Para1Shylock, the Jewish antagonist of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, has become a topic of debate for modern audiences of the play, as his depiction and treatment in the play are distinctly anti-Semitic. In early modern England, Christians continued the suspicion and antagonism towards Judaism that flourished in the Middle Ages. Many policies, traditions, and cultural products such as plays and paintings display efforts to belittle, persecute, and criminalize Jewish people. The Merchant of Venice pits Christianity and Judaism against each other; however, which religion is most guilty in the play remains up for debate.

Para2Early productions of this play performed it as a comedy, as is indicated in the 1623 First Folio. Mocking Jews, who were often portrayed in red wigs, was common in early modern England. Shylock’s character may also have frightened or disturbed later audiences, particularly Charles Macklin’s portrayal of him in 1741; it was Macklin who seems to have originated a menancing Shylock, whom literary critic William Hazlitt described as a decrepit old man, bent with age and ugly with mental deformity, grinning with deadly malice, fixed on one unalterable purpose, that of his revenge. Various other portrayals of Shylock evolved in the 18th and 19th centuries, with actor Edmund Kean famously imbuing his villianous Shylock with a level of dignity not seen previously. However, after the Holocaust ended in 1945, sympathetic portrayals of Shylock became the norm. In the 21st century, Shylock (despite his many faults, such as cruel rejection of his daughter) is almost always played in this manner and is humanized through his famous monologue, Hath not a Jew eyes?, in Act 3, Scene 1 of the play.

Para3The play begins with Bassanio, a Venetian who is in need of money to court the wealthy and fatherless Portia. Bassanio asks the support of his friend, the merchant Antonio, for collateral for a loan from Shylock, the Jewish moneylender. Shylock agrees on condition that he receive a pound of flesh if Antonio defaults on the loan, an extreme condition based on Shylock’s past abuse by Antonio. Soon, Antonio’s ships are lost at sea and Shylock brings him to court and demands his pound of flesh. But even when Antonio offers to pay back double the loan’s monetary amount instead of the pound of flesh, Shylock refuses. Portia then disguises herself as a man and defends Antonio and Bassanio on technicalities that result in Shylock either losing his life or converting to Christianity and giving over half of his wealth. In order to save his own life, Shylock converts and is never seen again. Portia marries Bassanio, while Shylock’s daughter Jessica, who has fled her father’s home with much of his wealth, marries Lorenzo.

Para4Shylock’s character represents the stereotypical view early modern England had of Jews: usurious moneylenders with a thirst for vengeance and no mercy. His demand for a pound of flesh as security for his loan and then his refusal to accept even double the return of the loan is an exaggeration of the stereotypical Jewish greed and bloodlust. He is ridiculed, spat on, and tricked in court, and his forced conversion to Christianity was perhaps meant as his happy ending. This anti-Semitism is apparent in the play’s popularity in Nazi Germany, where it was performed in more than 50 productions between 1933 and 1939.

Para5Shakespeare’s play highlights the Judeophobic culture of the times, and most modern productions depict Shylock as at least partially sympathetic. The main argument revolves around Shylock’s famous monologue that humanizes Jews and asks for compassion:

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? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge! The villany you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.(3.1.58–72)

Para6This moving monologue stands out from the rest of the play and reveals the cruelty Shylock has suffered at the hands of Christians. Many readers and audience members want to believe that Shakespeare purposefully gave Shylock a voice to ask people to be more sympathetic towards him and other oppressed Jews of the time. Certainly, this passage starkly contrasts with the one-dimensional portrayal of Jews in other early modern plays, such as Christopher Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta. Whatever the motivation for creating Shylock as a character who generates conflicting emotions in audiences, most productions leave viewers with questions. Is Shylock a villain or a victim? Are the Christians victorious or exploitive?