merchant of venice characters analysis

Character Sketch of Antonio in Merchant of Venice

by

Character Sketch of Antonio in Merchant of Venice – ICSE Class 10, 9 English

ANTONIO

Antonio Temperamental Melancholy

Antonio is a wealthy merchant in the city of Venice. He is a leading citizen, commanding great respect. When he is first introduced to us in the play, he is in a melancholy mood. His friends ask him if he is feeling melancholy because all his ships are at sea, facing all sorts of dangers from storms and from rocks, but he tells them that he is not at all feeling worried about the safety of his ships. He then tells them that his melancholy is something natural to him, something temperamental or inborn. He says that he looks upon this world as the stage of a theater on which every man has to play a part, his own part being that of a sad man. Thus melancholy may be regarded as one of the principal traits of his Character.

Character Sketch of Antonio in Merchant of Venice 1

Antonio Profound Affection for Bassanio

Another major trait of Antonio’s character is his capacity for friendship and his profound affection for Bassanio. Indeed, the friendship of Antonio and Bassanio is one of the romantic elements in the play because this friendship has been idealized and glorified by Shakespeare. Bassanio had once before taken a loan from Antonio but had not repaid it; and now again he needs money badly. This time he again asks Antonio for a loan. Antonio has no cash in hand at the moment, and yet he would not like to disappoint his friend. He therefore bids Bassanio approach some money-lender in the city and take a loan on his (Antonio’s) behalf. Bassanio approaches Shylock who is a Jew and a professional money ­lender, and asks for a loan of three thousand ducats in Antonio’s name. Antonio then signs a bond which seems to be potentially dangerous but which Antonio signs, regardless of the danger which it implies. There is in it a clause according to which Shylock would be entitled to cut off a pound of Antonio’s flesh from nearest his heart in case Antonio fails to repay the loan within a period of three months. Antonio willingly signs this bond to meet the needs of this friend Bassanio; and this act on his part shows how much he loves Bassanio. He is really a friend in need. He is willing to risk his life for the sake of his friend.

Antonio – A Kind-hearted and Accommodating Man

Antonio is a kind-hearted man who lends money to needy people without charging any interest from them. In this respect he offers a striking contrast to Shylock who is a usurer. (A usurer is a money lender who charges excessive rates of interest on the loans which he gives). It is true that Shylock is a professional money-lender and he must, therefore, charge interest on the loans which he gives.

Antonio, on the other hand, is not a money-lender by profession. But the point to note is that Shylock charges unreasonably high rates of interest; and Antonio lends money to people even though he is not a money-lender, and he lends money gratis (that is, without charging any interest). While Shylock is a greedy man, Antonio is not at all greedy. In fact, Antonio is almost indifferent to wealth.

Antonio Religious Intolerance, a Serious Defect in His Character

Although Antonio is a man who wins our respect and admiration because of his fine qualities, yet he also suffers from a serious defect. As a Christian he shows an intolerance towards the Jews. He hates Shylock because Shylock is a usurer but even more because Shylock is a Jew. This religious or racial intolerance on his part somewhat lowers him in our estimation. In fact, Antonio goes out of his way to insult and degrade Shylock. On many occasions he has abused Shylock, and even spat on his clothes. His reason for thus treating Shylock is that Shylock is a usurer and a Jew. And even when he is asking Shylock for a loan, he says that in future also he would abuse him and spit on him. He tells Shylock that he wants a loan from him not as a friend but as an enemy. There was certainly in those days a general prejudice against the Jews; but we would expect a nice man like Antonio to be free from a prejudice of that kind. Antonio is a perfect gentleman but his religious fanaticism is undoubtedly a flaw in his character.

