How is Shylock (Merchant of Venice – Shakespeare) the villain?
You have to remember when the play was written. In Elizabethan times Antisemitism was rife. The hypocrisy of it was that Antonio and his like were quick to go to the Jewish moneylenders when they were short of funds and yet they still despised them for their race and culture.As Shylock says, ‘Signor Antonio, many a time and oft, in the Rialto, you have reviled me for my monies and my usances; Called me Unbeliever, Cut throat, Dog and spit upon my Jewish gaberdine’ So, in Shakespeare’s eyes he was the villain for insisting on his ‘pound of flesh’ from Antonio when he wasn’t repaid his loan. Years of abuse and cursing boiled up into this revenge on the Gentile merchants who had so despised him. I believe that Shakespeare, unusually for his time, makes us feel sympathy for Shylock, although he makes him the villain. I don’t have the text in front of me but perhaps Portia’s speech for the prosecution might help, as she cleverly outwits Shylock.
