Shylock as depicted in the Merchant of Venice

Shylock’s role in Shakespeare’s play “The Merchant of Venice” indicates with no iota of doubt that he is the most noteworthy figure in the play. He was portrayed as a bloodthirsty bogeyman, a clownish greedy moneylender and a wicked self-centered villain. He can also be viewed as tragic figure due to what he encounters of bias, prejudice, racism and persecution. Antonio takes the pride in tarnishing the image of Shylock, considering him as an outcast and enticing others to treat him as such. Shakespeare depicts the Jews as freaks of nature, and Christians as a centrally coherent, wholesome society. Christians at the time have some sort of distaste of anyone different from them and this justifies their anti-Semitic attitude.

Although Shylock is deemed as Shakespeare’s most memorable characters, the play’s title actually refers to the good merchant of Venice, namely Antonio. This is quite tricky though. Shylock is also the play’s antagonist through several stereotypes. Additionally, he is a creation of circumstances; even in his single-minded pursuit of a pound of flesh, his frequent mentions of the cruelty he has endured at Christian hands make it hard to label him a naturally-born monster. Shakespeare often steers us against Shylock, painting him as a miserly, cruel, and prosaic figure. Let’s have a thorough look at his role in the play:

Shylock is depicted as a notorious Jewish moneylender in Venice, who has one daughter named Jessica. As the stereotype entails, he is very bitter and tightfisted with his money. Shylock does not like Antonio, a Christian merchant, because of past experiences where Antonio made fun of him publicly. Angered by his mistreatment at the hands of Venice’s Christians particularly Antonio, Shylock schemes to revenge by mercilessly demanding as payment a pound of Antonio’s flesh. Shylock, having been mistreated by the Christians in Venice, particularly Antonio, was not very friendly with them and held much contempt for them. The play’s protagonist, Antonio, lends money with no interest and thus spoils Shylock’s business. That is why shylock keeps waiting anxiously for an opportunity to harm him.

When Antonio's friend, Bassanio, needs money in order to impress and thus woo his beloved Portia, a pretty wealthy heiress from Belmont, he goes to his friend Antonio, who does not have the money at the time because all of his ships are at sea. Antonio uses his good credit to get the loan for his friend from Shylock the moneylender. Shylock agrees to loan the money, three thousand ducats, with no interest as long as Antonio will sign the contract, promising a pound of his flesh as collateral. If he fails to pay back on time, Shylock is entitled to cut the pound of flesh from his body. Antonio accepts the condition of the bond and signs it, thinking of the bargain as a mere joke.

Shylock intuition, that Antonio’s ships may wreck, doesn’t fail him.  Antonio’s ships are reported to have wrecked at sea. The deadline already passes, Antonio does not pay back the debt, and shylock wants to exact the pound of flesh as per the contract. So he gets Antonio arrested and put him into trial.

Word comes to Bassanio about Antonio’s predicament. Portia now is married to Bassanio and wants to help in anyway. She seeks the advice of a relative lawyer of hers, borrows his work attire, goes to the court disguised as a lawyer and exquisitely defeats shylock’s right of the pound of flesh. Shylock asks to be paid thrice the money lent instead, but Portia turns him down again.

Given the authority of judgment by the Duke, Portia decides that Shylock can have the pound of flesh as long as he doesn’t draw blood. Since it is obvious that to draw a pound of flesh would kill Antonio, Shylock is denied his suit. Even worse, for conspiring to murder a Venetian citizen, Portia orders that he should forfeit all his wealth. Shylock has to give up half of his property to Antonio and the other half to Venice as per the law. Antonio waives his half on condition that Shylock converts to Christianity and bequeaths his wealth to his disinherited daughter, Jessica, and her Christian husband, Lorenzo. The Jew has no choice but to accept, and the trail ends.

On the whole, the play is nothing but a misrepresentation of Shylock. The trend at the time has been defaming the reputation of Jews. Marlowe and Shakespeare prove this true in their plays. For instance, Barabas, in Marlowe’s the Jew of Malta, and Shylock have many things in common. Both are Jewish notorious wealthy men. Greed, materialism, selfishness and economic conservatism are some features that Barabas and Shylock equally share. Jews are a minority in a hostile society. This shows the  society at that time as an outfit that does not fit foreigners.