A Deficiency in Antonio Character

Antonio also suffers from a deficiency. He does not have much of a sense of humour. As he is constitutionally a melancholy man, he is unable to laugh much. He cannot enjoy a joke; and he is  certainly incapable of making a joke. He does not approve of Gratiano’s flippant and light-hearted talk. Himself a man of few words, he does not approve of Gratiano’s glibness or garrulity (that is, excessive talkativeness). Being a serious-minded man, he is also unable to enjoy such merry-making as torch ­light, masked processions in which Lorenzo and others take great pleasure. And it also seems that he is  incapable of falling in love. When at the outset it is suggested that he may be feeling melancholy because he is in love, he promptly rejects the suggestion, saying; “Fie, fie!”

EnglishMathsPhysicsChemistryBiology

ICSE SolutionsSelina ICSE SolutionsML Aggarwal Solutions

For More Resources

The Merchant of Venice Introduction to William Shakespeare

by

The Merchant of Venice Introduction to William Shakespeare – ICSE Class 10, 9 English

EnglishMathsPhysicsChemistryBiology

ICSE SolutionsSelina ICSE SolutionsML Aggarwal Solutions

Synopsis

William Shakespeare was baptized on April 26, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. From roughly 1594 onward he was an important member of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men company of theatrical players. Written records give little indication of the way in which Shakespeare’s professional life molded his artistry. All that can be deduced is that over the course of 20 years, Shakespeare wrote plays that capture the complete range of human emotion and conflict.

Mysterious Origins

Known throughout the world, the works of William Shakespeare have been performed in countless hamlets, villages, cities and metropolises for more than 400 years. And yet, the personal history of William Shakespeare is somewhat a mystery. There are two primary sources that provide historians with a basic outline of his life. One source is his work—the plays, poems and sonnets—and the other is official documentation such as church and court records. However, these only provide brief sketches of specific events in his life and provide little on the person who experienced those events.

Early Life

Though no birth records exist, church records indicate that a William Shakespeare was baptized at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 26, 1564. From this, it is believed he was bom on April 23, 1564.

Located 103 miles west of London, during Shakespeare’s time Stratford -upon-Avon was a market town bisected with a country road and the River Avon. William was the third child of John Shakespeare, a leather merchant, and Mary Arden, a local landed heiress. William had two older sisters, Joan and Judith, and three younger brothers, Gilbert, Richard and Edmund. Before William’s birth, his father became a successful merchant and held official positions as alderman and bailiff, an office resembling a mayor. However, records indicate John’s fortunes declined sometime in the late 1570s.

Scant records exist of William’s childhood, and virtually none regarding his education. Scholars have surmised that he most likely attended the King’s New School, in Stratford, which taught reading, writing and the classics. Being a public official’s child, William would have undoubtedly qualified for free tuition. But this uncertainty regarding his education has led some to raise questions about the authorship of his work and even about whether or not William Shakespeare ever existed.

Married Life

William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway on November 28, 1582, in Worcester, in Canterbury Province. Hathaway was from Shottery. a small village a mile west of Stratford. William was 18 and Anne was 26, and, as it turns out, pregnant. Their first child, a daughter they named Susanna, was born on May 26, 1583. Two years later, on February 2, 1585, twins Hamnet and Judith were born. Hamnet later died Of unknown causes at age 11.

After the birth of the twins, there are seven years of William Shakespeare’s life where no records exist.
Scholars call this period the “lost years,” and there is”wide speculation on what he was doing during this period. One theory is that he might have gone into hiding for poaching game from the local landlord, Sir Thomas Lucy. Another possibility is that he might have been working as an assistant schoolmaster in Lancashire. It is generally believed he arrived in London in the mid- to late 1580s and may have found work as a horse attendant at some of London’s finer theaters, a scenario updated centuries later by the countless aspiring actors and playwrights in Hollywood and Broadway.

Theatrical Beginnings

By 1592, there is evidence William Shakespeare earned a living as an actor and a playwright in London and possibly had several plays produced. The September 20, 1592 edition of the Stationers’ Register (a guild publication) includes an article by London playwright Robert Greene that takes a few jabs at William Shakespeare: “…There is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger’s heart wrapped in a Player’s hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country,” Greene wrote of Shakespeare.

