Shylock in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice

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Shylock in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice

In the productions of ‘The Merchant of Venice’ the character Shylock

seems to be the most important throughout the play. However, he can be

played in different ways. He can be portrayed as a victim or a

villain. Even during a single production the audience’s sympathies

change towards him.

Shylock can be seen as villain in many ways. One of these is his

desire for revenge on Antonio. Shylock doesn’t like him because he is

racist towards him and has disrespected him for a long time. Therefore

when Bassanio asks him whether he will lend Antonio money Shylock

keeps him waiting before he gives him an answer so he can think about

the risks involved. You can see that Shylock avoids answering Bassanio

straight away. When Bassanio would suggest how the loan would be dealt

with shylock would repeat what he said and then say ‘well…’ for

example when Bassanio said, “Ay, sir for three months,” referring to

the payment of the loan. Shylock then said, “For three months; well.”

Shylock did this to delay his final answer. This suggests that he is

trying to show them who is making the decision and who has the

control.

Shylock dislikes Antonio very much for calling him a misbeliever, a

dog and spitting on him. Even after Antonio doing all of this Shylock

was seemingly friendly to Antonio and even offered to be his friend,

“I would be friend with you and have your love.” However might not

have been sincere and was very suspicious especially under the

circumstances, and therefore gives us an idea of how inconspicuous he

was with his revenge which makes a good villain. “If I can catch him

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...ent and Shylock

was left looking like a fool. She said, “Prepare thee to cut off a

pound of flesh. Shed thou no blood, nor cut thou less nor more but

just a pound of flesh.” To cut off an exact pound of flesh and have it

shed no blood is impossible to do. Therefore Shylock lost the trial

and not only left with no pound of flesh he wasn’t allowed the money

to replace it, instead he had to pay penalties for attempted murder

and he also had to give up his faith, which at that point was all that

he had left.

In conclusion, I think that Shylock was mistreated by Antonio in the

past and he had a right to want revenge but it shouldn’t have been so

harsh. No one deserves to have a pound of flesh to be cut off. I

thought that Shylock should have paid the penalty at the end but it

was unfair to make him become a Christian.

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