The character of Shylock has fascinated actors, audiences and scholars for generations. On the one hand he exhibits stereotypical characteristics of the villainous "Jew": he is obsessed with money, he is an implacable enemy of his Christian neighbors, and he insists on following the law even when common sense dictates mercy and pity. On the other hand he is shown to be himself the victim of the prejudice and cruelty of his Christian neighbors. No better evidence for Shylock's victimhood and the plays portrayal of his humanity is his speech from Act 3, Scene 5. As his Christian neighbors question his pursuing his rights in taking a pound of Antonio's flesh, Shylock retorts:
I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions,
senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons,
subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by
the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong
us, shall we not revenge? (3. 1. 57-66).
What do you think? From your reading of the play is Shylock supposed to be a villain or victim (or perhaps a bit of both)? Is he a Jewish stereotype or a fully developed character that happens to be Jewish or somewhere in between? What is your take on the character of Shylock?
Shylock is solely a victim. While it is easy to perceive Shylock as a villain, with the time period the play was written in and the way that he speaks about his bond, it is only because he is being victimized. Not only is he a victim but also he is a fully developed Jewish character. Even though Shylock plays the “Jewish card’ a lot in the play – about his food, his place of worship etc. – it does not make him solely a Jewish stereotype. I believe that Shakespeare made Shylock a Jewish character (and not just any old Christian) in order to show the conflicts that arise due to religion. Although Jews were a group of people who were discriminated against at the time of the play, the role of Shylock can be interpreted in many ways.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Shylock is a victim because he never does anything villainous without a reason. Shylock has been discriminated against all his life. For no reason, Jews are looked down upon for what they believe in. So, when Shylock, who is fed up with prejudice, asks for his bond, he is not being a villain, but is simply asking for what is rightfully his.
He states,
You have among you many a purchased slave,
Which life your asses and your dogs and mules, you use in abject and in slavish parts
Because you bought them. Shall I say to you
“Let them be free! Marry them to your heirs!
Why sweat they under burdens? Let their beds
Be made as soft as yours, and let their palates
Be seasoned with such viands”? You will answer
“The slaves are ours!” So do I answer you:
The pound of flesh which I demand of him
Is dearly bought mine and I will have it. (4.1.91-102)
Shylock is simply stating that he deserves what is rightfully his, even if it is a pound of flesh. He has lost so much in his lifetime that he simply wants the law to stand up for him and do what is right. He has physically lost his daughter and his fortune. And he has been mentally beat up by the taunts of others. How, even if he is trying to kill someone for revenge, can he be considered a villain and not a victim? No person should have to go through what Shylock is and still be treated unfairly. Therefore, to me, Shakespeare, even if he didn’t do so intentionally, is trying to show that the treatment of Jews is unfair and unjust.
From the beginning of the play, Shylock is a very disagreeable character. It seems that all he cares about is money and revenge against his imagined enemies. His secretive, sly behavior alienates him from the other characters, even his own daughter. Shakespeare does a good job of presenting Shylock as a fully developed character not from the words of other characters, but through Shylock’s own words and actions.
ReplyDeleteIn Act I, when Bassanio and Antonio meet with Shylock to ask for money, he immediately grows hateful and mistrustful towards them for no apparent reason. He sharply refuses Bassanio’s kind invitation to dinner, and when Antonio enters, he mutters to himself: “I hate him for he is a Christian, / But more for that / He … brings down / The rate of usance … in Venice” (Act 1, Sc. 3:42-45). Later, when he does accept the invitation, he tells his daughter that he “will go in hate, to feed upon / The prodigal Christian” (Act II, Sc. 5: 15-16).
Money and material wealth are very important for Shylock. He always makes references to money, usury and profits. It is most amusing how Shylock puts wealth even above Jessica, his daughter. When Jessica runs away with Lorenzo, Shylock is deeply concerned about the money and gems she took along, not about Jessica herself. He laments over his lost possessions, saying, “I know not what’s spent in the search! Why, thou / loss upon loss! The thief gone with so much, and so / much to find the thief, … I shall never / see my gold again. Fourscore ducats at a sitting, / fourscore ducats!” (Act III, Sc. 1: 91-111). Shylock worries about never seeing his money again, not his daughter. In fact, he even exclaims, “I would my / daughter were dead at my foot and the jewels in her / ear; would she were hearsed at my foot and the / ducats in her coffin” (Act III, Sc. 1: 87-90). What kind of father is he after such awful words? Shylock only loved Jessica outwardly, before she ran off with his wealth, and yet Jessica was a bit concerned of being a bad daughter when she asked herself: “what heinous sin is it in me / to be ashamed to be my father’s child?” (Act II, Sc. IV: 16-17). Even though she despises his manners, Jessica still loves her father, but her father loves her not.
The bond Shylock chooses is also quite interesting. It seems that he is more interested in revenge against Antonio than in receiving his money back, so he chooses a pound of Antonio’s flesh. Notice that the flesh is to be taken from Antonio’s breast, “nearest his heart” (Act IV, Sc. 1: 265), which would surely kill Antonio, which is what Shylock ultimately wants, for he does not even want to get a surgeon to stop Antonio’s wounds. No pleas have an effect on Shylock. When the Duke and Portia [as Balthazar] talk to him of mercy and forgiveness, and when he is asked: “Can no prayers pierce thee?” (Act IV, Sc. 1: 128), Shylock remains obstinate and demands his bond. The others at court have a completely different attitude. Even though Bassanio and Gratiano are angry at Shylock, Antonio does not hate him. With Christian humility, he accepts his fate, saying, “Make no more efforts, use no farther means, / But with all brief and plain conveniency / Let me have judgment and the Jew his will” (Act IV, Sc. 1: 82-84). Antonio does not plead for his life, nor does he curse Shylock…
Throughout the play, Shylock does not earn sympathy. He is a vengeful, villainous character who blindly pursues material profit and exalts in the misfortunes and suffering of others while trying to make himself seem like the victim. Even when he has control over Antonio because of the bond, he becomes ecstatic when he hears news of Antonio’s losses of ships, saying, “I am very glad of it. I’ll plague him, I’ll / torture him. I am glad of it” (Act III, Sc. 1: 115-116). Shylock does not show mercy towards anyone, and therefore does not earn mercy towards himself.
