Merchant Of Venice Shylock Term paper
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In the play The Merchant of Venice, the character of Shylock is really the inhuman monster that the audience may believe that he can be, although he is somewhat forced into his actions by the way that the Christians in the play treated him. Shakespeare compels the character to follow through on the debt owed to him because the Christians in the play have pushed him too far in the past. The debt then becomes a form of revenge for Shylock and thus his motivation to become a villain in The Merchant of Venice.
Throughout the play Shylock has been spit on, discriminated against, and thought to be an awful indecent creature because he is Jewish and not the Christina norm of the rest of the characters. And one of the real blows for him is when people told Shylock that they would do it all over again if they were given the chance. And a man, Antonio, who wants to be lent money from Shylock, is telling this to him.
Antonio. I am as like to call thee so again,
To spet on thee again, to spurn thee too.
If thou wilt lend this money, lend it not
As to thy friends, for when did friendship take
A breed for barren metal of hi friend?
But lend it rather to thine enemy,
Who if he break, thou mayst with better face
Exact the penalty. Act I.iii.130-136
And it is because if such treatment from Antonio, and the other Christians, that Shylock becomes so enraged that he is obsessed with finding a way to act out of revenge against them. This is something that can best be seen in the aside that Shylock has in Act I.iii. 41-51, where his true feelings are told.
Shylock. How like a fawning publican he looks!
I hate him for he is a Christian;
But more, for that in low simplicity
He lends money graits, and brings down
The rate of usance here with us in Venice.
If I can catch him once upon the hip,
I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bare him.
He hates our sacred nation, and he rails
Even there where merchants most do congregate
On me, my bargains, and my well-won thrift,
Which he calls interest. Coursed be my tribe
If I forgive him!
Shylock here even speaks in terms of wrestling moves when he speaks of catching the Christians “upon the hip”. And he is further motivated to be villainous by the way that the Christians do not allow him to collect interest on the loans that he has given out. Money is seen here as something that is incredibly important to Shylock, so much so that it outweighs the hatred that he feels because of the way he has been treated by the Christians. Shylock even goes as far as to curse the rest of “his tribe”, or family, if he forgives the Christians for everything that they have done to him. Thus further proving that he is a villain and there is motivation for Shylock to act out towards the Christians but it does not mean that his actions are excused. The audience also knows that this is how Shylock truly feels because the entire thing is said as an aside, therefore his true feelings are being let out.
When Antonio says that he will pay Shylock back in a pound of flesh if he cannot return the money borrowed in full, it was Antonio’s idea and Shylock even remarked as to what value would the pound of flesh have to him. However, what Antonio does not know is the amount of hatred that Shylock has for him. The taking of the pound of flesh would thus mean that Antonio would die, and Shylock would be able to have his revenge against the Christians. This is the chance that he has been waiting for all of his life.
Shylock’s own...
A 3 1/2 page paper on Shylock as a villan in the playMLA Style
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