The character of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice Few characters created by Shakespeare embody pure evil like the character of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. Shylock is a moneylender and a malicious, bloodthirsty old man, determined to plot the downfall of his enemies. He is a clever, vengeful character, consumed by venomous malice1; an image of callous and total wickedness, deaf to any call from humanity2. Shylock is the antagonist facing the naive, essentially good Antonio, the protagonist; who must defend himself against the "devil" Shylock. The evil he represents is one of the reasons why Shakespeare chose to characterize Shylock as a Jew, the Jews of his time being considered the children of the Devil, the crucifiers of Christ and the stubborn rejecters of the wisdom of God and of Christianity. However, when Shakespeare created Shylock, he did not insert him as a purely flat character, only consumed by the villainy of his plot. One of the great talents that Shakespeare possessed, notes Shakespeare analyst Harrold R. Walley, was his ability to make each key character act like a real, rational person. Walley said of all Shakespeare's characters, heroes or villains, that "their conduct is always presented as logical and justifiable from their point of view3". To maintain the literary integrity of the play, "Shakespeare is under the necessity of explaining clearly why a man like Shylock should be brought to such a degree of vindictive hatred that he contemplates murder." His harm must have a deep motivation, and this motivation is the harm done to him. Shylock is not an ogre who lets evil and disaster waste for no reason. He was wronged first; the fact that his revenge far exceeds this initial evil is what makes him a villain. Under Shylock's villainy, the concept of evil for evil's sake is an important theme throughout the play. In order to understand the concept of evil for evil's sake, one must examine the initial evil, directed against Shylock, through Shylock's own eyes. Some may view the discrimination against Shylock as justified because he is a malicious loan shark; This is certainly what the Venetians thought. However, the discrimination took its toll on Shylock, until he began to hate all Christians. Shylock saw himself as an outsider, alienated by his society. The harm he saw done to him took three major forms: Antonio's hatred, discrimination by Venetian Christians, and his daughter Jessica's marriage to a Christian...