Shakespeares presentation of Shylock in the Merchant of Venice Essay Example For Students

Shakespeares presentation of Shylock in the Merchant of Venice Essay In the Merchant of Venice, Shylock is presented in many forms. The first question one must ask is whether the play is Anti-Septic or not. This enables us to see how accurate Shylocks portrayal is. In my opinion the play is not. Shakespeare displays Shylock in both positive and negative ways. In turn, during the play we are able to sympathise with Shylock and to fear him. At the end of the play we are horrified with Shylocks behaviour but can easily understand his way of thinking. This is because throughout the whole play he is abused in various ways. This is why when he does this horrific act; he is seeking revenge rather than pleasure. The play is mostly done to show the Christian prejudice at Shakespeares time. It shows the malice and hate aimed at Jews, and gives us many examples of their mistreatment. At the time of Shakespeare Jews were stereotypicalised and a certain view was upheld about them. This meant that anyone who was Jewish was automatically selfish and somewhat improper. Shakespeare wanted to exhibit this prejudice and wanted, in my opinion, for us to sympathise with him. Unfortunately, he was not able to do this entirely due to his audience at the time. In Shakespearean times, people were far more prejudice than the people of today. Unlike us, they did not know about the dangers of it and its potentially catastrophic results. You only have to look at the holocaust to see how damaging it can be. In this nearly six million Jews were killed because of this prejudice towards Jews. With this knowledge we can therefore sympathise with Shylock and see the faults within the Venetian behaviour. But, the Shakespearean people did not see this. They disliked Shylock for he was a Jew and found pleasure when Shylock was abused in the play and hated him more when he did mistakes and his terrible deeds. For this reason Shakespeare was compelled to make Shylock a malevolent character and Characters like Antonio and Portia seem on the side of good. If he hadnt though there would of certainly have been riots in the theatre and Shakespeare would have been in danger of losing his respect and many fans. If he had shown the prejudice more, it is very possible that he could have been accused of being a Jew himself. First one must look at the prejudice towards Shylock in the Merchant of Venice. One can find it very easy to pity Shylock and maybe even start to like him. This is due to the amount of unnecessary abuse directed towards him. Throughout his whole life I feel that he has not done much wrong. If you look at him closely you will see that maybe his only fault is his love for money. But, if you look more closely you will see that even this, is done for a purpose. Shylock is an extremely religious man. A person that basically lives his life on how his religion tells him to. With this, Shylock applies all his actions due to what it says in the Torah and his holy books. Therefore, when it quotes in the Old Testament your wealth is a sign of your goodness, Shylock applies this. He makes his ambition to stay wealthy for it means he is in the favour of God. Shylock therefore is very dedicated to staying wealthy and increasing his wealth. This gives the Venetians a reason to dislike him, when really in my opinion they mostly hate him for the religion he obtains. Now let us look at some examples of this prejudice. When Antonio goes to Shylock in search of money him and Antonio are very offensive to him. Shylock is discussing whether he should give the money or not and Bassanio suggests they talk over it during dinner. One might think this is a harmless or even generous gesture nut it is far from it. With Shylocks vast experience with prejudice, he recognises that they will insult him if he eats with them and offend them. He identifies that they will eat pork in front of him which is a meat forbidden to the Jews. He calls pigs, the meat of the devil and if he was to eat with them they would be sure to make malicious jokes and laugh at him. To smell pork; to eat of the habitation which your prophet the Nazarite conjured the devil into. Then Antonio enters the room and Shylocks understandable hate towards the Christians becomes apparent. He has been so insulted and wounded by the Christian society that now he has completely given up on them and is prejudice towards them. I hate him for he is Christian. He goes on further bringing forward the hate shown to him by Antonio. He recognises how Antonio hates him and all Jews. He hates our sacred nation. Prejudice like this causes us to sympathise with Shylock. It also gives us a sense that maybe he is hated for being Jewish rather than for his personality. After further talking between Shylock and Bassanio, Shylock comes up with a speech, which causes you to sympathise with him. He says how Antonio has always abused and insulted him, calling him names like cut throat dog. Shylock speaks of how Antonio has scolded him towards his money dealings and how he has always put up with it. Then, he finishes off by saying; with all these courtesies Ill lend you thus moneys. This sums up how Shylock has been treated, and how he has been treated so badly. Antonio insults him yet wants Shylock to be kind and generous to him. Antonios following speech solidifies how he has mistreated Shylock and increases our commiseration towards him. One would expect a man to deny such accusations from Shylock or at least apologise for his actions but Antonio does not. Instead, he admits to his actions