Character Analysis of Shylock:
In Shakespeare’s edgy and suspenseful play, The Merchant of Venice, the character of Shylock may evoke complex feelings within the reader. Shylock is clearly a villain in the sense that he takes repeatedly takes advantage of people in vulnerable economic situations and makes a handsome living in this way. He is not an inherently likeable character throughout The Merchant of Venice; he avoids friendships, he is cranky, and he is steadfast in his beliefs to the point of being rigid.
When I read the book and focused on a basic character analysis of Shylock, I could feel a curious compassion for this character, who is so clearly disliked. Although he had imposed isolation on himself by declaring that he will not “eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you.”, I understand why he has withdrawn from social life when he makes his moving speech in Act 3, in which it is asked by Shylock who is the victim of racism and prejudice from especially Antonio, “Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?”
When I first read this part of the play, I first begun to understand how Shylock had never been understood because no one has ever seen him for anything other than the fact that he was a Jew, and a moneylender. This complicated my point of view with his character and the subsequent punishment he receives because although he is not likable, one cannot help but sympathize with his plight as an outcast.
It is Shylock himself who teaches readers and his own peers the most about Christian love and mercy in The Merchant of Venice. As he continues his Act 3 speech, he muses about the similarities between Jews and Christians in one of the meaningful quotes, saying, “Fed… the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means… as a Christian is....,” and then confronts his Christian accusers and judges with three profound questions that invoke these themes in the Merchant of Venice: “If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?” . The cycle of strange violence that Shylock has set into motion will not end once his punishment has been meted out to him, as he goes on to warn in the remainder of the speech. Rather than learn this lesson, namely, that revenge in the guise of justice will never result in anything other than more revenge, Shylock receives his punishment. I believe we can see the same kinds of issues played out in society, proving that we have learned little about what Shakespeare hoped to teach us through Shylock.
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