Scholars differ on the interpretation of this criticism, but most agree that it was Greene’s way of saying Shakespeare was reaching above his rank, trying to match better known and educated playwrights like Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe or Greene himself.

By the early 1590s, documents show William Shakespeare was a managing partner in the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, an acting company in London. After the crowning of King James I, in 1603, the company changed its name to the King’s Men. From all accounts, the King’s Men company was very popular, and records show that Shakespeare had works published and sold as popular literature. The theater culture in 16th century England was not highly admired by people of high rank. However, many of the nobility were good patrons of the performing arts and friends of the actors. Early in his career, Shakespeare was able to attract the attention of Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton, to whom he dedicated his first- and second-published poems: “Venus and Adonis” (1593) and “The Rape of Lucrece” (1594).

Establishing Himself

By 1597, William Shakespeare had published 15 of the 37 plays attributed to him. Civil records show that at this time he purchased the second largest house in Stratford, called New House, for his family. It was a four-day ride by horse from Stratford to London, so it is believed that Shakespeare spent most of his time in the city writing and acting and came home once a year during the 40-day Lenten period, when the theaters were closed.

By 1599, William Shakespeare and his business partners built their own theater on the south bank of the Thames River, which they called the Globe. In 1605, Shakespeare purchased leases of real estate near Stratford for 440 pounds, which doubled in value and earned him 60 pounds a year.

This made him an entrepreneur as well as an artist, and scholars believe these investments gave him the time to write his plays uninterrupted.

Writing Style

William Shakespeare’s early plays were written in the conventional style of the day, with elaborate metaphors and rhetorical phrases that didn’t always align naturally with the story’s plot or characters. However. Shakespeare was very innovative, adapting the traditional style to his own purposes and creating a freer flow of words. With only small degrees of variation, Shakespeare primarily used a metrical pattern consisting of lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter, or blank verse, to compose his plays. At the same time, there are passages in all the plays that deviate from this and use forms of poetry or simple prose.

Early Works: Histories and Comedies

With the exception of Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare’s first plays were mostly histories written in the early 1590s. Richard II, Henry VI (parts 1, 2 and 3) and Henry V dramatize the destructive results of weak or corrupt rulers, and have been interpreted by drama historians as Shakespeare’s way of justifying the origins of the Tudor Dynasty.

Shakespeare also wrote several comedies during his early period: The witty romance A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the romantic Merchant of Venice, the wit and wordplay of Much Ado About Nothing, the charming As You Like It and Twelfth Night. Other plays, possibly written before 1600, include Titus Andronicus, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew and The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Later Works: Tragedies and Tragicomedies

It was in William Shakespeare’s later period, after 1600, that he wrote the tragedies Hamlet, King Lear, Othello and Macbeth. In these, Shakespeare’s characters present vivid impressions of human temperament that are timeless and universal. Possibly the best known of these plays is Hamlet, which explores betrayal, retribution, incest and moral failure. These moral failures often drive the twists and turns of Shakespeare’s plots, destroying the hero and those he loves.

In William Shakespeare’s final period, he wrote several tragicomedies. Among these are Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest. Though graver in tone than the comedies, they are not the dark tragedies of King Lear or Macbeth because they end with reconciliation and forgiveness.

Death

Tradition has it that William Shakespeare died on his birthday, April 23, 1616, though many scholars believe this is a myth. Church records show he was interred at Trinity Church on April 5, 1616.

In hfis will, he left the bulk of his possessions to his eldest daughter, Susanna. Though entitled to a third of his estate, little seems to have gone to his wife, Anne, whom he bequeathed his “second-best bed.” This has drawn speculation that she had fallen out of favour, or that the couple was not close. However, there is very little evidence the two had a difficult marriage.

Other scholars note that the term “second-best bed” often refers to the bed belonging to the household’s master and mistres—the marital bed—and the “first-best bed” was reserved for guests.

