The character of Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice"

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Poltitical Circumstances of Jewish Life in the 16th Century

3. Shylock’s Appearances in The Merchant of Venice
3.1 Shylock and His Daughter Jessica
3.2 Shylock and Antonio
3.3 Shylock and Venetian Society in General

4. Shylock’s Representative Role as a Character in the Play

5. Conclusion

6. Bibliography

1. Introduction

William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice surely can be considered one of the playwright’s greatest works. Still today critics are not fully aware of its actual meaning and there are many different opinions of how this play is to be interpreted. As a matter of fact we can say that Shakespeare has created one of the most diverse plays in the history of drama. Containing two equally important plot-lines and several sub-plots it is very difficult to make out even one main character or to be absolutely sure about their variety of intentions.

On the one hand there is one of the main characters, the Jew Shylock, “a comic antagonist far more important than any such figure had been in his [Shakespeare’s] earlier comedies”^[1], who plays the role of a non-Christian villain. And opposing him we have the Venetian society with all its flaws and hypocrisies which are pointed out during the conflict with Shylock. On the other hand there is the romantic love story between Portia and Bassanio located in remote Belmont, which is the actual trigger for the conflict between Antonio and Shylock and also brings a solution to it. This solution is due to Portia’s cunning and liberation as a woman, which can be seen in her disguising as the judge in order to be able to save Antonio’s life; there are only two qualities which are supposed to be quite unusual for a female character of that time. But at the same time she has to fulfil her typical role as “a faithful daughter whatever the consequence”^[2], yielding to fate by obeying her father’s will. And Portia is not the only ambigous and exceptional figure of the play.

Nonetheless this paper is going to deal with the complexity of Shylock’s role in the play, focussing on interactions with other characters. Further on it will also consider the socio-historical background of Jewish life in Elizabethan Britain and of course speculate about the author’s intentions of describing his characters the way he did.

2. Poltitical Circumstances of Jewish Life in the 16th Century

The history of the Jewish people has, for the most part, been one of exclusion, intimidation and even persecution. For example in the year 1492 Jews were driven out of Spain and only five years later they were forced to convert to Christianity in Portugal.^[3] And this was also true for early modern England from where Jewish people had officially been expelled by King Edward I in 1290 and were not allowed to come back until the middle of the 17th century. Some of them returned to their native country after having converted to Christian faith officially.^[4] As ‘ethnic cleansings’ had become relatively common in trying to achieve “racial and religious purity”^[5], many Jewish people, who did not possess a state of their own but were scattered all over the European continent, had to either convert to another religion – which means the religion of their monarch – or leave their homes and countries.

These facts inevitably lead us to the conclusion that Shakespeare himself “is unlikely to have known any [Jews]; nor could he have known what would happen subsequently to Shylock’s race.”^[6] So we can assume that the character Shylock as depicted by Shakespeare with all his ‘typical Jewish’ traits and stereotypical behaviour mainly has been created on the basis of prejudices and common rumours about an unknown culture.

But there is also another coincidence which could eventually have influenced the author’s decision to include this rather unpleasant and alien-appearing figure into one of his plays. There is historical evidence that “around the time Shakespeare was writing The Merchant of Venice a Portugese Jew, Rodrigo Lopez, physician to Queen Elisabeth, was being tried and executed for plotting the murder of the Queen”^[7] – a circumstance that attracted very much attention in public and gives evidence that there actually were at least some Jews present in England at the end of the 16th century. And maybe this incident at the Royal Court “would presumably have affected on Shakespeare’s portrait of the Jew”.^[8]

3. Shylock’s Appearances in The Merchant of Venice

First it can be stated that for being one of the absolute main characters of the plot Shylock in person only appears in relatively few scenes. This is of course also due to the second plot line describing Portia’s situation in far off Belmont, in which Shylock only plays a secondary role until Portia’s appearance in Venice.

Nevertheless Shakespeare manages quite well in portraying Shylock as the embodiment of all common resentments and negative prejudices towards Jews in general. This can be seen on the one hand by his own statements in dialogues and asides,

I hate him for he is a Christian;

But more, for that in low simplicity

He lends out money gratis and brings down

The rate of usance here with us in Venice (MV 80)^[9]

as well as in conversations by all the other characters who “have a word or two to say on the subject of his character, and never a good one.”^[10] Here in the aside of his just mentioned we can see at least two of his bad qualities, which are intolerance and greed for material goods. This is of course an absolutely reliable source of information for the audience and “all the more telling because on an Elisabethan stage it would practically have been a soliloquy”,^[11] as Shakespeare had positioned these asides in well-contemplated places.

3.1 Shylock and His Daughter Jessica

Shylock’s relationship to his only daughter Jessica can simply be defined as a wrecked one. Both of them do not seem to have any understanding for each other’s situation and needs as “nowhere in the play does Shylock show any tenderness towards his daughter”.^[12] In this respect Jessica is of course an ambiguous character. On one hand she evokes sympathies with the audience for being treated badly by her father who, because of his Jewish origin, makes it hard for her to find her place in Venetian society and makes her feel “estranged from parents whose foreign speech and ways seemed embarrassing and stultifying”^[13] to her as the next generation. On the other hand there are also her obvious flaws of character which have to be mentioned and cannot be excused simply by indicating her social background. For the audience this means that they “should like Jessica better if she had not robbed and deceived her father”^[14] the cruel way she did.

[...]

^[1] C.L. Barber, “The Merchants and the Jew of Venice”, Shakespeare - The Merchant of Venice: A Casebook, ed. John Wilders (London: Macmillan, 1969) 176–192, at 176.

^[2] Robert Ornstein, “The Merchant of Venice”, Shakespeare’s Comedies: From Roman Farce to Romantic Mystery (London: Associated University Press, 1986) 90–118, at 104.

^[3] Ania Loomba, “Outsiders in Shakespeare’s England”, The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare, eds. Margreta de Grazia and Stanley Wells (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001) 147–163, at 156

^[4] Loomba 156.

^[5] Loomba 156.

^[6] Bill Overton, “The Problem of Shylock”, The Merchant of Venice: Critical Essays, ed. Thomas Wheeler (New York: Garland, 1991) 293–313, at 293.

^[7] Patrick Swinden, The Merchant of Venice, An Introduction to Shakespeare’s Comedies (London: Macmillan, 1973) 65–76, at 67.

^[8] Overton 67.

^[9] All page references preceded by ‘ MV ’ are to the following edition: William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, ed. W. Moelwyn Merchant (London: Penguin Books, 1967)

^[10] E.E. Stoll, “Shylock”, The Merchant of Venice: Critical Essays, ed. Thomas Wheeler (New York: Garland, 1991) 247–262, at 248.

^[11] Overton 293.

^[12] John Brown, Introduction The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare, ed. John Russell Brown (London: Thompson Learning, 1979) xi.

^[13] Ornstein 116.

^[14] William Hazlitt, “The Merchant of Venice” , The Merchant of Venice: Critical Essays, ed. Thomas Wheeler (New York: Garland, 1991) 241–246, at 244.