Month: February 2016

Another way we are led to believe that The Merchant of Venice is anti-semetic is that in the court scene we see that the judge is also biased towards Shylock as he tells him that he has little sympathy for him and tells Antonio he feels sorry for Shylock and that he will be on his side. This tells us that the judge will try his hardest to try and throw off this case, also the judge quotes ” inhuman wretch incapable of pity ” this means that Antonio and the judge think of Shylock and the other Jews animals. This shows us that not only the public was anti-semetic but also the higher ranked people in Venice were also all corrupt so their for the Jews were basically all roundly targeted.

Furthermore in act 3 scene 3 Shylock has been shown to be harsh as he wants to stick to his bond as Antonio failed to pay shylocks 3000 ducats, however the judge has let Antonio out of prison to even discuss this matter and if shylock was to own Antonio this much money a pound of his flesh would have already been taken from him. This shows discrimination as hey are favoring Antonio by letting him out of jail to try and convince shylock to change his mind. We see this when shylock says  “ill have my bond; I will not hear thee speak:
I’ll have my bond; and therefore speak no more, I’ll not be made a soft and dull-eyed fool,To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield To Christian intercessors. Follow not;
‘ll have no speaking: I will have my bond.”

Similarly, we can see that Shakespeare has made this play to be anti-semetic  as in Act 1 scene 1 Shylock says to Antonio ‘Fair sir, you spat on me on Wednesday last…..Another time You call’d me dog’ this shows anti-Semitism towards shylock as Antonio has been calling shylock a dog and has also been spitting on him, which therefore shows us that Antonio had no respect for shylock or any other Jew. We know that the Jews were discriminated in Venice a long time ago. But Shakespeare seemed toput these dreadful acts in the play to make the audience laugh which isn’t really fair.

The merchant of venice is anti-semetic in many ways. One of these ways is when shylocks daughter runs away with lorenzo and his ducets, we know this because shylocks says ” my daughter! Omy ducets o my daughter!” This show us that shylock cares more about his money than his daughter. This links to shakespeare making his charector of shylock anti-semetic as jews were known to be good with money and cared alot about money so therefore this is anti-semetic. This stereotype came from venice when jews were only money lenderers.