Merchant of Venice – Shylock

usurer is The merchant of Venice In William Shakespeares The Merchant of Venice, in that respect are m some(prenominal) themes, symbols and words besides which take on a composite plant and duple nature. Not only screwing lines in the play be interpreted by the audience in nonuple ways, they are meant to wel return multiple meanings. This wave-particle duality can be seen in the shares as well. goldlender is portrayed as both a victim and a scoundrel and our sense of him evolves as his character is revealed to us as The Merchant of Venice. We are offset introduced to moneylender in Act I Scene III when we learn intimately his job as a moneylender. During this stop consonant of time, Judaic people were very hold in in the jobs they could obtain they were looked blast upon by, and on the fringe of, society. While the Christians could lend money, it was basal and against church rule for them to charge any type of occupy, it was usurious. However, there was nonhing to prohibit Jewish lenders from making a reenforcement by charging interest. They did so to survive and were hatred for such an im honourable and disgraceful practice.Bassanio goes to shylock for a loan to be habituated in Antonios name. Upon Antonios entering, loan shark displays his self-complacency for Antonio in an aside, How like a flex publican he looks / I hate him for he is Christian, / tho more for that in low simplicity / he lends issue money gratis (1. 1. 41-45). His hatred is dual in nature Antonio lends money wi constant of gravitationt interest threatening the existence of his job as a moneylender. Also, Antonio is injusticed against the Jews and has humiliated and insulted loan shark publicly for both his lending practices and his religion.This is revealed when loan shark asks Antonio why he should lend money to someone who has, rated me / About my moneys and my usuances (1. 3. 117-118) You c exclusively me misbeliever, merciless dog / And spet upon my Jewish Gaberdine (1. 3. 121-122). usurer could not retaliate the prejudice, and had to tolerate the abuse, silence defend I borne it with a tolerant shrug / for sufferance is the badge of whole our tribe (1. 3. 119-120). This portrays usurer as a person who is victimized and helpless against the prejudice and racism present in that society.Antonio asks that shylock see the loan not as a lending of money to a friend, only if rather to thine enemy, / Who, if he break, thou mayst with better face / Exact the punishment (1. 3. 145-146). Shylock is now given bureau over the fate of the loan, Bassanios craved pursuit of Portia and the pickaxe of bail for the loan. It is a chance for Shylocks to strain retribution not only from Antonio person everyy, but on a larger outstrip Christian society as a whole. To further advance his position, he speaks to Antonio as a friend, I would be friends with you, and require your love, / Forget the shames that you fork over stained me wit h (1. . 149-150). Shylocks cynically toned wobble of totality toward Antonio makes it clear his feigned familiarity may, quite probably, be motivated by ulterior interests. At this point, there is a substantial shift in the character of Shylock from being that of a victim to that of a villain. Shylock is not enkindle in receiving mere interest on the money he lends, he wants a redemption and revenge for himself and his people which no occur of money exit reward for him. The selfish, greedy, usurous Jew many want to make Shylock out to be is no durable being guided by a monetary beacon.He is now plain overtaken by a cruel ghoulish desire for revenge. He has become passionately cunning, malicious and vengeful, let the forfeit / Be nominated for an equal quid pro quo / Of your beauteous flesh, possibly as opposed to his slightly darker Jewish flesh to be cut off and taken / In what part of your body pleaseth me (1. 3. 160-163). He reveals the depths of his discontent and his desire for vengeance when he says, I will come the heart of him if he forfeit (3. 2. 125-126).It is not gigantic before Shylock receives news from tubal that some of Antonios fleet has come upon misfortune and he has no choice but to break his bond. Shylock declares, I am very felicitous of it. Ill horror him, Ill / torture him, I am glad of it (3. 1. 115-116). The arrest of Antonio for failure to timely give birth his bond solidifies what is lawfully owed to and bought and paid for by Shylock. There is no doubt that Shylock has every intention of collecting this fucking(a) bond, his obsessive hatred for Antonio becomes apparent, Ill have my bond. Speak not against my bond. I have sworn an oath that I will have my bond (3. 3. 5-6). Shylock has change from discriminated repressed Jew to despised money lender to murderous vengeful sinner. During the trial scene, Shylock clearly enjoys the forthcoming bond which is receivable to him, he whets his knife on his enclothe in the courtroom so that he can, cut the forfeiture from Antonio (4. 1. 124). Shylock is coherent in his desire. The pound of flesh is worth more to him than ten times the amount of ducats owed. More so, he rejects any raise to the divine sanction of ercy, and believes to have his bond is lawfully and morally right. Shylock asks the Duke, What judging shall I dread, doing no wrong? (4. 1. 90) and states, I crave the law (4. 1. 213). Even though he is legally entitled, Portia tries to appeal to his moral obligation to show mercy. He is not moved by this, and readies to collect his bond. At this point, the law is turned on Shylock. Portia tells Shylock he may have his bond, but that, This bond doth give thee here no jot of bloodif thou dost confound / One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods / are by the laws of Venice confiscate (4. . 319-324). Shylock, realizing his desired pound of flesh will not be his bond, agrees to accept the payment of the ducats. To this, Portia repl ies, The Jew shall have all justice. Soft, no haste / He shall have nothing but the penalty. Further, Portia declares, It is enacted in the laws of Venice, / If it be proved against an alien / That by rate or indirect attempts / He seeks the emotional state-time of any citizenthe offenders life sentence lies in the mercy of the Duke. Shylock is oblige to his knees to beg the Duke for Mercy.He is again, the Jew dog. His life as it is a physical existence was spared. Shylock, would choose death over the mercy shown to him by the Duke and Antonio, he asks the court to, Take my life and all (4. 1. 389). In granting him to keep one-half of his goods, Antonio takes his identity, his religion, his heart and soul. Antonio seeks that Shylock, presently become a Christian / The other, that he do playscript a gift, / Here in the court, of all he dies possessed / Unto his son Lorenzo and his little girl (4. . 403-406). Life and Christianity have defeated Shylock, they have taken his d aughter and given him a Christian son to which he is jounce to leave everything he owns. Shylock has been au naturel(p) of any power he may have once, if fleetingly, had. He has been broken down and stripped of his merciless religion. He is no longer villainous, he is piteous. Shylock evolved and modify as a character, before us as an audience just as our feelings, perceptions and sympathies for him.