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Analysis of Merchant of Venice and the Interpretation of the Character 'shylock'

Introduction

The "Merchant of Venice" is a multifarious play with many grades of interpretation. Telling the article of a Jewish merchant dwelling in the predominately Christian capital of Venice, it can be glimpsed as a play about social cruelty, persecution and fairness. The "merchant of Venice" revolves around the same set of contentions of racial and devout prejudice that lived in Shakespearean society.

William Shakespeare's satirical comical performance, The Merchant of Venice, accepted to have been written in 1596 was a written test of hatred and greed. The premise agreements with the antagonistic connection between Shylock, a Jewish money-lender and Antonio, the Christian merchant, who is as bountiful as Shylock, is greedy, especially with his ally, Bassanio. The two have cemented a history of personal abuses, and Shylock's hating of Antonio intensifies when Antonio denies collecting interest on loans. Prejudice is a superior topic in The Merchant of Venice, most especially taking the form of anti-Semitism.

Discussion and Analysis

It has been a matter of discussion whether Shylock is a tragic or a comic character. In order to bring this dispute to a final decision, the subject requires to be scrupulously sifted. A martyr he certainly is not, but extenuating circumstances must be allowed in his favor. Shylock is a usurer, although it is nowhere expressly said that, like [Marlowe's] Barabbas, he has taken a hundred per cent, or oppressed and drained the poor.

Shylock's own version is different; he ascribes the origin of their mutual hatred to Antonio, and persists repeatedly in the assertion that his gains are righteous and that he only uses what is his own. In accordance with the laws of the Church, the Christian Antonio takes no interest for his money, but overstepping his province; he abuses the Jew for doing so, and ill-treats him at the Exchange without the existence of any provocation or cause for it on Shylock's part.

“Thou call'dst me dog before thou hadst a cause [III. iii. 6]” says Shylock, and in another passage adds that Antonio hates him simply because he is a Jew, in fact, that Antonio hates his revered nation. This hatred of Antonio is scarcely less culpable than the Jew's; Shylock can bring the excuse that he has not been brought up, either by his family or society, to love humanity or to practice moral duties. Antonio has certainly also been brought up to hate the Jews. However, Shylock bears Antonio's ill-treatment with composure.

It can, however, raise no astonishment that in spite of all patience a bitter feeling of revenge, like a subcutaneous ulcer, Shylock develops against the Christian who has interfered with his sole means of making money (he has hindered him half a million). This state of things, this mutual relation of the characters to one another, is on display throughout the whole play with absolute truth (Shakespeare & Mahood, pp.76). No more forcible complaint against the Christians and no more impressive justification of the Jews can ...