and goes on further to say that he will do it again. I am as like to call thee again, to spit on thee again, to spurn thee too. This statement forces you in a way to feel for Shylock. This next section, in my opinion, produces a large amount of sympathy towards Shylock. Jessica betrays shylock and runs away from home to marry a Christian. This hurts Shylock in two ways. The first is that she betrayed his trust and the second, that she betrayed her religion. Perfectly Imperfect: The Shakespeare Story EssayDuring the trial, Shylock is continually asked to be merciful and take the money. The duke tells him to sympathise with Antonio. Pluck commiseration of his state. In actual fact, if you were to be in Shylocks shoes, is it possible to sympathise with Antonio, your mortal enemy who has and always will mock you? Even beforehand, Antonio realises there is no point in reasoning with Shylock as he recognises the pain he has caused Shylock to suffer. Furthermore, I think Antonio sub-consciously knows he deserves what Shylock wants to do to him. Moreover, despite this, I think this is the point that some may find hard to stay sympathetic towards Shylock. His desire for revenge becomes too great and it becomes difficult to see a person within Shylock. This is no to say though that you cannot. If you were to take my opinion towards Shylock I would say that he has been taunted and hurt so many times by the Christians that he has become psychologically broken. As he has not been able to let out all his emotions, over the years his hate has expanded up to a point where now he has become a monster. A monster created by the Christians and not by Shylock himself. During the court he repeats five times Ill have my bond. It is obvious from this example that he is a mentally wounded man, driven by hate and anger. So from this, I find it very easy to understand his malevolence but less to sympathise with it. An Elizabethan audience would have been horrified at his behaviour and Shylock would have definitely been thought of as spiteful but once one has learnt to understand a person, you can get a better view of them. Hypocrisy, I think is the big issue here. Whilst Shylock is preparing to take his pound of flesh, they ask for mercy many times and call him a wolf. They even insult him while pleading for mercy. This is quite ironic. Launcelot claims that if there were more Jews converting to Christianity, the price of pork would increase, as more people would be able to eat pork. Shylock is asked why he wont be merciful and he answers it with a question of his own. He asks the Christians why they have slaves and treat them as asses. When they do he says, he does not tell them not to or ask why. He tells the Christians why should he be merciful, when they are not. When there seems to be no hope, suddenly Portia enters the room dressed as a man to replace the defence lawyer. She explains how mercy is a positive virtue and if God was not merciful no one would enter heaven as we are all sinners. Still Shylock refuses to be merciful and asks for his bond again. Bassanio asks her if they may change the law claiming little wrong can do much right. Portia refuses to do this though. Instead she offers thrice the money to Shylock more than once but he refuses it still. Quite a lot of Sympathy for Shylock is lost at this point and more so when he refuses to let a surgeon stand by, meaning he would like Antonio to die. This is a very sinister act. His joy does not make help with his sympathy either as Portia announces he may cut the flesh. Most learned judge! A sentence! Come, prepare! As he is about to cut the flesh though Portia then states one last thing. She tells Shylock that the bond contains no jot of blood. Therefore if Shylock were to spill a drop of blood all his land and goods would be confiscated. She reads from the Venetian script and reads out that if thou shed one drop of Christian blood he will be punished. Here the law is being used against him, as he is a Jew. The law even states one may not drop a jot of Christian blood, no Jewish. Even the Venetian law is prejudice. The law is weighted with religious bias. It is as if Being Jewish declines one of all ones rights. The law now is being used against Shylock rather than with. He has relied on it throughout the trial but now it is his enemy. He then decides to take the money instead in fear of losing his possessions but Portia tells him he must take the bond. In the end he does not take Antonios flesh or the money but that is not all. The law states that if an outsider were to attempt to kill someone half their possessions would go to the state and the other to the person they attempted to kill. In this situation he is labelled an alien due to his religion. Now is the crucial point. Since the Christians had begged so much for mercy shouldnt they show it now? They do not though and Instead Antonio gives him another choice. It is that half the money should go to Portia and so should the other when he dies. Not only this but he must convert to Christianity. He is forced to take this offer and reaches complete public humiliation. Gratiano even makes him kiss the cross and the broken man has just shattered. One point one must think about though is the amount of mercy the Christians showed. Do you think what they have done is fair or are they just hypocrites? As a conclusion, Shakespeare in my view has put the whole Jewish society in this one man Shylock. He is trying to manifest the idea of Jews being prejudice against. I some places he is unable to do this because of his audience but overall that is the point he is trying to raise.