Shylock's Nature in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice

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Shylock's Nature in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice

For years, Shylock, one of Shakespeare's most complex characters has

questioned audiences. He may be seen as a 2-dimensional but there is

something more real about him. The fact that he is a Jew is clearly

stated right at the beginning of Act 1: Scene 3, when Shylock first

enters the play. As the play unfolds, Shylock is presented to be the

villain of the story because he is portrayed as cold, greedy and evil.

But is he? Is Shylock really the villain in the play or can he also be

portrayed as the victim?

In Shakespeare's times, the sixteenth century, Jews were rarely seen

in England. In the Middle Ages, Jews had fled to England to escape

France as they were being persecuted by the ruling Normans. They were

given permission to live in England by Henry I, in exchange for a

percentage of their profits from trading and usury (money lending). It

was from this that the Jews were stereotyped as usurers. As the Jews

had to pay some of their profit to the king, they would charge high

interest rates to make sure that they had enough money for themselves

and because of this, all Jews had to leave England in 1254 under the

orders of Edward I. They did not return to England until the later

half of the seventeenth century. In Elizabethan times, Jews were

viewed as devils and bloodthirsty murderers who would poison wells and

kill Christian children for their "bizarre" Passover rituals. These

were the views that Shakespeare's audiences had of Jews. Shakespeare

had never seen a Jew before so he made strong, emotional speeches to

make Shylock as human as possible, (Act 3: Scene 1, lines...

... middle of paper ...

... 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?

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