Shylock in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice

1351 Words3 Pages

Shylock in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice

In my opinion I think that Shylock is a villain in the 'Merchant of

Venice' because he is portrayed as a ruthless money-lender. The plot

of the 'Merchant of Venice' is centred on Shylock, a Jewish money

lender who is trying to survive in a country, which despises him, and

alienates him from society. He has made a bond with Bassanio and

Antonio that if his ships do not come back then he would take a pound

of his flesh due to the debt of 3000 ducats. Shylock becomes obsessed

with obtaining Antonio's pound of flesh that he tries anything to get

it. In the sixteenth century Christians didn't treat Jews the same

because they hated the traditional profession of Jews which was

lending money to gain a profit, this is shown in the way William

Shakespeare portrays Shylock. We also see different relationships and

struggles between the other characters in the play.

In 16th century Venice there was great opposition between Christians

and Jews. The centre of Venice was made up of mostly a Christian

population and the Jews were situated outside the perimeters in

ghettos. This shows that Jews were somewhat alienated from Venetian

society and from all Christian society. Jews were seen as inferior to

Christians and they were not allowed to own any type of land. Jews

were also singled out by them having to wear specially colour hats to

distinguish them from the rest of the Venetians. In years before, Jews

were persecuted because of their religion and to years leading up to

when Shakespeare wrote the 'Merchant of Venice' they were still being

prejudice to Jews. These persecutions took place because of the

Christians belief that the Jews were involved in the death of Jesus

Christ. Shakespeare might of added this character to the play because

he might of wanted to show the Christians that Jews still suffer the

same as them and that they have feelings too. Shakespeare might of

also put the character Shylock into the 'Merchant of Venice' because

Open Document