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Thinking about
The Merchant of Venice

An Interactive Study Guide

Click the mouse to continue.

Shylock - Lszl Mednynszky, 1900

2010, ShakespeareHelp.com
Whats in This Study Guide?
Introduction

Quizzes

Quotes

Characters

Themes

YouTube Videos

Essay Topics

Home
Introduction The Merchant of Venice
The Text

Comedy or Tragedy?

Sources

Settings

Anti-Semitism

The Jew of Malta, Marlowe

Usury

Main Menu
The Merchant of Venice The Text
The Merchant of Venice was most likely
performed for the first time in 1596.
It was first published in the first quarto
edition in 1600.
Although there were other pirated
editions, the 1600 edition is considered
the most accurate and reliable.
The 1600 edition was the basis for the
text published in the First Folio in 1623,
which added stage directions and
musical cues.
The First Folio is a collection of 36 of
Shakespeares plays prepared by two of Title page of the first quarto (1600)
his colleagues 7 years after his death.

Introduction Main Menu

The Merchant of Venice Settings
Venice
Associated with business,
commerce, the law
The real world where
practicalities rule
Men are dominant
People in Venice are greedy
and vengeful.
Shylock insists on a pound of
Antonios flesh as vengeance.
Introduction
Belmont
Site of Portias estate
Fairy-tale world associated with
music and love
Women are dominant
People in Belmont are
characterized by kindness and
generosity.
Portia offers her money to
Bassanio to pay Antonios debt.
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The Jew of Malta, by Christopher Marlowe
Marlowes The Jew of Malta (1590) was a
major influence on The Merchant of
Venice.
Barabas, the main character, is a
thoroughly evil villain who is angered by a
law that requires Jews to convert to
Christianity or give up half their wealth.
Barabas resorts to murder and treason
and enjoys the suffering of others.
There has been extensive debate about
the play's portrayal of Jews and how
Elizabethan audiences would have viewed
it.

Introduction Main Menu

Quizzes The Merchant of Venice

Act I

Act II

Act III

Act IV

Act V

Main Menu
The Merchant of Venice Act I Quiz
Click the hand for an answer.

1. Explain the conditions of Portia's father's will.

2. Explain the conditions of the loan Shylock makes to

Bassanio.

3. Why does Bassanio need a loan?

4. What are Shylock's reasons for hating Antonio?

Quizzes Main Menu

1. Explain the conditions of Portia's father's will.
Click anywhere to show answer.

By the terms of her father's will, Portia is forbidden to choose

freely among her many suitors.
She must accept the one who makes the right choice among
three caskets: one of lead, one of silver and one of gold.

Quizzes Main Menu

Quotes The Merchant of Venice

Main Menu
The Merchant of Venice Act I Quotes
Click the hand for an answer.

1. In Belmont is a lady richly left;

...Sometimes from her eyes
I did receive fair speechless messages.

2. I will do anything, ere I be married to a sponge.

3. Hath a dog money? Is it possible

A cur can lend three thousand ducats?

4. I am like to call thee so again,

To spit on thee again, to spurn thee too.

Quotes Main Menu

1. In Belmont is a lady richly left;
...Sometimes from her eyes
I did receive fair speechless messages.
Click anywhere to show answer.

Bassanio is explaining to Antonio that he loves Portia, a lady

of considerable wealth who lives in Belmont.
He believes that she also communicated her affection for him
by the way she looked at him.

Quotes Main Menu

Characters The Merchant of Venice

Main Menu
Shylock - 1
As the plays antagonist, Shylock
can be interpreted a number of
different ways:
A greedy and bloodthirsty
moneylender
A clownish Jewish stereotype
A tragic figure who is persecuted by
a backwards society
Shylock is despised as a
moneylender, or usurer, but this
was the only occupation a Jew
could have in medieval Venetian
society. Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Shylock
Charles Buchel (18951935)

Characters Next Main Menu

Shylock 2
In his most famous speech (III, 1),
Shylock argues that Jews have all the
same human qualities as Christians:
I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes?
If you prick us, do we not bleed?
If you tickle us, do we not laugh?
If you poison us, do we not die?
and if you wrong us, shall we not
revenge? (III, 1)
Shylock hates Antonio for cutting into
his businessAntonio lends money at
no interest, depriving Shylock of
profit.
1911 Movie Poster

