Left Troubled by Shakespeare's Depiction of the "difference of [...] spirit" of Jews and Christians

I found the moment in Act Four, when the Duke says to Shylock, “That thou shalt see the difference of our spirit, / I pardon thee thy life before thou ask it,” as a crucial clue for deciphering if the Merchant of Venice is anti-Semitic or not. Throughout the play, Shakespeare has been playing with notions of “in” and “out” groups. Specifically, Shakespeare is interested in contrasting Jews and Christians, and in doing so I feel he mostly demonized Judaism while extolling the virtues of Christianity. Throughout the play, Shakespeare’s Christian characters display mercy, forgiveness, and generosity toward one another, virtues which are all arguably tenants of Christian theology. Up to this point in the play, I thought that perhaps Shakespeare was going to use this apparent virtue to ultimately demonstrate Christian hypocrisy, thereby eventually leading the play away from reading as anti-Semitic. I expected (or hoped) that Shakespeare was going to demonstrate that the Christians, although forgiving, merciful, and generous with one another, are quite hypocritical when dealing with the non-Christians (or outsiders), elucidated by their treatment of Shylock. To a large extent the Christians do appear hypocritical in the first three scenes of the play. Shylock is treated rather cruelly by them (mostly through insulting and taunting). However, I feel that in Scene Four Shakespeare portrays Shylock as the more ruthless and cruel character, making the Christians appear on the whole less villainous. For example, Shylock refuses to even hear Antonio’s pleas telling him, “I’ll have no speaking. I will have my bond”. Understandably, Shylock is upset by how he’s been treated by Antonio and other Christians, but I think Shakespeare depiction of him here makes him appear more as a ruthless villain than a victim. Do Antonio’s actions really warrant punishment by death? In Shylock’s speech in act 3.1 he seems to espouse “an eye for an eye” logic, claiming that he is following Christian example in his desire for vengeance. Shylock states that by “The villainy you teach me I will execute.” However his point is somewhat invalidated when the tables are turned and Shylock is put into the vulnerable position by Venetian Law. In contrast to Shylock’s refusal to pardon Antonio, the Christians offer Shylock immediate mercy “before thou ask it”. Yes, the forgiveness they offer him is stipulated—he’s expected to convert and give his money to his daughter’s husband, but this “bond” seems much less barbaric and extreme than Shylock’s desire to have a pound of Antonio’s flesh (thereby ensuring his death). Thus, I feel like this moment in the play, by degrading the validity of Shylock's previous (and very compelling) speech, also invalidates any redeeming qualities this play had that could have supported it as being not anti-Semitic. At the end of scene four, I think Shakespeare is leaving his readers with the impression that the Christians “are being the bigger person” by giving him relatively much more mercy than Shylock showed in his insistence to kill Antonio. I wonder if this could be an intentional move on Shakespeare’s part to refute and degrade Shylock’s speech on page 1147 in which he argues that Jews are just as human as Christians. Shylock's lack of sympathy and forgiveness does indeed make him seem “less human” than his Christian counterparts who spare his life. Yes, the Christians spit on Shylock and degrade him with racial slurs, but Shylock is depicted as being animalistic in his desire to carve the flesh off Antonio’s body by his own knife, something which does ostensibly take a lot more cold-heartedness and hatefulness than the aforementioned Christian offenses. It makes me sad to think this, but could Shakespeare be subversively implying such a notion about Jews?

I suppose much debate could be had over whether or not the stipulated agreement the Christians offer Shylock is actually merciful, generous, or forgiving. I personally thought, as a modern “liberal” reader, that the Christians acted terribly by imposing their religion and values on Shylock. At the end of scene four, I felt that Shylock was stripped of his identity and seemed terribly defeated and powerless, causing me to sympathize with him. However, I don’t think this is how Shakespeare’s Christian, anti-Semitic audience would have seen this, and I think that it is key to keep in my mind if we desire to know if this play was meant to be anti-Semitic or not. On the contrary, I think Shakespeare’s audience may have seen this stipulation of “forced conversion” as the ultimate act of mercy and love on the part of the Christians. Reason being, it may have been thought by the Elizabethan audience that the Christians not only spared Shylock’s mortal life, but gave him eternal life as well. Thoughts?