For More Resources

The Merchant of Venice Character List

by

The Merchant of Venice Character List – ICSE Class 10, 9 English

EnglishMathsPhysicsChemistryBiology

ICSE SolutionsSelina ICSE SolutionsML Aggarwal Solutions

Antonio A :wealthy Venetian merchant who occasionally lends money, but never charges interest. Since his main source of income is from his merchant ships, he is the “merchant” of the play’s title.

Bassanio: He is a typical Elizabethan lover and nobleman who is careless with his money; hence, he has to borrow from Antonio so that he can woo Portia in style.

Portia: As one of Shakespeare’s most intelligent and witty heroines, she is famous for her beauty and for her wealth, and she is deeply anguished that she must marry only the man who chooses the single casket of three which contains her portrait.

Shylock: Shylock is an intelligent businessman who believes that, since he is a moneylender, charging interest is his right; to him, it makes good business sense.

The Duke of Venice: He presides as judge over the court proceedings in Shylock’s claim on Antonio.

The Prince of Morocco: One of Portia’s suitors; he loses the opportunity to marry her when he chooses the golden casket.

The Prince of Arragon: He chooses the silver casket; he is another disappointed suitor for Portia’s hand in marriage.

Gratiano: He is the light-hearted, talkative friend of Bassanio, who accompanies him to Belmont; there, he falls in love with Portia’s confidante, Nerissa.

Lorenzo: He is a friend of Antonio and Bassanio; he woos and wins the love of Shylock’s daughter, Jessica.

Jessica: She is the young daughter of Shylock; she falls in love with Lorenzo and, disguised as a boy, she elopes with him.

Nerissa: Portia’s merry,and sympathetic lady-in-waiting.

Salarino: He is a friend who believes that Antonio is sad because he is worried about his ships at sea.

Salanio: He is another friend of Antonio; he thinks Antonio’s melancholy may be caused because Antonio is in love.

Saierio: A messenger from Venice.

Launcelot Gobbo: He is a “clown,” a jester, the young servant of Shylock; he is about to run away because he thinks Shylock is the devil; eventually, he leaves Shylock’s service and becomes Bassanio’s jester.

Old Gobbo: The father of Launcelot, he has come to Venice to seek news of his son.

Tubal: He is a friend of Shylock’s; he tells him that one of Antonio’s ships has been wrecked. Leonardo Bassanio’s servant.

Balthasar: The servant whom Portia sends to her cousin, Dr. Bellario.

Dr. Bellario:A lawyer of Padua.

Stephano: One of Portia’s servants.

For More Resources

 

The Merchant of Venice Major Symbols, Motifs and Critical Essays

by

The Merchant of Venice Major Symbols, Motifs and Critical Essays – ICSE Class 10, 9 English

EnglishMathsPhysicsChemistryBiology

ICSE SolutionsSelina ICSE SolutionsML Aggarwal Solutions

Major Symbols, Motifs and Critical Essays

Explore the different symbols within William Shakespeare’s comedic play, The Merchant of Venice.Symbols are central to understanding The Merchant of Venice as a play and identifying Shakespeare’s social and political commentary.

Portia is the only character whom it is difficult to criticize, and Shakespeare appears to use her as a symbol of mercy and forgiveness. The symbolism of Portia becomes most apparent when she travels to Venice, disguised as a lawyer. Because Venice can be thought of as symbolizing the real world, whereas Belmont is the world of idealism, when Portia travels to Venice, she is a character from the fantasy world entering the dangerous city. Her idealistic beliefs must come face to face with reality.

Three Caskets

Portia’s suitors must choose one of three caskets; gold, silver, or lead. One of the caskets contains a portrait of Portia; the others do not. If the suitor chooses the casket containing Portia’s picture, he has won the right to marry her. But none has succeeded so far. Attached to the caskets are inscriptions. The inscription on the leaden casket does not sound as enticing as the others, because it requires the chooser to risk everything he has. The inscriptions on the gold and silver caskets are different; they tell the chooser that he will gain something by choosing them. But the inscriptions have double meanings.

