Shylock is the most vivid and noteworthy character in The Merchant of Venice and one of the greatest creations of Shakespeare. However, no consensus has been reached on how to read Shylock’s character, on whether Shylock is a man “more sinned against than sinning”. With The Merchant of Venice being a romantic comedy, Shylock is basically portrayed as a comic villain, a clownish Jewish stereotype, and also a bloodthirsty usurer.
Shakespearean England was prejudiced against Jews, considering Jews as the incarnation of the Devil (they were thought to have horns). Shakespeare grew up in a prejudiced world and presumably shared its prejudices. Shakespeare probably wants his audience to perceive the merciless Shylock as a religious contrast to the generous Christians.
Shylock is depicted as cunning as he craftily gets Antonio to sign the bond (Act 1 Scene 3, 138-146), “This kindness will I show./Go with me to a notary; seal me there/Your single bond, and, in a merry sport,/If you repay me not on such a day,/In such a place, such sum or sums as are/Expressed in the condition, let the forfeit/Be nominated for an equal pound/Of your fair flesh, to be cut off and taken/In what part of your body pleaseth me.”
Shylock is also money-hungry and mercenary as he seems to value money more than his daughter (Act 3 Scene 1, 78-84), “Why, there, there, there, there! A diamond gone/cost me two thousand ducats in Frankfort – the/curse/never fell upon our nation till now; I never felt it/till now: two thousand ducats in that – and other/precious, precious jewels. I would my daughter were/dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear!Would she/were hearsed at my foot, and the ducats in her coffin!”
Shylock is inhumane and cruel too as shown in the trial scene where Shylock was all ready to remove a pound of flesh from Antonio (Act 4 Scene 1, 121-123), Bassanio: (To Shylock)Why dost thou whet thy knife/so earnestly?/Shylock: To cut the forfeiture from that bankrupt there.”
Shylock is murderous and vindictive too as he wants Antonio’s pound of flesh just because he wants to (Act 4 Scene 1, 43-62), “What if my house be troubled with a rat,/And I be pleased to give ten thousand ducats/To have it baned? What, are you answered yet?/Some men there are love not a gaping pig,/Some that are mad if they behold a cat,/And others when the bagpipe sings i’th’ nose/Cannot contain their urine; for affection,/Mistress of passion, sways it to the mood/Of what it likes or loathes……/So can I give no reason, nor I will not,/More than a lodged hate and a certain loathing/I bear Antonio, that I follow thus/A losing suit against him. Are you answered?”
However, Shakespeare portrayed Shylock as a human with feelings, not a flat character. Shylock is also the tragic victim of religious persecution. Shakespeare manages to go beyond the stereotype of the grasping Jew and create a credible human being with deep feelings and the power of thought. We may sympathise with Shylock to see how the persecution by the Christian society shaped Shylock’s character.
Leah’s ring, for example, is a strong symbol of Shylock’s humanity, his ability to love and grieve. Leah is Shylock’s late wife, and when he hears that Jessica has traded it for a monkey, he laments that, “I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys. (Act 3 Scene 1, 114-115)” The lost ring enables us to see Shylock in an unusually vulnerable position and to see him as a human being capable of feeling something more than hatred and revenge.
Hatred is a cyclical phenomenon. Prejudice breeds prejudice. Shylock’s entire plan to harm Antonio seems to result from the insults and abuses Antonio has inflicted upon him in the past. His reasoning is that he is simply applying what years of abuse have taught him (Act 3 Scene 1, 54-68), “I am a Jew. 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 villainy/you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but/I will better the instruction.”
However, while we know his motivation, Shylock’s pledge to behave as badly as the Christians is no excuse his intended murder of Antonio. Shylock, being the symbol of selfishness, must be defeated in this comedy. Despite his admirable dignity, we must eventually condemn him. Shakespeare intended the audience to sympathize with Shylock at times and loathe him at others. Shakespeare's genius manipulation of our emotions is truly remarkable.
Shakespeare may have intended to make Shylock the anti-Semitic caricature of the grasping, merciless Jew, but, perhaps unconsciously and out of his conscience, he also managed to humanise Shylock. Shakespeare has created a character that is human and powerfully drawn, perhaps too powerfully…
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