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shylock merchant of venice character analysis
shylock merchant of venice character analysis
shylock merchant of venice character analysis
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The Character of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice
Victim or villain. These two words are the total opposites of each
other. A victim is someone that 'we' in general should, or may, feel
sorry for and attempt to sympathise or empathise with. But a villain
is the one person that people love to hate. The best example of this I
feel is pantomime. The victims or heroes are clear-cut and the
audience willingly cheers them. But as soon as the villain walks on
stage he is hissed and booed, unfortunately it is not as simple as
this in 'The Merchant of Venice' and how the audience react to the
characters is all important in making the distinction between victim
or villain.
Although the title of the play: 'The Merchant of Venice', implies
Antonio is the central character, I think that Shylock is the most
important, often when he is off-stage, in the words and actions of
others. There is still a debate over whether Shylock is wholly
villainous, or whether his circumstances and life force him to a
certain extent in his actions. This difference in interpretations can
be highlighted in the way audiences would have reacted when the play
was written, and how this compares to a more modern insight into the
play. In particular, this reaction to Shylock is pivotal to the big
question, victim or villain.
In Elizabethan times, Shylock would have been portrayed as a villain
through-and-through. When he tells the audience how he has been
treated, spat upon, and how the Christians insult him, calling him,
"cut-throat dog" and"cur", there would be no sympathy for him; on the
contrary the audience may well have thought that this was a good and
co...
... middle of paper ...
...I believe Shylock was attempting to peacefully
co-exist with the Christians, and tried to make life easier by lending
money without usury. But, after the elopement, Shylock can be seen to
be definitely more villainous, it is very clear, not ambiguous. Up
until the trial scene he is a proper villain, the genuine article who
would have been hated by everyone, he had no support. But, I think
that the judgement by the Christians was wrong. They had been so sure
that they were for justice, but the truth is, when they forced him to
change his religion they were not being Christian, they had sunk to
his level. This can be confirmed in a sentence by saying, Shylock is a
villain, but to a certain extent this villainy can be understood
because of the actions of others towards him. He is a villain, because
he has been victimised.
Shylock is partial to blame for Jessica's rebellious actions. Jessica is talking to Lancelet Gobbo about how she is planning to run away from her father’s house: “ I am sorry thou wilt leave my father so./Our house is hell and thou, s merry devil,/Didst rob it of some taste of tediousness” (2.3.1-3) With Jessica saying this she is telling Lancelet Gobbo that she wants to leave because living with Shylock is a living hell to her. She is also telling him about her plans to rob her Shylock’s house just because she can and she is using it as a way to get revenge on Shylock for making her life a living hell. After Shylock leaves to go to a party Jessica dresses up a boy, robs Shylock, and runs away with a Christian: “Here, catch this casket; it
In Susan Pharr's "The Common Elements of Oppression", she defines "the other" as the outcast of society, the ones who stand up for what they believe in, no matter how `against the grain' it may be, the ones who try the hardest to earn acceptance, yet never receive it. In Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice", Shylock, the `villain' is portrayed as the other simply because of his faith, because he is Jewish in a predominantly Christian society.
Shylock in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice An ogre is according to the Collins Dictionary “a monstrous or cruel being” but more significantly as “something or someone who eats human flesh.” Is this how Shylock is portrayed in the play or is he a simple human being, a species capable of showing emotions and feelings such as vulnerability and love. Certainly, Shylock is presented to the audience in so powerful a way that even though he only appears in five scenes, many consider him the central character. Throughout the play Shylock appears to be the butt of all the jokes and many critics see his status in the play as the tragic hero.
‘villain’; he is a complex mix of both. In the first part of the play,
Shylock: Victim or Villain "The Merchant of Venice" by Shakespeare is set in the Italian city of Venice in the late 15th century. Originally, it was meant to be a comedy but it seems to have more elements of a tragedy than of a comedy. However the audience of that time would find it amusing to see Shylock, the Jewish moneylender, losing everything because Jews have not been accepted due to the fact their religion and their typical occupation as moneylender, which made the Christians depending of them.
In Act 1 Scene 3, we are first introduced to Shylock, we see him as
The plot, characters, and relationships present in William Shakespeare’s play, The Merchant of Venice all revolve around the concept of money; a theme that is strongly linked to the religious dichotomies explored throughout the comedy. At the beginning of the play, Antonio and Bassanio 's money-rooted relationship is introduced. Bassanio asks Antonio to lend him three thousand ducats. Antonio agrees to take out a loan for his friend, even though Bassanio had previously borrowed money and had not yet returned it. Antonio’s willingness to help out his seemingly untrustworthy friend, demonstrates his belief that friendship is more imperative than money. As a Christian, Antonio is following the expected trend; he is valuing life over stuff. Another
things he has called him and for all the many times he has spat on him
Portia then goes onto speak about why Shylock could show mercy and for what reason but with0out pressuring him into this act. He declines the offer. He states that he "Shylock: . . . I crave the law
There can be many similarities drawn to both the character Shylock in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, and Barabas in the Jew of Malta. However besides the obvious fact that they were both Jews, and the common stereo-types that were attributed to both of them such as being miserly and conniving, there are gaping differences in the dynamics of the characters themselves. “There are profound differences in Barabas and Shylock. The role assigned to by Shakespeare to his Christian characters is far more extensive, his Jew on the other hand has been scaled down and domesticated. Shylock has none of the insatiable ambition that makes Barabas for all his grotesque acts, a character along the lines of the great Faustus and Tambourlaine.”(Shylock,21) There is a much greater roundness in Barabas then Shylock. Marlowe portrays Barabas the Jew in a dynamic and somewhat curios manner. It is difficult to surmise Marlowe’s intent when portraying the Jew, yet it is certain that there is more than what seems topically apparent. It is very clear that he is an outsider, not only in the obvious aspect that he is a Jew in the less than theologically tolerant and politically correct Elizabethan drama, but he is also an outsider in terms of evil and his mode of thought. He is obviously a villain, lying cheating, poisoning a entire nunnery, even killing those we thought were close to him, including his daughter, yet through his Machiavellan quest for power and riches we somehow become almost endeared to him and he becomes an anti-hero. All these aspects combine to make Barabas a character that we are somehow drawn to in the same way people are drawn to stare at a traffic accident...
which tells us that Shylock is being referred to as a dog, not like a
receives. So it would not be fair to say that he was totally evil as
The Character of Shylock in Merchant of Venice Few characters created by Shakespeare embodies pure evil like the character of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. Shylock is a usurer and a malevolent, blood-thirsty old man consumed with plotting the downfall of his enemies. He is a malignant, vengeful character, consumed with venomous malice1; a picture of callous, unmitigated villainy, deaf to every appeal of humanity2. Shylock is the antagonist opposite the naive, essentially good Antonio, the protagonist; who must defend himself against the "devil" Shylock. The evil he represents is one of the reasons Shakespeare chose to characterize Shylock as a Jew, as Jews of his time were seen as the children of the Devil, the crucifiers of Christ and stubborn rejecters of God's wisdom and Christianity.
of why he hates Antonio is because he is a Christian. (I. iii. 43) This to the
In this essay I will try to discover is Shylock a villain or a victim, in the William Shakespeare play “The Merchant of Venice”