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Shylock: Character Born out of Anti-Semitism, or a Character with Meaning?

The Merchant of Venice has garnered a lot of criticism over the years for its blatant portrayal of the Jewish characters as antagonistic money-hungry slobs. In fact, it was a staple of Nazi Germany literature. However, is it possible that we have all been internalizing it wrong?

In Act 3, Scene 1, Shylock (the Jewish antagonist of the story) delivers quite a heartwarming speech to Salarino:

"To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? 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."

 A lot of detractors of the anti-semitism theory point this out as proof that Shakespeare wrote this play as a comment on anti-semitic views plaguing Europe at the time (a view that I share). However, since we only really know basic details of Shakespeare's life, it is hard to say whether he was anti-semitic or not. But if he really was, why would we he have included this? As someone living in a post-Holocaust world, I already felt sympathy for Shylock at the mention of his very character, and this only reinforces my thinking that the antagonist-protagonist roles are somewhat twisted here.

Comments

  1. Kim HarrisonFebruary 9, 2017 at 7:34 AM

    A thoughtful post - this speech is certainly mysterious and deserves attention.

    ReplyDelete

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