The Role of Jessica in The Merchant of VeniceThe character of Jessica, in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, fulfills an important function in relation to her father, Shylock. By abandoning her for a Christian husband, Shylock loses the last person with whom he has any connection. Shylock's isolation becomes an essential part of his character and motivates his ruthless actions against Antonio. Throughout the play, everyone who could claim any social or familial connection to Shylock leaves him. Launcelot the Clown, addresses a Christian master, who has the "grace of God..." (II,ii L.139). His own daughter Jessica abandons him and his entire Jewish culture to marry Lorenzo and become a Christian. Shylock therefore has no one from whom he can receive comfort. Shylock then becomes a character motivated by isolation and a feeling of abandonment. The emphasis on the binding values ​​of money and law is the only thing he can claim as his own. When Shylock discovers his daughter's deception, he begins to abandon family ties, in the name of temporal laws defining right. ...