Shylock
Who is Shylock in The Merchant of Venice?
What is the significance of the bond between Shylock and Antonio?
What happens during the trial scene in Act IV?
How has Shylock’s character been interpreted over time?
Shylock, the Jewish moneylender in William Shakespeare’s comedy The Merchant of Venice, written about 1596–97 and printed in a quarto edition in 1600 from an authorial manuscript or a copy of one. A central figure in the drama, Shylock has intrigued scholars and audiences, who grapple with the duality of the character as a villain deserving scorn and as a victim of deep-seated prejudice who is marginalized by society. A proud and somewhat tragic figure, Shylock is a complex character, and his role and Shakespeare’s intentions continue to be the source of much discussion, including debates over antisemitism.
Role in The Merchant of Venice
A 1598 entry in the Stationer’s Register—a record maintained by the London-based Stationers’ Company—lists The Jew of Venice (originally spelled The Jewe of Venyce) as an alternative title of the play, thus emphasizing Shylock’s importance. This title was later adopted by politician and playwright George Granville in his 1701 adaptation of the play.
The bond (Act I)
Shylock first appears in Act I, scene 3, when a young Christian Venetian gentleman, Bassanio, approaches him to seek a loan. Bassanio’s friend, the merchant Antonio, agrees to be a guarantor of the loan. At first Shylock, as a prudent businessman, debates the advisability of offering a loan to Antonio, who has his entire fortune at risk with “ventures he hath squandered abroad.” Shylock also reveals that he and Antonio have a history of mutual animosity. His resentment toward Antonio—who has publicly insulted him, mocked his business practices, called him a “misbeliever” and “cutthroat dog,” and even spat on his Jewish attire (which he calls “Jewish gaberdine,” likely a loose-fitting gown)—ultimately drives him to lend the sum of three thousand ducats for three months, hoping that he might trap the Christian merchant. He says:
If I can catch him once upon the hip,
I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.
Shylock admits, “I hate him for he is a Christian,” thus setting the tone for the religious tensions of the play. However, he plays a shrewd game. Instead of charging interest (a practice that Antonio denounces) against the loan, he offers a legal bond in “merry sport.” If Antonio is unable to repay the sum within the allotted time, Shylock will cut off a pound of Antonio’s flesh as penalty.
Family life and isolation (Act II)
Scholars have drawn comparisons between Shylock and Barabas, a wealthy Jewish merchant in the play The Jew of Malta (produced about 1590 and published in 1633), written by English writer Christopher Marlowe. However, it is generally agreed that the characters are much different in intent and temperament.
Shylock’s personal life comes into focus in Act II. Scorned even by his servant Lancelet Gobbo (also spelled Launcelot), who calls him “the very devil incarnation,” and unloved by his daughter, Jessica, the widowed Shylock is a lonely man. Jessica plans to elope with Lorenzo, a Christian, taking with her a substantial amount of Shylock’s wealth and treasured possessions. She feels no love for her father and exclaims:
Alack, what heinous sin is it in me
To be ashamed to be my father’s child?
But though I am a daughter to his blood,
I am not to his manners.
Shylock is betrayed by his daughter on the night that he advises her to “look to my house” and “lock up my doors” as he steps out to attend a dinner at Bassanio’s invitation. Shylock’s anguish upon learning that Jessica has fled with his life’s savings reveals his materialism as well as a deep sense of loss. As Antonio’s friend Solanio recounts, the “dog Jew” was seen running through the streets, trailed by jeering boys, and crying out:
My daughter, O my ducats, O my daughter!
Fled with a Christian! O my Christian ducats!
Heightened tension (Act III)
Shylock’s bitterness intensifies as there is no news of Jessica and his lost wealth. News that Antonio’s ships have reportedly been wrecked at sea infuriates him further as he realizes that his loan shall not be repaid. He hardens and begins to insist on the fulfillment of the bond. When asked what use a man’s flesh could possibly have, he replies:
To bait fish withal; if it will feed nothing else,
it will feed my revenge.
Shylock does not stop there. He reminds everyone how Antonio has humiliated him, disrespected his livelihood, laughed at his losses, turned friends against him, and aligned with his enemies—all solely because he is a Jew. He lashes out in a searing monologue:
I am a Jew. Hath not
a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions,
senses, affections, passions? Fed with the
same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to
the same diseases, healed by the same means,
warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer
as a Christian is? 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? If we are like you in the rest, we will
resemble you in that. 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!
After a while, Tubal, a fellow Jew, delivers worse news. Jessica, who has been selling Shylock’s jewelry, has traded a cherished turquoise ring that had once belonged to Shylock’s late wife, Leah. A livid Shylock now swears that he will claim Antonio’s heart if the debt is not repaid. When Antonio’s ships fail to return on time, he tries to plead with Shylock, but the moneylender remains adamant about enforcing the bond.
The trial and defeat (Act IV)
Shylock and Antonio face off in court, and the trial scene sees Shylock’s breakdown. Antonio cannot repay the loan, compelling Shylock to insist on his legal right to the pound of flesh. Portia, a wealthy heiress whom Bassanio has been wooing and who has disguised herself as a male lawyer to try and save Antonio, intervenes and appeals to Shylock’s sense of mercy, without making a dent in his heart. He declares:
I crave the law,
The penalty and forfeit of my bond.
