Shylock Deserves Sympathy Shylock is indeed a complex character and has the dimension of pain-he has suffered, still suffers and is one of a people who have suffered over centuries. However, to what extent should Shylock suffer and does he deserve our sympathy or hostility. Although anti-Semitism is totally unacceptable today, it was quite normal in Shakespeare's time. However, as he has done with other villains, Shakespeare actually plays around with his audience's preconceptions and makes Shylock an interesting, complex and sometimes likable character. Being a Jew in Christian dominated Venice, Shylock is persecuted by society. He is the victim of popular Christian prejudice, which scorns his religion and restricts his means of employment. He is left with no choice but to be a moneylender and earn his money from collecting interest. To the Christians, collecting interest was against their teaching. This is one of the reasons for the Christians hatred. In Act III scene I Salanio and Salarino confront Shylock, mocking him about his daughter's deception and insulting him. Shylock explains why he will take Antonio's flesh, making his famous speech, 'I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?' This is where Shakespeare evokes our sympathy, by making us realise how Shylock has suffered because of the prejudices of the Christians around him. He explains his motives for revenge in a rational way, showing how his actions are no different from the Christians'. Look carefully at the language he uses, as well as the insulting and mocking language used by the other two. At the end of the scene, Shylock mourns the loss of his daughter, although our feelings towards him are a bit mixed, for he seems to care more about the money. He does give evidence, however, of his love for his wife, which again, creates sympathy. Shylock is merely responding in the same way that he has had people respond to him all his life. However, it would be unjust to brand the Christians as spiteful
this are, "I am by birth Genevese and my family is one of the most
According to KTLA, the boy ended up with a loaded gun in his hand, and then there was a bang.
Sympathy in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Frankenstein for many people is a huge fiendish monster, a brainless oaf with a couple of neck bolts, who is a horrible murderer. This image has been created by Boris Karloff and other television/film images. I also thought like that, believing Frankenstein to be a monstrous murderer, so when I was met with the text I was surprised to find as a mad scientist who creates a monster. This changed my opinion greatly at first. As the central characters were the narrators, they were obviously going to be bias in their description of the novel.
Hester Prynne, such a lady bound to a man named Roger Chillingworth, has been left alone as if in mid day vulnerable to commit an action that she or any other person would consider a sin. The affair begins with Chillingworth being taken away by Indians and left there for a long time. Hester, not knowing what became of her husband Chillingworth, was overcome with a darkened feeling to dishonor her marriage with Chillingworth and have an affair with the striking young minister Dimmesdale. This terrible sin that Hester has committed puts innocent people, such as Dimmesdale and Chillingworth, in the position of being accused or discriminated from these actions of being involved with Hester. Hester was then seen with an infant at her arms and a
I, Jeffries, believe Mr. Thorwald is guilty for three main reasons. He has done so many suspicious things that there is no way that it is a coincidence.
One of the questions I've been asking myself for ages was why we relate to a character on screen even though we know they're fictional.
Throughout The Scarlet Letter, the effects of guilt and sin are evident within the lives of Dimmesdale and Pearl. Chapter twenty-three in particular is able to portray the negative effects that Dimmesdale’s sins have had on his life. As Hester and Pearl are standing on the scaffold, Dimmesdale turns to them and says, “‘Is not this better,’ murmured he, ‘than what we dreamed of in the forest?’” (304; Ch. 23). In this moment, Dimmesdale reveals his internal struggles to Hester and Pearl. The sin that Dimmesdale committed has caused a constant sense of guilt to be instilled within him. This guilt was so intense that readers are able to infer that he carved a scarlet letter into his chest, and ultimately died due to the overwhelming sensation his
A hero, according to Webster Dictionary, is defined as “a person who is admired for great or brave acts or fine qualities.” Heroes are very noble and do great things just like Odysseus, the epic hero of Homer’s The Odyssey. He must deal with incredible obstacles like battling a Cyclops and making a trip to the underworld. He still attempts to achieve sophrasyne, or the Greek word for restraint. Ethan and Joel Coen wrote and directed the movie, O Brother Where Art Thou? The movie is based off The Odyssey and there are obvious similarities. The main character of the movie, Ulysses Everett McGill is also a cunning leader as demonstrated by him escaping jail and returning to his family. However, unlike Odysseus, Ulysses uses his cleverness for his own good and tricks his cell mates to help him return home while Odysseus tried his best to help his whole crew return home. Although Odysseus and Ulysses are both strategic and heroic, Odysseus has more nobility than Ulysses as seen by his courage, honesty, and trustworthiness.
