William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice

William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice

The Elizabethan audience was mainly white Christian males who were

sexist and arrogant. They expected to be highly entertained and not

insulted because otherwise no one would go to any of Shakespeare’s

plays. Even though Shakespeare manages to please the crowd he adds

some subtle insults like Antonio being seen as homosexual the audience

then were very arrogant and thought Antonio was just being a great

friend, He also insults the Christians though jibes at their racist

attitudes and arrogance.

When we first meet Shylock we think he is obsessed with money because

the first thing he says is “three thousand ducats, well” This suggests

that he only cares about money. Here Shakespeare is appealing to the

Christian audience because he is portraying Shylock as a stereotypical

Jew concerned only with money he is willing to lend Antonio money

despite all the mean things that Antonio has done to him in the past

He says “You called me a misbeliever a cut throat dog and spat on my

Jewish gabardine”

The audience would think this is amusing. A modern audience however

thinks this is sad and mean and feel sorry for him. Shylock’s

beliefs should not get him mistreated. Shylock is Jewish and most

people around him are Christians this means that he gets abused.

Antonio also leads money “gratis” so Shylock’s business suffers as a

result. The Christians would not feel sorry for him because they

believe he is taking their money. We would because we know that he is

only trying to run a business. We would see the Christians as anti

Semitic

Antonio is arrogant because he lends all his money interest free so on

one will go to Shylock and all Shylock is trying to do is run a

business, Antonio also does not apologies for insulting Shylock and

still expects to borrow money from him. Bassanio is arrogant because

he expects Antonio to risk his life just so he can get married to

Portia.