Perhaps no other play in Shakespeare's repertoire has provoked greater controversy regarding its fundamental moral and religious attitudes as The Merchant of Venice. To understand Shakespeare's treatment of the Jews in this play, we must understand Judaism as it was seen in the Elizabethan era. The Jews, expelled from England in 1290, did not return until 1656. As a literary and social convention, the Jew was a sacred figure who resembled a monster more than a social stereotype such as a "highlander." or a “nerd”. Many Christians came to believe that Jews had cloven feet and tails, and that they suffered from an innate bad odor and blood diseases, for which they sought cures in vampirism. With these ideas in mind, many scholars, directors, and students have examined the bard's intent, attempting to deduce whether the playwright needed a villain his audience would immediately hate or a villain who, despite its faults, is understandable. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay There are at least two commonly held positions regarding anti-Semitism in The Merchant of Venice. The first perspective confirms that the play has strong anti-Semitic themes and suggests that chastising the Jew for his inherent wickedness was an act of great importance in the construction of Shylock's character. Some readings that suggest this even go so far as to argue that Shakespeare laid the groundwork for the racial anti-Semitism of a later era in the character of Shylock. Convinced of the anti-Semitism inherent in this play, Efraim Sicher believes that it is only because of the events of the Holocaust that recent scholars have attempted to "attempt to correct" the character of Shylock and this without post-Holocaust sensitivities . regarding the idea of ​​anti-Semitism, Shylock would have remained an undisputed villain (57). In an effort to save Shakespeare and the Christian character from the charge of intolerance and anti-Semitism, commentators have also sought to turn the play into an allegory. . Sir Israel Gollancz, for example, views the play as Shakespeare's largely unconscious development of certain myths implicit in the original sources in which Antonio represents Christ, Shylock represents Evil, and Portia represents both mercy and grace (13). . While these suggestions certainly add meaning to the trial scene, they do not add much, upon closer examination, to the rest of the play. It is impossible to construct a definitive allegory that encompasses the entire work at all its levels. In her “Biblical Allusion and Allegory in The Merchant of Venice,” Barbra Lewalski demonstrates that the closest thing to an allegorical meaning in The Merchant of Venice lies in the essentially biblical allusions that puncture the text. For example, Lewalski cites Antonio's love for Bassanio and his desire to help Bassanio reflect Paul's characterization of Christian love in terms of humility and self-forgiveness in 1 Corinthians 8:4-5. She states: “The moral contrast between Shylock and Antonio is more complex with reference to that most difficult injunction of the Sermon on the Mount: forgiveness of wounds and love of enemies” (330). While it is clear that The Merchant of Venice has important symbolic elements, it is also clear that this play is not just an allegory. Although it certainly had an impact on European culture, the play cannot, among reasonable people, belinked to the rise of anti-Semitism. Such provocation of anti-Semitism has always been inherent in the cultures in question, and the main effect of The Merchant of Venice has been to disrupt any ideological complacency arising from the apparent Jewish stereotype presented by Shylock. This rupture does not result in the romantic transmogrification of Shylock into a tragic hero. His stubborn wickedness generates the uneasy tension that runs through the drama. Shylock is certainly a more malicious individual than Antonio, Bassanio, or Portia, but it is obvious that the Jew is suffering at the hands of the Christians. Just because we find Christian characters nicer or more attractive doesn't mean they are inherently better or good. Good does not always equal fairness, and justice is not always achieved by any action taken against a wrongdoer. It is precisely because Shylock is so cruel and repulsive that his appeal to our common humanity is so poignant. From this point of view, we can affirm that even if certain characters in The Merchant of Venice may embody anti-Semitism, these characters and their attitudes are criticized. to the point of clearly refuting it throughout the piece. Part of how Shakespeare accomplishes this criticism is by emphasizing Shylock's character as a man rather than his identity as a Jew. While Shakespeare almost certainly used an anti-Semitic characterization in Shylock's genesis, there are many elements of humanity in the character, most notably in his legendary monologue "Have he no Jewish eyes?" ” in which Shylock pleads his right to dignity and his right to liberty. take revenge on the Christians who wronged him. The inclusion of this soliloquy indicates that Shakespeare was seeking to do more than simply mock the Jew. Shylock chastises the Christians for failing to recognize his equally human status, even though he is determined to lose it: “Has not a Jew eyes? he cries. “Doesn’t a