Merchant of Venice - Quality of Mercy

During the late 1500’s and the early 1600’s when Shakespeare wrote a majority of his plays, society was structured upon the morals of the Elizabethan era. In order to gain appreciation and avoid criticism, Shakespeare had to write his plays for an Elizabethan audience who would judge the success of his work based on how strongly Shakespeare’s plays adhered to Elizabethan morals. These morals revolved around the superiority of followers of Christianity to followers of other religions, particularly Judaism. Works such as the Merchant of Venice may seem to today’s audience as anti-Semitic while extolling Christian virtues, or at least the perceived virtues of what it meant to be Christian. In the Merchant of Venice, the Christian virtue of mercy as a “divine” quality seems to be upheld for the pleasure of an Elizabethan audience. However, it seems that Shakespeare may not have fully believed in the anti-Semitic, pro-Christian view of mercy, and may have in fact questioned this view through the form of the actions and results of the actions taken by the characters in this play. Shakespeare utilizes the anti-Semitic and pro-Christian personality of an Elizabethan audience to superficially laud the “quality of mercy” of Christians in order to please Elizabethan audiences, but underneath in a quite contradicting manner, also question the “merciful” actions in the play.
Throughout the play it becomes clear to the audience that Shylock is an outsider to Venice and its citizens namely because he is Jewish, a minority amongst a population of Christians. Antonio and Gratiano and other characters insult Shylock throughout the play. Solanio, for example, imitates Shylock’s reaction to his daughter’s courtship with the Christian character Lorenzo, saying “‘My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter!’” believing his priorities would be monetary because he is Jewish (II.8.15). Such superficial anti-Semitism continues throughout the play, and becomes integral to the court case in Act