The Venetian Society Conditions Shylock to Be Villainous, Not His ‘Jewishness’.

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The world we live in has become defined by stereotypes. Asians are smart. Muslims are terrorists. So naturally Elizabethans would have perceived a character who is a Jewish money lender to be a villain. In the Merchant of Venice (MOV)’ Luxon believes Shylock epitomises this stereotype because of his race/ religion. However, Smith believes that Shylock’s evil is innate and his religion is merely a façade. While this has some truth, I have concluded that the Venetian Society conditions Shylock’s nature/humanity to be villainous, not his ‘Jewishness’ as he is a victim of discrimination. Sixteenth Century Christians stereotyped Jews as vile, vengeful, spiteful, and merciless creatures, often referred to as a devil, much like Antonio typecasts Shylock as “The devil...An evil soul producing holy witness”. Shylocks humanity is stripped away leaving the audience to view him as inhuman and Wilson agrees stating “Jew is allowed no defendant in the court to plead for him as a…defenceless alien”. However, Shakespeare makes it clear with Shylocks’ well renowned passage “Hath not a Jew hands, organs...” that Jew’s too are human beings and Bloom asserts this4. I agree because it emphasises that Christians and Jews are alike in their carnal human nature. At the end of this passage Shylock declares “If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that…If a Christian wrongs a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example?...Revenge. The villainy you teach me, I will execute…” Shylock proclaims that the Venetian society is teaching him this villainy shaping his hunger for revenge. The way Antonio has mistreated Shylock has penetrated his humanity learning villainy from Christian example. This confirms that the Venetian Society is conditioning Shylock’s nature to be villainous not his ‘Jewishness’. But A.A. Stone stresses that this is “another demonstration of the

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