Jew have hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions...? Shylock is like Christians in his faculties, he asserts, and the moral corollary inevitably follows: "And if you wrong us, must we not take revenge?" A man should not be expected to appeal to others on an exalted spiritual level in order to have his basic humanity recognized. Shakespeare presents Shylock harshly but also allows him to speak eloquently on his own behalf, perhaps the first time a European playwright has given such a podium to a Jewish character. Part of what the play reveals concerns the inequities present among some Christians as well as some Jews. The importance of The Merchant of Venice, then, is that it allows the reader to see behind the patina of religious identity that defines Shylock the Jew. Shakespeare allows us to glimpse Shylock the man, a character who hates and bleeds like any Christian. Evil Jews are typical of medieval literature. However, the Jews who command our attention as suffering human beings are virtually unknown before Shakespeare. Shakespeare's portrayal of Shylock, the Jewish moneylender, causes the audience to both hate and pity the man. Certainly, Shakespeare had in the person of Christopher Marlowe a formidable competitor in the dramatization of an infamous Jew. In Marlowe's The Jew of Malta, Barabas is a caricature drawn from medieval mystery plays and miracles who gives an account of himself in close accord with the superstitious popular image of the Jew as ritual murderer, prisoner and ruthless enemy of the humanity - but especially Christians. Furthermore, Marlowe's Jew is a schemer and Machiavellian who acts as an Elizabethan archetype of villainy. On hisOn the way, Barabas poisons an entire convent, including his own daughter who took refuge there after killing her two suitors. In his article on "The Jewish and Christian Example of the Elizabethan Stage", Alan C Dessen skillfully summarizes the differences between the Jewish characters of Shakespeare and Marlowe. "Marlowe used his stage Jew to indict a society that is truly Christian in name but not in fact. The Merchant of Venice, on the other hand, is a romantic comedy, not a sardonic tragedy, so Shakespeare's presentation of his Jew in scene is somewhat different in tone and overall effect” (239). Shylock's daughter Jessica, unhappy at home, runs away with a prodigal Christian, Lorenzo, and steals money and jewels from her father. Shylock is furious at the loss of his ducats, but he is also heartbroken by his daughter's heartless betrayal. He cries out in his rage and frustration: “I wish my daughter were dead at my feet, and the jewels in her ear! May she be heard at my feet, and the ducats in her coffin! The difference between Barabas's atrocity and Shylock's malevolent but perfectly understandable human exclamation could hardly be more pronounced. One wants his daughter to die in a moment of passion and the other wants her to die; Barabas is therefore a monster and Shylock is a man. Whether Shylock is the evil Jew as portrayed by surrounding Christians or the deformed man suffering under the weight of righteous indignation depends largely on the creation of the character on stage. For many generations, the role of Shylock was a caricature of the Jewish stereotype: greedy, hawk-nosed, stoop-shouldered, cunning schemer, wringing his hands with sly obsequiousness to make a deal, reveling in ruthless satisfaction when he has the upper hand. hand, indulging in unscrupulous practices and rejoicing in his growing hoard of gold. Only recently have directors ditched the red wig and the bottle to present a truer character, an admirable character who fights back against his oppressors, exposing them for the hypocrites that they are. With this in mind, we see that Shylock seeks not only to repay his accusers for the injuries he has suffered, but also for the ancient injustices his people endured at the hands of the Christians. Even when Shylock is vilified to the fullest, a constant and inevitable challenge is thrown to Christian Venice's sincerity, making his utter villainy impossible to achieve. Perhaps superficial comfort, "but some readers may find some comfort in knowing that Shakespeare, while perhaps relying on Elizabethan prejudices, still used the stage Jew as a powerful dramatic weapon against hypocrisy and Christian complacency” (Dessen 245). Thus, the Jew is a means to a larger end, whether that end is moralistic, ironic, or comic, condemning a community's failure to live up to its own stated ideals. Part of what makes total villainy impossible to achieve with Shylock is from the start; Shakespeare strives to provide a powerful motivation for his hatred of Antonio that goes beyond the fact that he is a Christian and a hypocrite at that. When Antonio offers Shylock to act as guarantor for a loan of 3,000 ducats to the improvident Bassanio, the aggrieved lender reminds the merchant that he has called the Jew a "disbelieving and cut-throat dog" with a crowd of other insults. “Do you have money for a dog?” » Shylock asks: “Is it possible / A heart can lend three thousand ducats? Antonio is unmoved by Shylock's indignant response to such humiliations and tells him to lend the money "to thine enemy, / Which if it breaks, thou wilt be better able to face / Demand the, 21 (1991): 57-69