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Shylock the merchant of venice character analysis1500
Shylock the merchant of venice character analysis1500
The history of anti semitism essay
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Character Analysis of Shylock from The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare In William Shakespeare’s ‘The Merchant of Venice’ the character Shylock, a Jewish moneylender is shown to the audience in more than one. In one way we see a good aspect of him as a caring and loving father, in another way we see a dreadful part of him as a beast that loves his money more than his daughter and follows a brutal and cruel desire to end a man’s life in this case Antonio the merchant. We see that Shylock suffers from awful and physical verbal abuse from all the Christians in Venice but especially from Antonio, Shylock states that, “You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog, And spit upon my Jewish gabardine” This tells us Antonio called Shylock a misbeliever, cut-throat dog and has spat on him. This metaphor is comparing Shylock to an animal. So he doesn’t have any rights at all. Shylock is mocked at every opportunity by Salerio and Solanio. They deliberately repeat what Shylock is saying in the streets, about his daughter and ducats and make fun of him. They say, “As the dog Jew did utter in the street: ‘My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter!” The quote “As the dog Jew did utter in the streets” is a metaphor which tells us that Shylock is being referred to as a dog, not like a dog so he is not human. They mock him even more by getting the children in Venice to follow Shylock and repeat what he says. Solanio also calls him a “villain Jew” meaning he is a criminal and they class him below everyone and like a person in jail. Shylock takes everything that is said to him and doesn’t retaliate or say anything to them. Bassino asks Shylock to dinner when Shylock asks to meet a Antonio. This is probably one of the only times when he has not been called a ‘dog’ or been spat upon by any Christian. This is like a big
Throughout the play, Shylock was often reduced to something other than Human. In many cases, even the simple title of "Jew" was stripped away, and Shylock was not a man, but an animal. For example, Gratiano curses Shylock with "O, be thou damned, inexecrable dog!" (IV, i, 128) whose "currish spirit govern'd a wolf" (IV, i, 133-134) and whose "desires are wolvish, bloody, starved, and ravenous" (IV, i, 137-138). Or when Shylock is neither a man nor an animal, he becomes "a stony adversary, inhuman wretch" (IV, i, 4-5). When the Christians applied these labels to Shylock, they effectively stripped him of his humanity, of his religious identity; he was reduced to something other than human.
In this play Shakespeare achieves the near impossible because for most of Shylock’s scenes, one can have as many as three interpretations for its meaning and as displayed by the title, the reader has to decide for themselves as to how they will interpret Shakespeare’s descriptions. During the play we find that the odds are stacked against Shylock. My opinion on this is that Shakespeare did not want to be seen as a pro-Jew or siding with the “enemy” so he gave in and sided with the majority of his prospective audience’s beliefs and views on Jews. Personally I do believe that Shylock is in fact a mixture of both an ogre and a human because I have to give my interpretations according to the text as it is the subject of my piece.
‘villain’; he is a complex mix of both. In the first part of the play,
were a dog, I thought, what would be done to him?' The answer was obvious:
Macbeth is a very gothic, persistent tale of a great general in the Scottish army who causes his own downfall by listening to the dark prophecies of the three witches and his wife, Lady Macbeth. Macbeth’s self-consciousness fails to play an important part in the murder of multiple kinsmen causing the death of his wife and his mental health. Macbeth is not necessarily a horrible leader; the problem with him is that his ambitions exceed his expectancies. Macbeth’s character has constantly evolved from the point he was introduced into the play. Initially he seems as an extremely humble person, but as he learns more about the prophecies, his hindsight fails to overlook the complications of his ambitions. Macbeth’s faith in the apparitions and the witches ultimately cause Macbeth’s downfall and the unnecessary death of his beloved kinsmen such as King Duncan and Banquo.
say, “If I can catch once upon the hip I will feed fat the ancient
As Oscar Wilde quotes, “Women have a much better time than men in this world: there are far more things forbidden to them.” This reference to the female stereotype contradicts to Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, as some female characters strive for power and some go beyond of their expectations. In fact, they step out of society’s gender expectations, this disrupts the natural order of hierarchy. As well, it affects certain of female characters mentally to the point where they lose their lives and/or vilified. As a result, Shakespeare shows that the natural order of hierarchy needs to be established. This essay will therefore examine the female characters by comparing the representation of unstereotypical women-Lady Macbeth and the witches and how Lady Macbeth demonstrates a typical woman while acting as a foil.
Choose a play in which a central character is slow to understand fully the seriousness of his or her situation. Explain how this situation has developed and discuss how the character’s behaviour influences your overall assessment of him or her.
Macbeth is a dramatic play penned by British playwright William Shakespeare, and set in medieval Scotland. Macbeth tells the story of the journey of a commander who seeks to become king. Macbeth, a prominent Scot, receives a prophecy from three witches foretelling that he is to ascend to the throne. His wife, Lady Macbeth appears to support Macbeth initially, but then she gradually fades away from his side. Over time, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s characters transform tremendously in nature. Macbeth grows to resemble his power-hungry wife, meanwhile, Lady Macbeth herself appears to grow more guilt-ridden.
Lady Macbeth progresses throughout the play from a seemingly savage and heartless creature to a very delicate and fragile woman. In the beginning of the play, she is very ambitious and hungry for power. She pushes Macbeth to kill Duncan in order to fulfill the witches’ prophecy. In Act I, Scene 6, she asks the gods to make her emotionally strong like a man in order to help her husband go through with the murder plot. She says, “Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full Of direst cruelty!” Also, she does everything in her power to convince Macbeth that he would be wrong not to kill Duncan. In Act I, Scene 7, she tells him, “What beast was’t then That mad...
In every story there are always characters that as readers are drawn towards and grown fonder of them, no one likes a story that they can not relate to. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth tragedy, Macbeth is the character that most people feel for. Macbeth displays the general characteristics of a tragic hero throughout the play, catharsis, hubris and he is very easy to relate to.
... only reason why he really wanted the bond was to get an upper hand on
Analysis of Major Characters in William Shakespeare's Macbeth Macbeth = == == == Because we first hear of Macbeth in the wounded captain's account of his battlefield valor, our initial impression is of a brave and capable warrior.
In the Play Macbeth written by William Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth is the wife of Macbeth and is one of the play’s most celebrated characters. Lady Macbeth is portrayed as stronger, more cruel, and more ambitious person than Macbeth, especially when she questions his manhood. When she questions his manhood, Macbeth feels that he needed to prove he is a man and that his masculinity should not be questioned. In a way this is her way of killing Duncan because she feels that she can manipulate Macbeth into killing Duncan and she does not want to be seen as killing him because women are not portrayed as a killing type. Lady Macbeth’s role in the play is to be the character that portrays some of the themes and social images of that time about how a woman should or shouldn’t be. By creating a character like Lady Macbeth, the reader’s views of masculinity and femininity are challenged.
Another way Antonio and Shylock are different is their religion based social status: Antonio is a Christian and Shylock is a Jew.