Is Shylock a Villain or a Victim? In William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice‚ Shylock‚ a Jewish money-lender‚ is portrayed as the cold-blooded‚ greedy antagonist of the story. Some people may see him as the villain of the story – and in some ways he is – but‚ really‚ this is a result of the stereotypes associated with Jews. He is quite a peculiar character and his role in the story is indefinite because he has traits of both a villain and a victim. A villain is ‘a wicked person or criminal’
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We agree that Shylock is more a villain than a victim. Shylock is a villain because he has evil intentions towards Antonio. In an aside‚ shylock displayed his hatred for Antonio when he said “If I catch him once upon the hip‚ I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.” This means that shylock’s hatred for Antonio has reached such a point that he desires to harm Antonio in some way. The phrase “feed fat” suggests that if he can find some way to get the upper hand of Antonio‚ He will use it to
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The Homosexual Relationship Between Antonio and Bassanio in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice Tsun-Hsien Tsai Sophomore Student‚ Department of English National Changhua University of Education There are many pairs of male adults with honorable masculine friendships appearing in William Shakespeare’s popular plays‚ such as Antonio and Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice‚ Antonio and Sebastian in Twelfth Night‚ the two kings Leonates and Polixenes in The Winter’s Tale‚ and so on. No matter
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Shylock is a monster of cruelty‚ miser‚ greedy‚ suspicious ‚cunning ‚ bloodthirsty ‚revengeful‚ mean ‚a bad father and a bad master. But it is the circumstances that made him like this. Shylock is a tragic figure‚ trapped by prejudice and driven to revenge by the treatment he receives He is not cruel by nature. He is human in inner-self as the Christians are. He is therefore the most injured man‚ insulted‚ abused and disgraced by the Christians and even by his own daughter‚ His cruelty is made
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‘The Merchant of Venice’ by William Shakespeare is a play in which one of the main characters is portrayed as both a villain and a victim. The audience’s interpretation of Shylock oscillates throughout the play. We must also recognize that Shylock has most likely become a villain as a result of being unfairly victimized for having Jewish heritage. During the sixteenth century‚ when the play was written‚ mistreatment towards Jews was common; especially in Venice as it was an anti-sematic city. Jewish
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friendship. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Merchant of Venice‚ Shakespeare highlights the relationship between a father and his daughter. Both of these plays show examples of how common father and daughter relationships are. Also‚ it is not unusual for a comedy to have a father demanding that his daughter marry a certain person. The law of the father plays an important role in the stories of both A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Merchant of Venice. In the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream‚ we are
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Is Shylock’s Revenge Justified? Shylock is a major character in the play‚ most people consider him a villain. He is a wealthy‚ moneylending Jew who practices usury. He’s revenge is justified for many reasons‚ these reasons include him being abused for being a Jew and a moneylender at the same time. Another reason is that Antonio prevents him from doing business as he loans money interest free. Shylock was a victim of an unjust trial which leaves Shylock’s will to live demolished as he is bloodthirsty
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ANTONIO I honestly don’t know why I’m so sad . I’m tired of it‚ and so are you. But I have no idea why I have gotten so depressed and I can’t figure out what is even making me feel this way. I must not understand myself very well. SALARINO You’re worried about your ships. Your mind is getting tossed around in the ocean with them‚ but they’re fine. They’re like huge parade floats on the sea. They’re so big they look down on the smaller ships‚ which all have to bow and then get out of the way.
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The late sixteenth century play "˜The Merchant of Venice’‚ one of Shakespeare’s more popular comedies‚ is one that is portraying various peoples lives throughout Venice and Belmont. During the course of the play there is a concentration of thoughts and emotions towards the character Shylock‚ a Jewish usurer‚ this is the very character that we shall be concentrating the question in the title on. In most scenes the character Shylock has to deal with a lot of racial discrimination‚ which has at modern
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Italian merchant traveler from the Republic of Venice[2][3] whose travels are recorded in Livres des merveilles du monde‚ a book which did much to introduce Europeans to Central Asia and China. He learned the mercantile trade from his father and uncle‚ Niccolò and Maffeo‚ who traveled through Asia‚ and apparently met Kublai Khan. In 1269‚ they returned to Venice to meet Marco for the first time. The three of them embarked on an epic journey to Asia‚ returning after 24 years to find Venice at war with
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