For More Resources

 

The Merchant of Venice Character Analysis

by

The Merchant of Venice Character Analysis – ICSE Class 10, 9 English

EnglishMathsPhysicsChemistryBiology

ICSE SolutionsSelina ICSE SolutionsML Aggarwal Solutions

Antonio

Although the plot turns on Antonio’s predicament, his character is not sharply drawn. He is a rich man, and a comfortable man, and a popular man, but still he suffers from an inner sadness. One obvious, dramatic reason for Antonio’s quiet melancholy is simply that Shakespeare cannot give Antonio too much to do or say without taking away valuable dialogue time from his major characters. Therefore, Shakespeare makes Antonio a quiet, dignified figure.

One of Antonio’s most distinguishing characteristics is his generosity. He is more than happy to offer his good credit standing so that Bassanio can go to Belmont in the latest fashions in order to court Portia. And one of the reasons why Shylock hates Antonio so intensely is that Antonio has received Shylock’s borrowers by lending them money at the last minute to pay off Shylock; and Antonio never charges interest. He is only too happy to help his friends, but he would never stoop to accepting more than the original amount in return. Antonio’s generosity is boundless, and for Bassanio, he is willing to go to the full length of friendship, even if it means that he himself may suffer for it.

Antonio is an honorable man. When he realizes that Shylock is within his lawful rights, Antonio is ready to fulfill the bargain he entered into to help Bassanio. “The Duke cannot deny the course of the law,” he says. And later, he adds that he is “arm’d / To suffer, with a quietness of spirit. . . For if the Jew do cut but deep enough, / I’ll pay it presently with all my heart.”

Antonio’s courage and goodness are finally rewarded; at the end of the play, when the three pairs of lovers are reunited and happiness abounds at Belmont, Portia’delivers a letter to Antonio in which he leams that the remainder of his ships has returned home safely to port.

Bassanio

Bassanio’s character is more fully drawn than Antonio’s, but it does not possess the powerful individuality that Shakespeare gives to his portraits of Portia and Shylock. First off, when one begins considering Bassanio, one should dismiss all the critics who condemn him for his financial habits. Bassanio’s request to Antonio for more money is perfectly natural for him. He is young; he is in love; and he is, by nature, impulsive and romantic. Young men in love have often gone into debt; thus Bassanio has always borrowed money and, furthermore, no moral stigma should be involved. Shakespeare needs just such a character in this play for his plot.

If Bassanio is not a powerful hero, he is certainly a sympathetic one. First, he has some of the most memorable verse in the play — language which has music, richness, and dignity. Second, he shows us his immediate, uncalculated generosity and love; this is especially obvious when Bassanio, who has just won Portia, receives the letter telling him of Antonio’s danger. Bassanio is immediately and extremely concerned over the fate of Antonio and is anxious to do whatever is possible for his friend. Flere, the situation is melodramatic and calls for a romantic, seemingly impossible, rescue mission.

When at last Bassanio and Portia are reunited, he speaks forthrightly and truthfully to her. He refuses to implicate Antonio, even though it was at Antonio’s urging that he gave away his wedding ring to the judge who cleverly saved Antonio’s life: “If you did know,” he tells Portia, “for what I gave the ring / And how unwillingly I left the ring . . . You would abate the strength of your displeasure.” No matter how powerful the circumstances, he admits that he was wrong to part with the ring because he had given his oath to Portia to keep it. As the play ends, Bassanio’s impetuous nature is once more stage- center. Speaking to his wife, he vows: “Portia, forgive me this enforced wrong; . . . and by my soul I swear / I never more will break an oath with thee.” Of course, he will; this, however, is part of Bassanio’s charm. He means it with all his heart when he swears to Portia, but when the next opportunity arises and he is called on to rashly undertake some adventure full of dash and daring, he’ll be off. Portia knows this also and loves him deeply, despite this minor flaw.

