Shylock in William Shakespeare's Othello

Shylock in William Shakespeare's Othello

The Jews ancestral home-land, where they had lived for hundreds of

years was Palestine. However, they were exiled from this land in about

the year 400 AD. They scattered out and formed a Diaspora, a community

of exiled people. Once the Roman Empire had deteriorated, a lot of

them began to make their way back to Palestine, which was then invaded

by the Turks, and ruled by them for 800 years until the British came.

The Jews came over to Britain with William the Conqueror in 1066, and

in 1217 they had to wear yellow badges to distinguish them. They were

heavily discriminated against and were blamed in murder cases often

involving Christian children, leading to many Jews being executed. In

1269 their rights were restricted; they couldn't own land and they

were made unable to inherit anything. In 1290 the Jews were expelled

from Britain and were disallowed for 350 years. Many plays were

written about evil Jews. The Merchant of Venice was written by William

Shakespeare although he had never met a Jew in his life, he doesn't

seem to portray Jews in his play as evil as a lot of them in plays in

his time.

I don't think Shylock can really be defined as either a hero or a

villain, because this seems, to me, to immortalise him. A hero is

someone who constantly strives, sometimes against everything else, for

good, and a villain is someone who intentionally causes evil for his

own selfish purposes and doesn't care for anyone else. If the title

was 'Shylock: Good or bad?' then I would say that throughout the play

that he is probably more bad than good, however, I don't believe that

this proves him to ...

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...his life situation throughout the play, and so just

acted in a way that would help him the most. Through all of the

bullying from the Christians, who seemed determined not to stop until

he had nothing left, he sought revenge, and the bond he casually

agreed upon with Antonio gave him the perfect opportunity. If you look

in depth at the behaviour of everyone in The Merchant of Venice,

Shylock is not the only villain in it. The behaviour of the Christians

is malicious and shocking, and clears Shylock of his unfeeling

behaviour, giving him the perfect reason. He is naturally a selfish

person, but not really a villain. He just had to stop people

discriminating against him in any way he felt necessary. The question,

"Is Shylock a hero or a villain?" is a one-dimensional question being

asked of a three-dimensional character.