Merchant Of Venice
...Many of the people of Shakespeare's time shared the belief that Jewish people were inferior to Christians, a belief reaching as far back as ancient roman times. Christianity came from Judaism, and the Christians believed themselves to be perfection of the Jewish religion. Christians viewed the Jews as people that needed converting, and took it upon themselves to convert the Jewish population. It is my opinion that Shakespeare does not advocate anti-Semitism but attempts to expose it. When the play is first read, Shylock, the Jew appears to be the villain. Upon closer inspection we see that he is a man that has been persecuted all of his life because of his Jewish background. Shylock is not the villain in this story but a victim of his own anger and frustration at a lifetime of persecution and alienation for being a Jew.
Shylock is a defensive character because society is constantly reminding him he is different in religion, looks, and social stature. He finds comfort in the law because he, himself, is an outcast of society. Shylock, by virtue of being a Jew is an outsider who is not given the same rights as the Christian citizens of Venice. Shylock is regarded as motivated solely by greed, while the Christians see themselves as epitomizing goodness.
16th century Venice was a very modern and progressive city but practiced social exclusion .Venetians were more than willing to take money from the Jews but turned their backs on them and shunned them socially. By the early 1500s, the flood of Jews posed, in the minds of Venetians', a serious threat to the city. The Venetian government needed to confine the Jews to a specific district. This district was called "geto nuovo" (New Foundry) and was the ancestor of the modern-day ghetto. In this way, Venetians could still accept Jewish money, but control their influence upon their way of life. Social exclusion insured...
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