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. Observing the way he loses his wealth the question appears
weather he is responsible for his poverty, a villain who drives
himself into the worst state he can be because of pure and cruel
revenge, or if he is a victim of the inhumanity of the Christians
towards the Jews.
appear as both victim and villain throughout the story.
The first appearance of Shylock is accompanied with his answer to
Bassanio's request for a loan of "three thousand ducats ", which shows
the stereotypical Jew in him always worried "about his money and his
usances", and who is hated and teased by Christians by being called
"dog" and by being " spit "at. All these prejudices and the hate,
which reigned the opinion of the people of this time, is shown in the
scene, which he meets Antonio.
And so Shakespeare starts the play with the audience believing that
Shylock is a stereotypical Jew. But with reasonable arguments such as
" …if you prick us do we not bleed? …" Shakespeare tries to neutralise
the opinion of the public and to view him from another perspective.
In Shylock's speech in Act 3 Scene 1 he puts forward reasoned debate
by saying that " ...
... middle of paper ...
... forfeit of my
bond", and his sarcasm in the court, would make him lose all remaining
sympathy the Elizabethan may have had and changed it into hate. The
similar reaction would be showing the audience of today because
cutting a pound of flesh is more evil than any prejudice. As the scene
continues Shylock proceeds with his arguments and speaks as he doing
the right thing. The audience no longer has any compassion towards
Shylock but it regains sympathy after Christianity wins the battle.
As a conclusion, Shylock is neither a villain nor a victim. It changes
throughout the play and Shakespeare manipulates the audience so that
it always feels the extreme.
Additionally, the way the characters are represented either really
noble and in the play plays a big role in the development of the
opinion about Shylock.
In the book, The Serial Killer Whisperer: How One Man’s Tragedy Helped Unlock the Deadliest Secrets of the World’s Most Terrifying Killers, Tony Ciaglia writes letters to various serial killers and starts a friendship with them. The friendships Tony’s build’s with these serial killer’s through phone calls and letters helped law enforcement in more than one way. The serial killers trust Tony and opens up to him about things they’ve done and why. The Serial Killer Whisperer gives readers an inside look of serial killers minds. Although the letters in this novel are between Tony and various serial killers, Pete Earley is the author. He interviewed Tony and his friends and families. Pete Earley is also the author of three New York Times bestsellers and he has won the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime. Ealey wrote this gripping tale in a way that would captivate any audience.
Down the street, in our workplaces, seemingly under our beds- Harvard Medical Professor Martha Stout’s Sociopath Next Door: The Ruthless vs. The Rest of Us sends the reader into a state of frightful paranoia when she mentions that a staggering 1 in 25, 4%, persons is, in fact, a sociopath. A sociopath, as Stout asserts, is a person with the lack of a conscience, thus a person not concerned with the suffering of others, to worry only about itself. She goes on to tell us that, because the rate of sociopaths in our society is so high, we must have already met hundreds without knowing it, due to the elusive and enigmatic nature of this psychological disease.
The quote stated in the bible “Money is the root of all evil,” has been argued for many years. This statement is claiming that, the need of money can create a monster out of anyone. As in this story where the merchant is forced to make a decision due to the lack of money he owns. He chooses to sell his only son to a black dwarf to become rich. This trade will become the seed in turning his own child into a monster. Heinel does start off with a great heart, but due to a series of events it’s almost as if he’s forced to be a monster. Constantly, being the victim of each situation undoubtedly changes who Heinel starts off as and who he ends as in this story. He truly becomes the Monster of Golden Mountain. As the theory in “Serial Killers” by Andrew Cooper & Brandy Bale Blake, shows that growing up in bad environments can potentially make a monster out of anybody.
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.
She never killed anyone, but she has thought about it. Thomas explains her story and how being a sociopath has changed her life. She tells her stories from when she was younger to her life now. Her main point is to inform people that not all sociopaths are the same. There are the sociopaths that are cereal killer, sociopaths that have problems noticing social cues, sociopaths that don’t have fears, sociopaths that get married have kids, and then sociopaths that struggle with aggression.
Next the chapter goes on to talk about the types of serial murders for men and females. The chapter talks about how Holmes and DeBurger came up with four category typology of serial murders. 1. Visionary 2. Missionary 3. Hedonistic 4. Power and Control. The section goes on to talk about how other people to categorize serial killers by their terms of geographical mobility, and also their sexual tendencies. Next the section talks about how female serial killers are categorized into 9 different categories come up by Kelleher and Kelleher. 1. Black Widows 2. Angels of Death 3. Sexual Predator 4. Revenge Serial Killer 5. Profit for Crime 6. Team Killers 7. Question of Sanity 8. Unexplained and 9. Unsolved.