     Portia

Portia is the romantic heroine of the play, and she must be presented on the stage with much beauty and intelligence. Of her beauty, we need no convincing. Bassanio’s words are enough; thus we turn to her love for Bassanio. Already she has given him cause to think that it is possible that he can woo and win her, for on an earlier visit to Belmont, Bassanio did “receive fair speechless messages” from her eyes. And when Nerissa mentions the fact that Bassanio might possibly be a suitor, Portia tries to disguise her anxiety, but she fails. Nerissa understands her mistress. Portia is usually very self-controlled, but she reveals her anxiety concerning Bassanio a little later when he has arrived at her mansion and is about to choose one of the caskets. She has fallen in love with him, and her anxiety and confusion undo her. “Pause a day or two,” she begs, for “in choosing wrong, /1 lose your company.” She thus makes sure that he knows that it is not hate that she feels for him.

Bassar.io’s correct choice of the casket overwhelms Portia. She wishes she had more of everything to give Bassanio: “This house, these servants and this same myself / Are yours, my lord: I give them with this ring.” She willingly shares all she owns with Bassanio. Once ‘master of her emotions, she has fallen completely under the spell of love’s madness. Love is a reciprocal giving and receiving, and so it is with perfect empathy that she sends her beloved away almost immediately to try and save his friend Antonio. They will be married, but their love will not be consummated until his friend is saved, if possible.

Portia’s second characteristic that is most readily apparent is her graciousness — that is, her tact and sympathy. Despite her real feelings about the Prince of Morocco, Portia answers him politely and reassuringly. Since the irony of her words is not apparent to him, his feelings are spared. She tells him that he is “as fair / As any comer I have look’d on yet / For my affection.” She shows Morocco the honor his rank deserves. But once he is gone, she reveals that she did not like him. ”A gentle riddance,” she says; “Draw the curtains.”

When the Prince of Aragon arrives, Portia carefully addresses him with all the deference due his position. She calls him “noble.” But after he has failed and has left, she cries out, “O, these deliberate fools!” To her, both of these men are shallow and greedy and self-centered; yet to their faces, she is as ladylike as possible. Lorenzo appreciates this gentle generosity of spirit; when Portia has allowed her new husband to leave to try and help his best friend out of his difficulty, he says to her: “You have a noble and a true conceit / Of god-like amity.”

In the courtroom, Portia (in disguise) speaks to Shylock about mercy, but this is not merely an attempt to stall; she truly means what she says. It is an eloquent appeal she makes. Her request for mercy comes from her habitual goodness. She hopes, of course, to soften his heart, knowing the outcome if he refuses. But the words come from her heart, honestly and openly and naturally.

Finally, of course, what we most remember about Portia, after the play is over, is her wit and her playfulness. Even when Portia is complaining to Nerissa about the terms of her father’s will, she does so wittily: “Is it not hard, Nerissa, that I cannot choose one nor refuse none?” And then she ticks off, like a computer, the eccentricities of the six suitors who have arrived at Belmont to try for her hand. They are either childish, humorless, volatile, ignorant, too fantastically dressed, weak, or have a drinking problem. She is clearly glad to be rid of them all when it is announced that they are departing.

We recall too the humorous way that she imagines dressing like a man and aping the mannerisms of all of the!-men she has observed in her short life. She bets Nerissa that she can out-man any man when it comes to swaggering and playing the macho bit: “I have within my mind / A thousand raw tricks of these bragging Jacks, / Which I will practice.” Men are as transparent as stale beer to her; she revels in turning the tables and having a bit of fun even while she is on a daring mission to try and save Antonio’s life. And even in the courtroom, when Bassanio extravagantly offers his life for Antonio’s, Portia quips in an aside that “Your wife would give you little thanks for that, / If she were by, to hear you make the offer.”

The entire ring plot is Portia’s idea, and she and Nerissa relish the prospect of the jest at their husbands’ expense. Bassanio swears over and over that he never gave his ring away to another woman (and he is more than a little embarrassed to admit that he gave it to another man), but with a fine sense of comedy, Portia plays the role of the “angry wife” just as well as she played the role of the “learned young lawyer” at Antonio’s trial.