My opinion is that Shylock has been victimized so much he chooses to be a villain in retaliation. He has been so hurt by the ridicule, demonstrated in his speech in 3.1, that he wants to get back at the Christians; “The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction” (3.1.70-72). In this, he is explaining how he has been taught so well by the Christians that he plans to out-do his ‘teachers’. He feels it is unfair to treat people differently because everyone is truly the same. This speech almost humanizes him, gives his actions a real explanation. He might show stereotypical Jewish traits, like anger or bitterness, but this speech shows that he is like the Christians and he hurts just the same. In the case of the Trial of the Contract of a Pound of Flesh, his pursuit for justice could be interpreted as revenge for his loss of money. He saw this as a just and legal opportunity to seek revenge on Antonio and the whole Christian community for all that they put him through, being that he is an outsider to them. During this trial, leading up to Portia finding a loophole, you want to think of Shylock as the villain. He seems to be showing no mercy to Antonio, who had enough money to pay back in fact. He shows no compassion and pushes for Antonio to die in loosing a pound of flesh. Portia finds a loophole that saves Antonio’s life and also causes Shylock to loose everything he owns. His land and house, half of his money was to go to Antonio and the half was taken away as well. His fate was given to Antonio to decide. Ultimately Antonio decides to spare Shylock’s life only if he becomes a Christian. In this moment, you cannot help but to feel that Shylock is a victim. He has nothing, not even his religion! I think Shylock is both a victim and a villain but they are because of each other; he would not be a villain if he weren’t first victimized. And he wouldn’t be victimized if he didn’t act villainous first.
ReplyDeleteThe character of Shylock is a great mystery; he is the villain of the play and is abused and taunted throughout. Most importantly, this is all essentially because he is a Jew. For this reason, many have attacked the play and its author for being anti-Semitic. However, Shakespeare was only a victim of his time and portrays Shylock rather mildly and does indeed humanize him somewhat. A contemporary play, The Jew of Malta, shows a disgustingly stereotypical Jewish character who is everything Shylock is and more. He is a double-crossing, lying, murdering, well-poisoning utter villain. If Shakespeare had really wished to deride Jews, this is what Shylock would look like. The most famous speech in the play is also spoken by Shylock. In Act 3, Scene 1, he famously rails about how Jews are persecuted for the sole reason of being a Jew, when they are the same as a Christian is in all but name. The ending is also often viewed as anti-Semitic; Shylock loses his daughter and his ducats, and is forced to convert to Christianity. However, his life is spared and he is allowed to keep half of his money. His conversion also validates the earlier point he himself made where he was arguing that he is just like a Christian in all but name; now he has the name to go with it. he is still Shylock, still the same man who was before a ‘vile Jew,’ but is now only named differently. Just as a rose by another name would smell as sweet, a man called a Jew or a Christian is still the same man. Shakespeare is merely a victim of his time, merely using a figure easily identified as a villain to be his villain. With this speech, Shakespeare deliberately sets audiences and readers thinking and begins to actually fight against the stereotype. Shylock is indeed a stereotype, but a very mild one who ultimately transcends that stereotype.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteAfter reading Merchant of Venice twice now, my view on Shylock has changed. The first time I read it freshman year, I did not like Shylock; I fell into the trap of thinking he was a villain. I think that Shylock is like a bully in that his actions are justified because on the inside he is holding onto being tortured, discriminated against, put down, etc. Although Shylock seems like he would be the bully because of his part of the bond about the flesh seems villainous and vile, he never carries out these actions that make him seem like a villain. The actions that he thinks he will do are justified in that he had every right to the flesh, even though it seems wrong, because he held up his end of the bond. I think Shakespeare was clever when he designed Shylock’s character because he is a fully developed character that dually is a stereotype. I agree completely with Kate that even though Shylock pulls the “I’m a Jew” card a lot, it goes along with the times when Jewish people were the minority and there was a conflict between Jews and Christians, especially in Italy, a predominantly Christian populated area. I think that you can sympathize with Shylock because of all the discrimination he has faced, and how hard it is for him to live in a place where he is constantly being put down and cannot catch a break. I also feel like Shylock is seeking, or trying to seek respect from not only other people, but by the law, and by making this bond and adamantly making sure he will get what the bond says it will convince him that the law respects him as a person rather than just a Jew. I think the part when Shylock says,
“I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions,
senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons,
subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by
the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong
us, shall we not revenge?” (3. 1. 57-66)
really makes us sympathize with him, and think of him more as a normal human rather than a different species. Overall, I see Shylock more as a victim that represents what was happening at the time.
the jewish man is neither a villain nor a victim . if we consider him as a villain this would illustrate the idea that his villainity stems out from the ill-treatment he receives from the surrounding christians. He is an outcast in a society of christian extremists although there are no religious behaviours acted by those christians that would justify the notion of religious clash . However, if we say he is a victim this would also lead us to believe that his victimization is the result of the villainity of his jewish ancestors who refused Christ and crusified the latter.
ReplyDeleteGenerally, it would be better to answer this question as so lest readers will fall into this whirling circle of controversy.