Characters Back Next Main Menu

Shylock 3
Shylock is accustomed to being bullied and ridiculed by Christians:
Signior Antonio, many a time and oft
In the Rialto you have rated me
About my moneys and my usances:
Still have I borne it with a patient shrug,
For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe. (I, 3)
Shylock says he has learned how to be vengeful from the Christians
who have been vengeful to him.
If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian
wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why,
revenge. The villainy you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but
I will better the instruction. (III, 1)

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Shylock 4
Because Shylock is both reviled as a
moneylender and pitied as a persecuted
Jew, he is the most compelling and
complex character in the play.
While Elizabethan audiences probably
viewed him as a comic character, most
modern audiences are sympathetic to
him because of the cruelty he has
endured at the hands of Christians.
His character alone adds tragic
overtones to a play that would
otherwise be classified as a comedy. Charles Macklin as Shylock , Covent Garden,
London, 1767-68, by Johann Zoffany

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Shylock - 5

Shylock after the Trial, John Gilbert, pre 1873

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Shylock 6
At the end of the play, Shylock is broken and humiliated.
He is forced to convert to Christianity, give half of his possessions to
Antonio and pay a fine.
He loses everything thats important to him: his daughter, his money
and his religion.
Is the sentence against Shylock fair?
Does the outcome of the trial confirm the philosophy expressed by
Portia in her famous speech--that true justice must be measured
with mercy? Does Shylock receive mercy?
Does the audience rejoice in Shylocks defeat, or do we pity his
downfall?

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Themes The Merchant of Venice

Main Menu
Anti-Semitism - 1
Elizabethan society was anti-Semitic.
Jews were expelled from England in 1250 and were not permitted to
return until 1657.
On stage, Jews were usually characterized as evil, deceptive and
greedy.
Jews were also forced to live in a ghetto protected by Christians,
supposedly for their own safety.
Jews were usually depicted on stage in bright red wigs and hooked
noses.
An example is Christopher Marlowes play, The Jew of Malta, which
features a Jewish villain named Barabas.
The Merchant of Venice was sometimes known as The Jew of Venice,
suggesting that it was seen as similar to The Jew of Malta.

Themes Next Main Menu

Anti-Semitism - 2
One interpretation of the play is that
Shakespeare intended to contrast the
mercy of the Christian characters with
the vengefulness of Shylock.
The conflict between Portia and Shylock in
the trial scene can also be seen as the
conflict between the vengeful, exacting
God of the Old Testament, whose priority
is Justice (Shylock) and the merciful God of
the New Testament (Portia).
From a Christian point of view, Shylocks
conversion to Christianity at the end of the
play is a happy endinghis soul is saved
and he can now enter heaven. Shylock and Portia
Thomas Sully, 1835

Themes Back Next Main Menu

Anti-Semitism - 3
Modern audiences, however, often see the play as a plea for
tolerance, with Shylock as the sympathetic character.
This interpretation faults Portia as a false judge who has no right to
sentence Shylock at all.
Shylocks anger does not come from some inherent Jewishness, but
from years of abuse.
Although Shylock is condemned for greed and dishonesty, the
Christian characters can also be seen as hypocritical.
Bassanio initially seeks Portias hand in marriage so he can pay his
debts.
Although Portia delivers a moving speech on the subject of mercy, her
judgment against Shylock can be seen as cruel and barbaric.
Is Shakespeare subtly criticizing his characters prejudices?

Themes Back Next Main Menu

Anti-Semitism - 4
Regardless of Shakespeares intentions, the play has been used by
anti-Semites throughout its history.
The Nazis used Shylocks character for their own propaganda.
Shortly after Kristallnacht in 1938, The Merchant of Venice was
broadcast for propagandistic purposes over the German airwaves.
Productions of the play followed in Lbeck (1938), Berlin (1940), and
elsewhere within the Nazi Territory.
Is a sympathetic reading of Shylock entirely due to changing
attitudes among readers, or did Shakespeare intend this reading?
Shylocks language is not that of a comic, one-dimensional villain.
Is it possible that Shakespeares talent as a writer caused him to
create a more complex character than he originally intended?

Themes Back Main Menu

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The Merchant of Venice Essay Topics

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