Is Shylock in The Merchant of Venice a victim or a villain
- This is a preview of the essay.
To view the full text you must login!
Is Shylock, in The Merchant of Venice, a victim or a villain?
Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice is called a comedy but its themes of love, hate and revenge, and the bitter conflict between Antonio and Shylock seem to suggest it is more than just a comedy. This essay focuses on the character of Shylock, the Jewish money lender, and investigates whether he can be seen as a villain or a victim. The essay looks at the role of Shylock, how he is treated by the other characters, and how he responds.
There was once a practice of charging interest on loans called 'usury'. The churches regarded it as a sin therefore Christian people like Antonio could and did not practice it and regarded those who did so, with contempt. The Jews, because they weren't Christians, were allowed to charge interest. The Jews in Venice weren't treated as human beings they were treated like they were scum. The Jews were only tolerated by the Venetians as long as they kept to the law. But Venice, being an important trading capital of the world, money lenders thought it was necessary to keep their businesses alive by sometimes not abiding by the law...