How Does Shakespeare Present Shylock's Presentation Of Prejudice In Othello

Question: ‘Shylock is a Jew in a predominantly Christian society just as Othello is…living in a predominantly white society. But unlike Othello, Shylock rejects the Christian community as firmly as it rejects him.’ (W.H. Auden, ‘The Dyer’s Hand’, 1963. Quoted in ‘Shakespeare’s Comedies’, edited by Lerner, Penguin 1967.)
In light of the above quotation, compare and contrast Shakespeare’s presentation of prejudice, considering how audiences of different periods might react to it. (2000 words)

Shylock’s presentation of prejudice has been received in immeasurably different ways by audiences of different generations, and the portrayal of the attitudes of Shylock and Othello towards their intolerant societies are ones that still arguably
David H. Lawrence famously quoted ‘Never trust the artist, trust the tale’; and indeed, this ha what happened with Shakespeare’s intentions for Shylock and the grim reality. For example, the character of Shylock was used in anti-semetic propaganda by Hitler in Nazi Germany to promote the scapegoating of the Jews; Shylock is held up by a local newspaper in Konigsberg, Germany in 1935 as ‘cowardly and malicious’ when ‘properly understood’, a line that undermines both the intelligence and self-esteem of local people upon reading (in that they did not read enough into the play), and the true meaning of The Merchant of Venice. Upon saying that the deeper meaning is that Shylock is cowardly and malicious, they are mistaking the shallow, surface meaning for a deeper one. As Harold Bloom commented in 1999, ‘It would have been better for the Jewish people had Shakespeare never written this play’; here, Bloom is obviously commenting on the fact that people only took away the shallow meaning, not the deeper, politically-charged (for the times) meaning that Shakespeare is attempting to
For example, Othello almost unconsciously uses racist terms to describe himself, providing a derogatory edge to his words. This is shown best in the soliloquys given to Othello, especially when he doubts the good nature of Desdemona; he feels that his ‘name, that was as fresh As Dian 's visage, is now begrimed and black, As mine own face’, i.e. that his previously good nature is now smeared. However, Othello associates his own face as ‘begrimed and black’, in that he sees his very self as something dirty- and that white (i.e. ‘Dian’s visage’, a marble-white Greek goddess) as something good, clean, and pure. Othello appears to have internalised the racist ideologies preached by Venetians such as Brabantio, and this especially comes to heed in the murder of Desdemona. Seeds planted by Iago act as a catalyst to the problem put in the open by Brabantio at the start of the play; that Desdemona would never ‘Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom Of such a thing as thou’. This, ultimately, is something that the entire play relies on; this comment, made in the heat of the moment by Brabantio, ultimately delivers death unto his daughter. Othello begins to doubt Desdemona’s love and honour due to the fact that he has internalised such racist opinions as ‘blacks and whites should not mix’, and is driven