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Merchant of venice characters
The merchant of venice character analysis
The character of shylock in the merchant of venice
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Shakespeare's Presentation of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice
In every play or story, you need a villain, someone you can hate - in
Cinderella you have the evil stepmother, in Harry Potter you have Lord
Voldermort, and in the Merchant of Venice you have Shylock. In this
scene, I see Shylock not as the comical buffoon or villain but as the
outsider. The scene opens with a conversation between Basanio and
Shylock. Basanio wants to borrow three thousand ducats from Shylock
for three months, but Shylock is reluctant. Antonio is then introduced
into the conversation, and Shylock takes more interest in the
proposition.
Eventually, Shylock agrees to lend the money to Basanio, interest
free, on one condition - if the money is not repaid within three
months Shylock will be entitled to a pound of Antonio's flesh from the
part of his body which pleases Shylock the most. This is the main
storyline of the play.
As I have said, Shylock is not portrayed as a villain in this scene;
the audience is more likely to feel sorry for h...
Literary villains are all around us. For instance, Voldemort from Harry Potter and Darth Vader from Star Wars. What makes a villain? They will go through anyone or damage anything to reach their goal. No matter how small or how tall they are, anyone can be a villain.
In every protagonist, there is an antagonist, since, without it, there is no story. The readers may despise the villains terribly and may not want them to exist. However, everyone can concur that pronounced villains are what makes the stories interesting; they are what makes the stories come alive. "But," people may wonder, "what makes a villain considerable?" One example is Jafar from the Disney movie Aladdin, whose wicked behavior, intimidating appearance, and contradictory to the hero produces him as the epitome of a great villain.
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.
Chris Colfer says “ a villain is a victim whose story hasn't been told yet.” When the word villain comes to mind people always assume the worst, that the character is cold, evil, and manipulative. An audience will not except that villains were not always evil, something or someone made them that way. Abigail Williams the antagonist of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Shylock the antagonist of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice both fall prey to this accusation. Abigail and Shylock are both debatable villains because they both suffered violent pasts and were victims of their societies.
Shylock in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice Shylock's character in Shakespeare's 'The Merchant of Venice' has long been a controversial subject- more so now than it was when the play was written in the late 16th Century. First performed in 1605, it seemingly conforms to the anti-semitic stereotypes towards Jews and their conduct but, unlike Shakespeare's rival's work ('The Jew of Malta) by Christopher Marlowe, the main Jewish character is attributed not only the negative traits associated with Jews at the time, but also a side that sees to show humanity. Therefore, in this essay, it is my aim to explore whether calling Shylock the villain in the play is justified or not based on his actions and those of the characters surrounding him (to see if there is evidence of provocation), and placing this into the context of Elizabethan England and thus coming to conclusions abut whether views towards the extent of his villainy have remained the same. The one single action in the play which seems most convictive of Shylock is his argument with argument over the lending of 3,000 ducats-and the penalty fixed in case of its late return in Act 3 scene 1.
Shylock as the Villain in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice William Shakespeare wrote 'The Merchant of Venice' in about 1597. It was first performed by The Chamberlain's Men at the Theatre Shoreditch. The Merchant of Venice was in the repertory of Shakespeare's company before they took up residence at the Globe in 1599. The play was written as a comedy, but has become a serious drama.
What is a villain? A villain is a cruel malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime in the fiction world a character in a play or novel that constitutes an important evil agency in the plot. In simpler terms a villain is the antagonist who challenges the motives of others. Iago from Shakespeare’s play Othello is like any other villain there is. He was a cruel malicious person who did unthinkable acts. He betrayed his own family and friends to satisfy his own selfish lust for power. Iago was a very strategic and analytical man besides being physically strong he showed through out the play how he was capable of using his mind in deceiving others and persuading them to do his bidding. As stated in the following passage he denied any sadistic intention instead thought of him self as a counselor who is trying to resolve matters.
In Act 1 Scene 3, we are first introduced to Shylock, we see him as
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.
In this essay I will try to discover is Shylock a villain or a victim, in the William Shakespeare play “The Merchant of Venice”
How does one create the perfect villain for a story? What qualities are needed in such a character? A good place to start when constructing a villain is to look at William Shakespeare’s villain in Othello, a man called Iago. Iago is wonderfully devious. Throughout the play, he not only poisons Othello’s vision of Desdemona, he does this with no one, except Roderigo, the wiser.
which tells us that Shylock is being referred to as a dog, not like a
William Shakespeare shows how two tradesmen can have completely different lives when others view them differently in the play The Merchant of Venice. In the play, Bassanio, Antonio’s friend, needs money to pursue his love. They seek a loan from Shylock, a Jewish moneylender in Antonio’s name. The contract is for three times the value of the bond in three months or else Shylock cuts off a pound of flesh from Antonio. While all this is happening, there are love plots going on. One of which is for Shylock’s daughter to elope with Lorenzo, a Christian. Later on, Antonio’s source of money, his ship, is reported sunken in the English Channel, dooming him to the loss of one pound of his flesh. There is a trial on the bond, and when it seems sure that Antonio will die, Portia, disguised as a doctor of laws legally gets Antonio out of the situation and Shylock recieves harsh penalties. Antonio and Shylock, two similar businessmen of Venice, are viewed differently and are treated oppositely to heighten the drama of the play and mold a more interesting plot.