The Tragedy of Shylock, a Critical essay on Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice
Raymond Schmit � PAGE * MERGEFORMAT �6�
Shakespeare
The Tragedy of Shylock
I had not read the _Merchant of Venice_ before this class. All of my familiarity with the play was based on hearsay, and for some reason I got the idea in my heads that it was a tragedy. I thought that Shylock_did_ receive a pound of flesh from Antonio, but that it was just skin removed from his back. This gruesome image was what I was waiting for during my entire reading of the play. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was not the case. Also, I found out 'Comedy' means 'Happy Ending.' And that 'Happy Ending' means 'No One Gets Their Skin Cut off for Defaulting on a Loan.'
But I found the work to be not as comedic and happy as that ending implies. This is a happy ending if you identify and sympathize with those characters that triumph in the end. But reading this play in this day and age, Shylock becomes a much more sympathetic character. We look at Shylock through our knowledge of injustice perpetrated against Jews for thousands of years. We know and love flesh and bone humane Jews in our everyday life, and if not that, at least we all enjoyed _Seinfeld._ Shylock becomes not a depository for our hatred as previous generations could interpret him, but as a human being who has been wronged. It allows me to look at _The Merchant of Venice_ not only as a Comedy of the Merchant, but as the Tragedy of Shylock.
Shakespeare's the _Merchant of Venice_ has endured for this long because of the fascinating character of Shylock. His contradictory presence of both human and devil, the familiar and the strange is what continues to draw audiences to this work. Leslie Fiedler devotes an entire chapter of his book _The Stranger in Shakespeare_ to this interesting character, a chapter entitled _The Jew as Stranger._ This criticism offers a wealth of information, some of it useful and insightful, some of it less so. But I shall use Fiedler's work as a guide to deconstructing the _Merchant of
Shakespeare
The Tragedy of Shylock
I had not read the _Merchant of Venice_ before this class. All of my familiarity with the play was based on hearsay, and for some reason I got the idea in my heads that it was a tragedy. I thought that Shylock_did_ receive a pound of flesh from Antonio, but that it was just skin removed from his back. This gruesome image was what I was waiting for during my entire reading of the play. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was not the case. Also, I found out 'Comedy' means 'Happy Ending.' And that 'Happy Ending' means 'No One Gets Their Skin Cut off for Defaulting on a Loan.'
But I found the work to be not as comedic and happy as that ending implies. This is a happy ending if you identify and sympathize with those characters that triumph in the end. But reading this play in this day and age, Shylock becomes a much more sympathetic character. We look at Shylock through our knowledge of injustice perpetrated against Jews for thousands of years. We know and love flesh and bone humane Jews in our everyday life, and if not that, at least we all enjoyed _Seinfeld._ Shylock becomes not a depository for our hatred as previous generations could interpret him, but as a human being who has been wronged. It allows me to look at _The Merchant of Venice_ not only as a Comedy of the Merchant, but as the Tragedy of Shylock.
Shakespeare's the _Merchant of Venice_ has endured for this long because of the fascinating character of Shylock. His contradictory presence of both human and devil, the familiar and the strange is what continues to draw audiences to this work. Leslie Fiedler devotes an entire chapter of his book _The Stranger in Shakespeare_ to this interesting character, a chapter entitled _The Jew as Stranger._ This criticism offers a wealth of information, some of it useful and insightful, some of it less so. But I shall use Fiedler's work as a guide to deconstructing the _Merchant of
Bibliography: Fiedler, Leslie. The Stranger in Shakespeare. 1972, Stein and Day Publishing. New York. Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. 1598, London.