Only when Portia first falls in love with Bassanio does she lose all self-control; once she regains control of herself, she takes matters in hand until the very end of the play, and there she displays total command of the situation. “You are all amazed,” she tells them, and then she shows them a letter from Padua, explaining everything, and she gaily invites them inside where she will continue to explain and entertain. She is a delightful creature, one of Shakespeare’s most intelligent and captivating heroines.

Shylock

Shylock is the most vivid and memorable character in The Merchant of Venice, and he is one of Shakespeare’s greatest dramatic creations. On stage, it is Shylock who makes the play, and almost all of the great actors of the English and Continental stage have attempted the role. But the character of Shylock has also been the subject of much critical debate: How are we meant to evaluate the attitude of the Venetians in the play toward him? Or his attitude toward them? Is he a bloodthirsty villain? Or is he a man “more sinned against than sinning”? One of the reasons that such questions arise is that there are really two stage Shylocks in the play: first, there is the stage “villain” who is required for the plot; second, there is the human being who suffers the loss of his daughter, his property, and, very importantly for him, his religion.

Shylock’s function in this play is to be the obstacle, the man who stands in the way of the love stories; such a man is a traditional figure in romantic comedies. Something or someone must impede young, romantic love; here, it is Shylock and the many and various ways that he is linked to the three sets of lovers. The fact that he is a Jew is, in a sense, accidental. Shakespeare wanted to contrast liberality against selfishness — in terms of money and in terms of love. There was such a figure available from the literature of the time, one man who could fulfill both functions: this man would be a usurer, or moneylender, with a beautiful daughter that he held onto as tightly as he did his ducats. Usury was forbidden to Christians by the church of the Middle Ages, and as a consequence, money lending was controlled by the Jews; as a rule, it was usually the only occupation which the law allowed to them. As a result, a great deal of medieval literature produced the conventional figure of the Jewish moneylender, usually as a minor character, but also too, as a major character.

It is from this medieval literary tradition that Shakespeare borrows the figure of Shylock, just as Marlowe did for his Jew of Malta. Some commentators have said that the character of Shylock is an example of Elizabethan (and Shakespeare’s own) anti-Semitism. In contrast, many have seen the creation of Shylock as an attack on this kind of intolerance. But Shakespeare, they forget, was a dramatist. He was-not concerned with either anti- nor pro-Semitism, except in the way it shaped individual characters in his plays to produce the necessary drama that he was attempting to create. The play is thus emphatically rcotanti-Semitic; rather, because of the nature of Shylock’s involvement in the love plots, it is about anti-Semitism. Shakespeare never seriously defined or condemned a group through the presentation of an individual; he only did this for the purposes of comedy by creating caricatures in miniature for our amusement. Shylock is drawn in bold strokes; he is meant to be a “villain” in terms of the romantic comedy, but because of the multi-dimensionality which Shakespeare gives him, we are meant to sympathize with him at times, loathe him at others. Shakespeare’s manipulation of our emotions regarding Shylock is a testament to his genius as a creator of character.

When Shylock leaves the courtroom in Act IV, Scene 1, he is stripped of all that he has. He is a defeated man. Yet we cannot feel deep sympathy for him — some, perhaps, but not much. Shakespeare’s intention was not to make Shylock a tragifc figure; instead, Shylock was meant to function as a man who could be vividly realized as the epitome of selfishness; he must be defeated in this romantic comedy. In a sense, it is Shakespeare’s own brilliance which led him to create Shylock as almost too human. Shylock is powerfully drawn, perhaps too powerfully for this comedy, but his superb dignity is admirable, despite the fact that we must finally condemn him. Perhaps the poet W. H. Auden has given us our best clue as to how we must deal with Shylock: “Those to whom evil is done,” he says, “do evil in return.” This explains in a few words much of the moneylender’s complexity and our complex reactions toward him.

For More Resources