One of the most persistent stereotypes of (dis)Abled individuals is that they are evil or villainous and as such are predisposed to criminality due to some type impairment. Nothing is farthest from the truth.. Although, people with intellectual disorders and mental health issues are a growing population within the criminal justice system, they are still more often than not victims of crime as a result of their circumstances. People with developmental and cognitive impairments or significant mental health issues in many cases lack impulse control or display inappropriate emotions that the criminal justice system may misinterpret, thus bringing criminal charges for such offenses as causing a disturbance or mischief. When the police are confronted with a situation that involves a cognitively impaired or mentally ill person the police do not know how to respond in an appropriate manner. This image is seen throughout the media over the past few years. One has to look at the tragic death of Sammy Yatim or Michael Eligon to see these image.
Could the male serial killer commit these murders for more personal reasons, than just an urge? In some male serial killers there is a non-violent tendency that can prove that they are killing based on a motive rather than the need to kill. Although countless serial killers that have been in the news and are widely known have been killing based on urge, there are a series of men who kill due to the fact that they have no choice. Whether it 's their reputation on the line, a relationship, or a job. They have the motive to kill based on their life and the circumstances. After all the FBI does consider a person who has made three consecutive kills a serial killer. So throughout this essay I will show that there is furthermore to the male serial
After a while, Sierra found the forum to be filled more and more with wannabe murderers who just wanted something to jack off to. It was really a waste of her time and while still keeping the forum opened -- just minimized on the laptop -- she went back to searching the normal browser for some other articles that could help her write her paper. However, it didn't take long for her to hear a small bell dinging and curious to see if it was from the forum, Sierra pulled it back up. Her eyes scanned the name once more. It had been the one she made the remark to and he had taken no time in replying back. Reading his message back to her, Sierra felt herself come alive for a moment. She thought more on his words; how he had left the women in his wake.
However, when Shakespeare created Shylock, he did not insert him in as a purely flat character, consumed only with the villainy of his plot. One of the great talents that Shakespeare possessed, remarks Shakespeare analyst Harrold R. Walley, was his ability to make each key character act like a real, rational person. Walley said of all of Shakespeare's characters, hero or villain, that "Their conduct is always presented as logical and justifiable from their point of view3." To maintain the literary integrity of the play, "Shakespeare is under the necessity of making clear why a man like Shylock should be wrought to such a pitch of vindictive hatred as to contemplate murder4." His evil must have some profound motivation, and that motivation is the evil done to him. Shylock is not an ogre, letting lose harm and disaster without reason. He was wronged first; the fact that his revenge far outweighs that initial evil is what makes him a villain. Beneath Shylock' villainy, the concept of evil for evil runs as a significant theme through the play.
During the sixteenth-century there was a very prominent existence of anti-semitism. The English audience had a very clear prejudice towards the Jewish people because of the deep-rooted concept of anti-semitism. This mindset carried from everyday life to plays and productions of the time. This ill will towards the Jewish people spawned from political and religious disputes that were unresolved. The portrayal of Shylock as a villainous Jew is a logical move for the sixteenth-century playwrights because of this common belief. When walking into a production of The Merchant of Venice during this ear, one must keep in mind the predisposition towards the Jewish people as well as the cultural beliefs at that time.
It is difficult to say if Shylock is a complete villain or a victim, as his character is complex and ambiguous. However, it is difficult to view Shylock as anything other than a devious, bloodthirsty and heartless villain in the majority of the play. There are a few points in the story where he can be viewed as victimised, as most Jews were at that time, but Shakespeare has purposely portrayed Shylock as a stereotypical Jew, greedy, and obsessed with money. Shylock has been written to be very inflated and exaggerated. Even when Shylock makes his first appearance in the play, his first words are “Three thousand ducats,” Act 1, Scene 3.
Discrimination is a resounding theme in The Merchant of Venice (Meyers). All of the characters are affected by inequality. This inequity is clearly evidenced in Shylock, the Jewish usurer. He is treated with scorn and derision by all the characters. Shylock’s misfortunes stem not from poor attributes or even a poor background; it stems from the fact he is Jewish, and what is more, he is impeccably of that distinction.
It is difficult to say if Shylock is a complete villain or a victim, as his character is complex and ambiguous. However, it is difficult to view Shylock as anything other than a devious, bloodthirsty and heartless villain in the majority of the play. There are a few points in the story where he can be viewed as victimised, as most Jews were at that time, but Shakespeare has purposely portrayed Shylock as a stereotypical Jew, greedy, and obsessed with money. Shylock has been written to be very inflated and exaggerated. Even when Shylock makes his first appearance in the play, his first words are “Three thousand ducats,” Act 1, Scene 3.
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...