Dr. Brothers’ philosophy about shame is too little or too much shame, especially negative shame, is not a good thing. A person needs the right amount shame to be able to determine right and wrong, and also to learn from their mistakes. This philosophy corresponds with the impact of shame in The Scarlet Letter. In the novel, shame impacted Dimmesdale, although it was his own shame. He could never own his shame publicly so he suffered internally, and his internal shame slowly killed him. For example, Dimmesdale felt so ashamed that he started to physically harm himself as some sort of penance. His shame consumed him and he did not learn anything from it. This is an example of too much negative shame.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is ‘one of the pioneering works of modern science fiction’, and is also a frightening story that speaks to the ‘mysterious fears of our nature’. Mary Shelley mocks the idea of “playing God”, the idea that came from the Greek myth of Prometheus, of the Greek titan who stole Zeus’ gift of life. Both the story of Frankenstein and Prometheus reveal the dark side of human nature and the dangerous effects of creating artificial life. Frankenstein reveals the shocking reality of the consequences to prejudging someone. The creature’s first-person narration reveals to us his humanity, and his want to be accepted by others even though he is different. We are shown that this ‘monster’ is a ‘creature’ and more of a human than we think.
Sympathy is the feeling of pity and sorrow for someone else’s misfortune. All of these characters have been through some rough stuff, but it’s your opinion on who you feel the most sympathy for. In the book of mice and men by Steinbeck many characters in the book had something bad happen to them. Every character does deserve sympathy because this book isn’t a fairy tale it’s more realistic because not every story has a happy ending. The author john Steinbeck is from a small city in California called Salinas the setting of this book was at his hometown. The book is about how lennie and George are working from city to city to get money, but lennie is like crazy from the head. George knows he can do better without him, but lennie can't maintain himself he needs help. These people are the main characters. There are
Guilt is a powerful word that takes over one’s life until the source of the pain is relieved. Guilt builds up inside of a person, and causes major damage to oneself. One is only able to contemplate how to eliminate its misery. Its origin stems from the fact that someone else suffers due to the actions for which one is responsible for. The actions can either be ones that an individual committed or ones that they thought about but have not followed through with. An example of guilt in Hamlet, is when Hamlet creates the mousetrap play to expose Claudius for being guilty of killing his father. Claudius cutoffs the play in order to pray for forgiveness in his room and plead his guilt for his action of murdering his brother so that he could take
Despite the lowly position of Jews in Elizabethan Venice, the man directly mentions the Bible, a contentious subject to point out. In this incident, Shlock is referencing the story of Jacob and Laban in an effort to prove his point about usury. However, another reason that Shylock may bring up religion this much is because the Jew simply wants to mention the elephant in the room. Europe in this period of time was deeply religious, no matter what religion one cleaved to. Clearly, everyone knew everyone else’s religion. Perhaps Shylock wanted to bring it up before the others could, or wanted to prove a point; Jews are allowed to speak freely, if not much
By tracing back to the early roles of what Shylock has done in the Elizabethan stage, we are able to appreciate Shakespeare’s character. Shylock has the greatest impact than any other character in the book. In the Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare’s purpose wasn’t meant to show that they were well educated. We do know that many Christians hated Shylock because he was a Jew. For example in the Elizabethan times a lot of people were looked down at because they were against Christian practice.
At the end of The Merchant of Venice, Shylock has been both a victim and a villain. He is a victim of his religion, and a victim of his greed and overwhelming need for revenge. Shylock is definitely the most villainous character in the play, and only a few elements can show him as a victim overall, even then, his victimisation only seems to be a consequence of his own actions. His daughter running away, because of her treatment, and apparent lack of love. The taking of his assets, because he would show no mercy towards Antonio. The final conclusion must be that Shylock is unreasonable, spiteful, heinous, greedy - and a villain.