Little Sympathy For Shylock example essay topic

A Jewish moneylender in 16th Century Venice named Shylock was badly treated by Venetian society. This does not entitle him to any sympathy, as much of his treatment he brings upon himself. His thirst for revenge and his harshness to other characters in the play are proof of this. The main thing wrong with Shylock is his love of money. His makes readers unsympathetic towards him.

We first meet Shylock in Act one scene three. His first words were 'Three thousand ducats'; this is a message from Shakespeare to show his love of money. On the other hand in the courtroom scene in act four he turns down the amount of 'If every ducat in six thousand ducats were in six parts and each part was a ducat'. He does this for his extreme hatred of the Christian community, especially Antonio. Yet this the only serves to amplify the readers dislike of this man, because he has lost his love of money in his more extreme hatred of another human being, which is fuelling his vengeance. I have had a thought, our sympathy, or lack of it will have different roots.

Viewers of Shakespeare's time will find many things normal where as we would find it iniquitous. For example Shylocks relationship with his daughter and other members of his house specifically Lancelot. In act two scene five Lancelot has already told Shylocks of his plans to move to Bassanio's. Shylock would obviously found this exasperating as he has an extreme detestation of the Christians and Bassanio's friend. Lancelot shouts after Jessica to help Shylock but Shylock is irritated and therefore loses and says 'who bid thee call?

I do not bid thee call'. Most readers from modern times would find this inappropriate, but in the 16th century it may have been seen as acceptable. Also they situation in the same scene with Jessica, modern readers would find this wrong. Shylock keeps his daughter under lock and key, controls her when she is old enough in modern world, western society to leave home and have boyfriends. Shylock orders her about to a demanding, unreasonable way.

In the scene he tries to defend his daughter from the monstrosities of a 16th Century Christian street party by ordering her not to 'thrust your head into the public street to gaze upon Christian fools with varnished faces'. This was possibly the norm for viewers of Shakespeare's play, especially as most female parts were played by men, they may have noticed this and not have been as shocked by this behaviour to the fairer sex. All the above features do nothing for shylock's cause. His attitudes towards the leaving of his daughter were not one of immediate concern for his daughter but the money she stole and the money she is spending. When he finds out that she spent 'four score ducats in one sitting' he reacts by shouting 'Thou stick " st a dagger in me. I shall never see my gold again', notice there is no mention of his daughter when he says he will never see his daughter again.

This a universal and even across time, point that everyone can feel little sympathy for Shylock. Only four lines later we realise that Shylock does have a softer side that most people can have feel some form of sympathy for. His Jewish friend Tubal informs him that his daughter has swapped a sentimental ring for a monkey. Ten seconds earlier we would have expected to be worried over the fact that she swapped an expensive ring for a semi-intelligent mammal, but his has a concern for how she could have given away such a ring for anything, due to the sentimental value. He says he 'would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys.

The ring was given to him b his wife when they had just started courting. This is a clear sign that Shylock has only become this mercenary, vicious, vindictive moneylender due to his treatment from society. In my opinion, every thing that happened to Shylock was self-inflicted. He was a man who had a blatant disregard for the value of human life.

When he learned of Antonio's misfortune he sneered and told one of his servants, 'I am glad of it. I'll plague him, I'll torture him. I am glad of it. ' ' His reason for this bitter hatred of Antonio was the difference in their religion. All the man was interested in was vengeance, for the first time the first time in the play we realise that he is doing this for his extreme hatred for the poor Christian. Even when Bassanio's offered Shylock three times the original amount of money in exchange for Antonio's life, he was a not swayed and continued to refuse plea for mercy.

This does not surprise me in the slightest, as it is typical of his heartless and unfeeling nature. In the court he stated that he was not compelled to show mercy, therefore he would not show any. This proves that he thought only of himself. Portia went to great lengths to persuade him to accept the money Bassanio's was offering, but every time he refused and demanded his bond.

When Shylock realised his mistake and discovered that his life was in the hands of the judge, he was the first to beg for mercy. By doing this, he went against all that he had campaigned for. His cries for 'Justice" could no longer be heard and he was exposed as a hypocrite. Here we see the flaw in his moving speech about religious equality.

"Hath a Jew not eyes? Hath a Jew not hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?' ' While it is true that both were physically the same, the one difference between Shylock and his Christian enemies was their willingness to spare his life, despite all he tried to do to Antonio. Shylock was even given back half of his wealth, which in my opinion, was more than he deserved. Mercy and forgiveness were, and still are both fundamental parts of Christianity, if nothing else Shylock should have learned the importance of these from his enemies.

In the end of the play when Shylock has lost everything, including his religion I do feel immensely sorry for the poor chap. But as I said earlier it is of his own doing, if he had been more respectful of the surrounding Venetians and had not gone off on a vendetta because they cannot restrain themselves from the pits of prejudice then we should not have mercy upon him.