Monday, August 15, 2011

my last post

Shylock is one of the antagonists in Shakespeare's play, Merchant of Venice. In here, he is seen as a sly and crafty villain in Merchant of Venice and is obsessed with money.
This can be seen in the play whereby when Jessica went away, he cried in anxiety ‘‘my daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter! / Fled with a Christian! O my Christian ducats!" from here, we can see how crazy shylock is with money that he treats money above all even above his daughter.


Next, Shylock is seen as a sly and crafty villain who slowly plots his way to kill Antonio. We can see how he turned an innocent loan into an agreement between life and death and he slowly persuades Antonio to sign it by telling him it is worth it. Later once the Antonio broke the agreement, he immediately made preparations to kill his enemy as he wants the kill mainly Antonio by taking a pound of his flesh through a bond which he signed with him. Shakespeare here is probably trying to depict the Jews as bloodthirsty and sly evildoers who sin and is prejudice against him.


However another thing to take note is that Shakespeare also criticizes Christian in his play. We can see how he portray Antonio whereby Antonio normally hurl unkind insults at shylock calling him a dog etc and even going to the extent of spitting on him.


Hence, in conclusion, although Shakespeare wanted to show the extent of the evilness of Jews in his play, he also emphasizes that everyone sin and this can be seen about how he portrayed Antonio. Hence I feel that Shakespeare wanted to make everyone be it Jew or Christian a sinner and that no one is perfect.

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