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Shylock
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Shylock is a fictional character in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.
i>The Merchant of Venice, Shylock is a Jewish usurer who lends money to his Christian rival, Antonio, setting the bond at a pound of Antonio's flesh. When a bankrupt Antonio defaults on the loan, Shylock demands the pound of flesh, as revenge for Antonio having insulted and spat on him the week before.
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Encyclopedia
Shylock is a fictional character in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.
In the play
In The Merchant of Venice, Shylock is a Jewish usurer who lends money to his Christian rival, Antonio, setting the bond at a pound of Antonio's flesh. When a bankrupt Antonio defaults on the loan, Shylock demands the pound of flesh, as revenge for Antonio having insulted and spat on him the week before. Meanwhile, his daughter, Jessica, elopes with Antonio's friend Lorenzo and becomes a Christian, further fuelling Shylock's rage.
Historical background
During Shakespeare's day, money lending was one of the few careers open to Jews, since Jews were forbidden to charge interest to fellow Jews and Christians also followed Old Testament laws condemning usury charged to fellow Gentiles. In the 16th century, Christians regarded usury as a sin. However, Shylock's profession as a moneylender is still frequently used by critics to support claims of anti-Semitism in the play.
Shylock's "Hath not a Jew eyes..." speech, in which he asserts that he is no different than a Christian and deserves revenge as much as they would have it, is one of the most famous soliloquies in English literature. Some scholars also suggest that Shylock is repeatedly shown to have human qualities and that he becomes a sympathetic character, particularly when he is told about Jessica's betrayal and the loss of his deceased wife's ring.
In the play Shakespeare also makes repeated references to the cruelty Shylock suffers at the hands of Christians. However, the trial scene which is the play's climax is constructed so as to make the audience exhult at Shylock's downfall. The redeeming sides of Shylock's character can be regarded as no more than evidence of Shakespeare's high literary standards and his efforts to give his villains a human depth, as evicent for example in his depiction of Richard III.
Jews were almost universally detested by Christian nations in the 16th century; England had expelled all Jews some 300 years prior to Shakespeare's time. It is also important to note that, in Shakespeare's time, tales of Jews exacting pounds of flesh were common folktales.
Notable portrayals
Notable actors who have portrayed Shylock include Richard Burbage in the 16th century, Charles Macklin in 1741, Edmund Kean in 1814, William Charles Macready in 1840, Edwin Booth in 1861, Henry Irving in 1880, George Arliss in 1928, John Gielgud in 1937, Laurence Olivier in a 1973 TV production, Al Pacino in a 2004 feature film version, and F. Murray Abraham at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2006.
Under Nazi rule in 1943, the Vienna Burgtheater presented a notoriously extreme production of The Merchant of Venice - with Werner Krauss as Shylock, one of several theater and film roles by this actor pandering to antisemitic stereotypes.
Slang
- The character's name has entered the language as a synonym for loan shark, and as a verb: to shylock is to lend money at exorbitant rates.
- "Pound of flesh" has also entered the lexicon as slang for a particularly onerous or unpleasant obligation.
Further reading
- John Gross, Shylock: A Legend and Its Legacy. Touchstone: 1994. ISBN 0-671-88386-0.
- Kenneth Gross, Shylock Is Shakespeare. University of Chicago Press: 2006. ISBN 0-226-30977-0.
- James Shapiro, Shakespeare and the Jews. Columbia University Press: 1997. ISBN 0-231-10345-X.
- Joseph Shatzmiller, Shylock Reconsidered: Jews, Moneylending, and Medieval Society. University of California Press: 1990. ISBN 0-520-06635-9.
- Martin Yaffe, Shylock and the Jewish Question. Johns Hopkins University Press: 1997. ISBN 0-8018-5648-5.
- M.G. Vassanji, The In-Between World of Vikram Lall. Doubleday Canada: 2003. ISBN 0-385-65990-3.
External links
Texts
- . A free source of the play
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