Victim Vs. Villain: Who Is Innocent?

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Victim vs. Villain: Who is Innocent?
Shakespeare once said “The quality of mercy is not strain'd” which means you can't make someone have mercy but it would help. When Bassanio is in need of a loan, Antonio offers to help but has borrow money from a Jew, Shylock, but ends up making a bond which does not turn out in Shylock's favor. In the story “Merchant of Venice” Shylock is a victim because Antonio does not follow through with the deal and Shylock is treated unfairly.
Shylock gets treated with disrespect when he is only following through with his bond. He gave Antonio “three months” to get him the money for the bond (I.ii.9). Therefore he was being reasonable because Antonio agreed to take on the full bet. He makes it clear he will “have the bond” when ANtonio and the others try to get out of it due to …show more content…

For example, he claims he wants to “feed his revenge” with Antonio's blood (III.i.45-46). This means that Shylock was being a little harsh on Antonio for the bet, but that doesn't mean Antonio should just get away with losing. For winning the bond Shylock got his “life...house...and” what “sustains” his house taken away from him (IV.i.390-392). Therefore the others punishing Shylock wasn't even in the bond but Antonio only showed barely any mercy when this is his fault. The others make fun of Shylock when his daughter “rebels” and “robs him” of all his money and she runs away (III.i.34). THis shows that Shylock has a good reason to be angry at Antonio and the others because they think it's funny his daughter left him. Shylock does not deserve to be treated any lesser ny the rest of the characters due to the issues he faces. Overall, Antonio should have been punished for breaking the bond , but instead Antonio was left untouched and Shylock lost everything. Shylock is a victim because he is treated with disrespect and hated because he is jew and won the

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