How Is Xenophobia Expressed in This Play?

In the merchant of Venice written by William Shakespeare, a Christian named Antonio asks to borrow money from the Jewish money-lender shylock. Bassanio is the Christian that asks Antonio to borrow the money from shylock so he could marry the fair, rich, maiden Portia. Jews were treated with racial discrimination by the Christians, simply because of their religion. In Shakespearean Venice the jews were forced to live in the “ghetto” part of Venice. They were also forced to wear a red hat whenever they left the “ghetto”, so the Christians would recognize them as Jewish. And at night the gates to the “ghetto” were closed, locked and guarded by Christians. I intend to explain both the Christian and Jewish side of the story, and to show where and how xenophobia ties in with the play.

In act 4 scene 1 (the courtroom scene) Portia disguises herself as a male lawyer, but she acts sarcastic and hypocritical towards the jew (Shylock). “Do you confess to the bond? Then must the Jew be merciful.” Portia asks Antonio to admit he agreed to the bond. When Antonio confesses she asks him if he expects Shylock to be merciful, in a joking, hypocritical way. I think Shakespeare did this so you can see how the Christians thought it was so funny and unusual for a jew to go to court to get his justice.

Although Shylock has lost his daughter and half his gold and jewels he seems very determined to kill Antonio. Portia “Are there balance here to weigh the flesh?”
Shylock “I have them ready.”
Portia “Have by some surgeon Shylock, on your charge, to stop his, wounds, lest he do bleed to death.”
Shylock “Is it so nominated in the bond?” It sounds almost like Shylock was planning to kill Antonio all along. I think Shakespeare did this to show how extreme jews were willing to go, to get revenge on Christians at any opportunity they got. Shylock acts like he only cares about getting his payment even if it means the death of Antonio. Shylock’s character speaks in a sinister unmerciful language about his bond.

When Portia realizes Shylock only wants to kill Antonio, she brings up some rules that make it impossible for Shylock to get his forfeit - pound of flesh. “This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood; the words expressly are ‘a pound of flesh’ take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh; but in the cutting it, if thou dost shed one drop of Christian blood, thy land and goods are, by the laws of Venice confiscated unto the state of Venice.” Portia is saying okay to Shylock being allowed to take the forfeit of the bond “A pound of flesh” but if he sheds one drop of Christian blood in the process all his land and wealth will be taken by the court. So as it is impossible to cut someone without drawing blood Shylock is forced to give-up on his revenge against Antonio. Shakespeare uses cunning, witty language to not only get Portia to stop Shylock from cutting Antonio but to also make sure he understands that with him being a jew, he is not allowed to shed a single drop of Christian blood.

When Shylock makes the bond he suggests that the forfeit is just a joke. “In a merry sport” Shylock says this because he does want to be Antonio’s friend. Although he does still want to get his revenge on Antonio for what he has done to him in the past, which is why he set up the bond’s forfeit in the first place. Shakespeare does this so we can see the kind, good-hearted person shylock can be while also being secretly evil. The language Shakespeare uses here is friendly, kind and cheerful with a hidden sinister part.

We should feel sorry for Shylock because Antonio has called him a dog, called him a misbeliever, kicked him, spat on him, made his friends hate him, turned everyone against him and intently ruined his business deals. “Cooled my friends, heated mine enemies”, “you called me misbeliever, cut-throat dog and spit upon my Jewish gaberdine”, “you spit on me Wednesday last; you spurn’d me such a day; another time you called me dog”, “ scorned my nation, thwarted my bargain”and “ foot me as you would a stranger cur” we as an audience feel sorry for Shylock in a way because of all the mean, terrible and nasty things Antonio has said and/or done to him. However Shakespeare is showing us how intense Christians xenophobia was towards anything and anyone who didn’t believe/follow the Christian religion. It basically shows that the Christians were afraid of anything different to their beliefs/lifestyle around the Elizabethan/Shakespearian time. The sympathetic language in this section is backing up Shylock for the time being.

When we start to feel sorry for Shylock his character is then opened up more so we start to see the real version of him that Shakespeare created because we start to see how extreme his dislike is towards the Christians especially Antonio. But Shylock says about how jews and Christians are all still human, they are just humans that have slightly different religious beliefs. “If you prick us, do we not bleed?” this is showing that Shylock has had enough of the silly prejudice the Christians feel towards jews. Shakespeare makes Shylock state this fact of jews and Christians all still being human to try to help people who are watching the play, to understand that even if someone doesn’t believe in the same stuff as you e.g. religion, life style, culture. They are still just as human as you are. He is trying to get the audience to sympathize both the Christian and the jew, so Shakespeare is really trying to get people to overcome their xenophobia towards difference in religion.

As well as getting the strong message of being different isn’t a bad thing across Shakespeare did try to make the play funny by getting Portia to play the joker for the courtroom scene. Bassanio- “Antonio I am married to a wife, which is as dear to me as life itself; but life itself, my wife, and all of the world are not with me esteem’d above thy life: I would lose all, ay, sacrifice them all here to this devil, to deliver you.” Portia- “Your wife would give you little thanks for that, if she were by, to hear you make that offer.” Shakespeare made this funny because Portia is Bassanio’s wife but she disguised herself as a male lawyer, so the pun is that she is saying she wouldn’t thank Bassanio for the offer he just made if she were there as herself. In Elizabethan times this was really funny, and also to the people who can understand Shakespeare’s words & humor and to a modern audience this would be funny.

Antonio states that he would do all the mean things to Shylock again if he wanted to. “I am as like to call thee so again.” At this point in the play an Elizabethan audience would be laughing whereas we (a modern audience) would be sad and sympathetic towards Shylock. We can’t tell how Shakespeare feels about how the Christians treated the jews because, yes he is making us feel sorry for shylock but he originally wrote it so people of his time would laugh and mock the jews. This part of the play tells us that the Christians will never regret or apologize for what they have done to the jews instead they would happily repeat the act of abuse again if they were given another chance to. In this quote Shakespeare is writing in aggressive language but it would have seemed to be a comedic mocking language to the Elizabethan audience at the time.

Xenophobia was used in this play because the Christians were scared of the jews because of how different they were. But really jews and Christians are almost the same it’s just their religious views and practices that differentiate them. Christians were so afraid of what jews could do to them that they forced all the jews in Venice to live in the “ghetto” and when Shylock tried to rebel against their rules so he could get justice they made up the rule of “not to shed one drop of Christian blood” because of the xenophobia towards jews getting equal rights as Christians do. The Christians xenophobia was basically racist discrimination. They saw the jews as something they couldn’t understand so instead of trying to figure out that they aren’t that different the Christians build up their fear by restricting the jews rights which made the Christians feel temporarily safe but also made the jews feelings to rebel stronger and more extreme.