most of the dramatic tension.
The Christians in 'The Merchant of Venice' and the audience of Shakespeare’s time are in no doubt that Shylock is a villain and treat him as such. Throughout the course of the play, Shylock is stripped of his name, reduced to something other than human and is treated as the devil. Shylock is referred to by name only three times; in the trial scene, The Duke twice identifies Shylock by name, and Portia does so once. In the course of the rest of the play, Shylock is most often referred to simply as 'the Jew'.
But shylock also held a grudge against the Christians. He says so plainly ‘I hate him for he’s a Christian.’ Now this would make the audience think “He’s not only a Jew, but a racist Jew!” that one line fuels all their hatred for Jews but in act 1 scene 3 pg33 shylock explains why he is so angry towards the Christians. It’s because they have been racist to him all his life. They’ve spat on him, called him names, spat on him some more this time on his beard and basically took the mick out of him all the time. “They have spat upon my Jewish gabardine”, he says. Some people in a 21st century audience would feel sorry for shylock but back in 1596 some people showed no remorse. It is now revealed that Antonio who would have been viewed as the hero at least by an Shakespearian audience has a nasty side to him after all.
Long before Shylock plotted against him, Antonio seemed to take a pride in spurning Shylock, treating him in public with rudeness and contempt. This type of behaviour appears to contradict with the rest of his character. You would imagine that such a man would instinctively shrink from insulting anybody so grossly, but Antonio seems proud of it and tells Shylock that he will probably abuse him again, 'spit on him again and spurn him, too'.
In 'The Merchant of Venice', Shakespeare does not treat Shylock as simply evil for evil's sake. He makes him human. Shylock has good reason to resent Antonio.
The famous 'hath not a Jew eyes…If you prick us do we not bleed' speech of (Act 3, Scene 1) stresses the humanity that lurks beneath the exterior of Shylock's public character. This great speech portrays Shylock to be a man equal to all others yet the victim of a prejudiced society. If Shylock was meant to be viewed as simply the villain or 'murderous Jew', it is difficult to explain why Shakespeare included this speech in the play. Shylock is a most complex and dominating character; he appears in only five scenes and yet for many people he is at the centre of the play's interest. As an old miserly father he is comic, as a Jew he is savage and ruthless, as a usurer he seeks to ensnare the needy and Antonio, their protector. Yet, in all these roles he is also a man who suffers and triumphs, speaks at times with great nobility, and has a 'kind of wild justice' in his cry for revenge.
The 'hath not a Jew eyes' speech portrays Shylock's humanity, yet I do not feel that a short speech of eleven lines outweighs the far more dominate themes of Shylock's characterization in the play. In particular it is important to note how a mere seventeen lines after Shylock pleads with his persecutors to recognise his humanity, Shakespeare has Shylock ranting and raving over the elopement of his daughter and her theft of his money. Using very strong language, Shylock wishes that his daughter 'were dead at my foot and the jewels in her ear! Would she were hearsed at my foot and the ducats in her coffin!' This wish for his daughter's death surely revokes much of the sympathy that was created by the former plea for the recognition of Shylock's humanity. In the moment of this outburst, Shakespeare again portrays an image of a cruel, murderous Jew who, in this instance, is willing to kill his own daughter for the sake of a few ducats.
But in the play 'The Merchant Of Venice', Shakespeare has emphasised Shylock's character as a man, rather than his identity as a Jew and a villain. Part of the play reveals how some Christians are bad men, as are some Jews. However, the genius of 'The Merchant of Venice' is that it portrays many differing attitudes, which allow us to make up our own minds as to the character of individuals rather than on race or religion.
So I think that a Shakespearean audience and a 21st century audience would react to shylock in their own way. It depends on how the individual sees the play because I doubt that the whole audience in a theatre in 1596 could all hate shylock just because he was a Jew, same as in a 21st century audience. Like I said you have to judge him as an individual rather than on his race or religion.
Zeshan Hayat