When Portia admits that Shylock is legally entitled to the clause of his bond, Shylock is elated, heartily praising the “wise young judge.” But his triumph is momentary. Portia argues that Shylock may take his pound of flesh, but since blood was not mentioned in the bond, Shylock must not shed any of Antonio’s blood, which is an impossibility. Shylock is caught in a legal trap and cannot claim his penalty without breaking the law himself. Thus denied his revenge, a broken Shylock is now ready to accept the principal amount of the loan instead, but Portia refuses him, saying that now “He shall have merely justice and his bond.” He is also punished for attempting to kill a Venetian citizen. The court not only strips Shylock of his wealth, giving half to Antonio and half to the state, but also forces him to convert to Christianity. In the last act, Shylock is conspicuous in his absence, his existence erased as his final punishment.
Character appraisal
It is not known for certain which English actor played Shylock first—whether it was Richard Burbage, known for his tragic roles, or the clown and comic actor William Kempe. The actor would have likely set the tone for the character.
Shylock’s complexity lies in how Shakespeare presents him both as a villain and a victim, as a comic as well as tragic character. He is seen as someone who is both wronged and in the wrong, but his role as an antagonist is clearly established by the playwright. He is a shrewd businessman and usurer who is undoubtedly vengeful and, at times, cruel. His insistence on claiming a pound of flesh, despite numerous appeals for mercy, casts him in a sinister light.
Shylock is central to the play’s themes of trade and money. In his professional capacity, he lends money with interest; it is he who facilitates Bassanio’s quest for Portia by lending 3,000 ducats to the young man with Antonio as the guarantor. Shylock’s daughter Jessica takes much of his money and jewels when she elopes with her Christian lover Lorenzo. He loses all his remaining wealth and property when Portia helps Antonio win the case against him.
Changing portrayal
Theatrical interpretations of Shylock have varied widely, defining the perception of the character. Actors in the 18th century, such as comedian Thomas Dogett, played him as a comic villain, evoking laughter from the audience. His miserliness and dramatic passion were subjects of ridicule. However, there was a gradual shift, likely beginning with the actor Charles Macklin’s portrayal of the character as serious, solemn, and intimidating. Edmund Kean evoked the pathos in Shylock, while Henry Irving gave him a serious stature. Eventually, actors and directors began to emphasize Shylock’s tragic dimensions, presenting him as a man broken by a lifetime of discrimination. This shift was particularly noticeable after the Holocaust, the systematic state-sponsored killing of six million Jewish men, women, and children and millions of others by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II.
Villain and victim
Some critics have historically seen Shylock as a representation of greed and malevolence. Moreover, his insistence on the pound of flesh, threatening Antonio’s life, makes him a cold-blooded, monstrous villain to some observers. Other critics, however, have pointed out that his motivations are rooted in real grievances. As an outsider (“alien”) in European Christian society, Shylock is continually mistreated and is hence driven to revenge by personal wrongs. In one scene, he reminds Antonio how the Christian merchant has often berated him openly in the commercial center of Rialto, yet Shylock has been stoic in the face of such prejudice:
Still have I borne it with a patient shrug,
(For suff’rance is the badge of all our tribe).
Antonio’s hostility (directed against Shylock as a Jew and a usurer) remains unabated as he tells Shylock that he will “spet on thee again, to spurn thee, too.” He tells Bassanio that Shylock is “like a villain with a smiling cheek, / A goodly apple rotten at the heart.” The verbal abuse does not end there, however. Solanio brands Shylock a “villain Jew” and even claims that the devil “comes in the likeness of a Jew.” Already burdened by relentless intolerance, Shylock also endures the heartbreak of his daughter’s betrayal as she falls in love with a Christian.
Debates about antisemitism
During the 1930s and ’40s the Nazi Party in Germany used The Merchant of Venice as a vehicle of antisemitic propaganda, putting up performances of the play multiple times. However, they edited and rewrote some parts to suit their ideological goals.
There have been debates about whether The Merchant of Venice is an antisemitic play in itself or a play about antisemitism. Religious discord between Christians and Jews lies at the heart of the narrative. Shylock’s portrayal embodies many negative antisemitic stereotypes prevalent during Shakespeare’s time: he is materialistic, obsessed with money, stubborn, vengeful, and lacking in mercy. Some critics, such as Harold Bloom, believe that the play has outright anti-Jewish elements. Shylock’s forced conversion to Christianity also represents a complete erasure of his religious and cultural identity under the guise of “Christian mercy,” highlighting religious conversion as a means to punish Jews. It has been argued by others, however, that the playwright humanizes Jews, especially in the poignant “Hath not a Jew eyes?” speech, which is intended to evoke empathy from audiences.
“The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.”
—Shylock, Act III, scene 1
Furthermore, Shylock claims that the villainy in him has been taught by the intolerant Christians, who ostracize and dehumanize him. Such history of persecution makes his repeated menacing threats of “Let him look to his bond,” his paranoia about his house and wealth, and his thirst for revenge understandable, if not justifiable. Shylock’s final fall comes in the form of an unforgiving judgment, one that mirrors the very severity he demanded, but delivered without mercy or compassion, thus completing his tragic arc.
Adaptations
Stage performances by 19th-century actors Edmund Kean and Henry Irving stand out, as they gave Shylock a measure of dignity and complexity and shifted perceptions of the character, presenting him as a tragic figure. In more contemporary times, famed stage and film actor Laurence Olivier offered a powerful interpretation of Shylock in a 1973 television adaptation of The Merchant of Venice. Patrick Stewart’s portrayal (1978 and 2011) at the Royal Shakespeare Company and Al Pacino’s performance in the 2004 film adaptation received critical praise, highlighting Shylock’s humanity and the play’s darker themes. In the literary spinoff Shylock Is My Name (2016), writer Howard Jacobson sets the tale in a modern context, in which Shylock appears to tell his own story.