Merchant of Venice

Shakespeare causes the audience to juxtapose between sympathy and hatred for Shylock through his quotes and the actions that happen through out the plot. Shylock was portrayed as a devil multiple times throughout the play as a selfish money lender who cares more about his ducats then his own daughter! The quote “Why, there, there, there! A diamond gone cost me two thousand ducats in Frankfurt! The curse never fell upon our nation till now, I never felt it till now... no tears but a' my shedding.”(3:1:53) Shylock, emphasizes how he wants the jewels his daughter stole back at all cost even if it meant he had to kill his daughter to get it. It had shown how was inhumane he acted when it came to the sorrow for loosing his daughter versus loosing his ducats. This truly causes some hatred for Shylock.

Shakespeare did not only accentuate Shylock's mean spirit but he also presented a more sympathizing view of him. At the beginning Shylock was ridiculed for being Jewish, which causes most people to connect with him because of the constant disagreeing of religions that still happen today. Shylock also looses his ducats and jewels, which mean so much to him it represents all of his hard work and achievement in a world that brought him down and told him he was nothing. Shylock addresses to the reader something that amplifies his feeling,“To bait fish withal; if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me and hindered me half a million, laughed at my losses... The villainy you teach me I execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.”(3:1:54) he connects and dramatizes why he has been distancing himself from others and why he treats them so unjustly.

A modern audience would view Shylock in more of a sympathetic way. Shylock is suggested as a evil type of character but it is all because of how he is treated by the citizens in Venice. He wanted to be accepted, like how many teenagers secretly want to be a part of