In the scene between Portia and
Shylock, we see that Shylock denies Antonio of any medical help in case he
bleeds to death. He says it is not in the bond so he is not providing help. We
see Shylock’s revenge because he wants Antonio to suffer as much as Shylock has
suffered and will continue to suffer as we continue to read. Shylock later on
pays for it when Portia tells him he is only allowed a pound of flesh and it
doesn’t allowed for any blood being spilled. If blood is spilled then he would
be conspiring against the life of a Venetian citizen and all his lands and
goods would be confiscated by the government. Time after time we see Shylock
being brought down.
Many will consider him a
villain, but is he a true villain? I don’t consider Shylock a villain because
he didn’t do anything wrong. He is a person just like you and me, but because
of his religion he is singled out and can’t live a normal life. Shylock has
revealed before that, “You call me misbeliever, cut-throat, dog, and spit upon
my Jewish gabardine” (1.3 107-108), all because Shylock is Jewish. The only
wrong Shylock could have possibly done was asking for a pound of flesh from
Antonio. Shylock continues to put down when the Duke says whatever Antonio
says, he will agree with it. Antonio says that he can keep half of his property
but when he dies he has to give it to his daughter Jessica and her husband,
Lorenzo, while the other half of his property goes to the government. Antonio
also tells Shylock that he has to immediately convert to Christianity. If any
of us were in Shylock’s shoes and people were treating us the way Antonio
treated Shylock, we would want revenge on that person.
I believe the true villains in this play are
Antonio and his friends. He took away anything that defined Shylock the man he
is. Shylocks house, money, and religion are all taken away from him because of
Antonio. Antonio and the rest of his men are supposed to be Christians, but
they are not acting Christian like. I understand that Shylock wasn’t being
merciful when he said he wouldn’t provide medical attention for Antonio.
However, Antonio is using this time to get back revenge on Shylock and isn’t
being merciful either and stripped Shylock from anything he owned. Now Shylock
has nothing to his name, while Antonio can continue with his business and gets
to keep everything of his, meaning his pound of flesh.
In the end, Portia asks Shylock
if he is content with the outcome and Shylock responds “I am content” (4.1,
389). However, that is the only answer he can give because if says anything
against being content he could be killed. Also, he has nothing left to his name
and he has no other choice but to say that he is content. He is also just
telling the Antonio and his friends exactly what they want to hear because they
aren’t satisfied until they have beaten Shylock down to nothing. So after
reading this scene, I believe the true villains in this play are Antonio and
his friends because they enjoy seeing Shylock suffer.
1 comment:
I definitely agree with your comment about how Shylock is continuously mistreated by the other characters within the play. While I was reading the play I strongly disliked Shylock to begin with. However, when I kept reading I felt more and more sympathetic towards him. I feel like it is hard to keep hating Shylock at the end of the play. Even though he was adamant about cutting the pound of flesh from Antonio, I felt as if the punishment did not fit the crime. To have almost all of his belongings taken from him is something that I feel is an excessive punishment. Antonio agreed to the bond to begin with, and if he felt like it was an unfair agreement, he should not have signed the bond at all. He counted his eggs before they hatched, and if Portia had not found a loophole, he would have ended up dead.
Even though Shakespeare starts the play off forcing readers to dislike Shylock, with further reading we really learn to dislike the other characters, just like you mentioned.
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