The Characters of "The Merchant of Venice" a Play by William Shakespeare and Prejudice

So one of the themes in "The Merchant of Venice" a play by William Shakespeare, is prejudice. In my own words, prejudice is basically an opinion that you created on a certain group or just a person without actually having an experience with that group, or actually having a real life interaction with that particular group. And sometimes people with prejudice make negative opinions on other people. So in a way, it's a "unbiased" opinion on a group of people. Two characters in this story, Antonio and Shylock definitely relates to one of the themes in the play (which is prejudice as I had said before). So in the play, Antonio is going to Shylock because he wants to borrow some money in his friends' name, Bassanio. And it turns out that Shylock is actually Jew while Antonio is Christian, and that apparently Shylock hates Antonio for he is a Christian (on line 368, Shylock says "I hate him for he is a Christian,"), and that Antonio also hates Shylock as well, because Shylock is a Jew. Now the thing is though, Shylock and Antonio barely just met, and they already started hating on each other just because of their different religions which to me sounds like that both Shylock and Antonio has prejudice. Shylock has prejudice with Christian people while Antonio has prejudice on Jewish people. In fact they hate each other so much (even though they barely just met) that throughout the whole entire Act 1. Scene 3. is basically just Antonio and Shylock hating on each other due to their religion. Shylock even said that "You call me misbeliever, cutthroat dog, And spet upon my Jewish gaberdine" on line 0447 and 0448, and those two lines meant that Antonio kick on him like a dog and even spat on him. And even on lines 0432 and 0433, Antonio said "Mark you this, Bassanio, The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose!" and by the devil he meant Shylock. And so with all the examples that I've given, you probably would've had a strong feeling that these 2 characters already hate on each other because of their religion, even though they barely even met.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Connections Between Characters and Setting

In a story, characters and the setting are connected and have a relationship with each other, and can help the audience further comprehend the story. Those relationships include how a character's actions can reveal the setting of the story-- but the setting in a story also influences a character's actions. "The Sniper a short story by Liam O'Flaherty, is a good example of this connection. A character's actions can reveal the setting of the story, take for example, The Sniper , a short story by Liam O'Flaherty. The main character of the story is the first sniper-- the protagonist. Though the protagonist does mention that a civil war was occurring, other actions such as the sniper killing his brother, can also reveal the setting (O'Flaherty). Near the end, it is revealed that the protagonist killed his brother. This action reveals a major part of the story's setting; the story is happening in a civil war-- the Irish Civil War to be exact. A civil war...
Read more

Historical Snapshot

Craters on Dublin It wasn’t supposed to happen. I didn’t want to believe it, and I couldn’t. I couldn’t feel anything, and I felt so numb. I walked past of what used to be decent-sized houses. Now they were just huge graves. They were massive craters dented into Dublin. The bricks of the house came undone; along with the families it once held. They were huge homes that once acted as a shelter for a family. How lucky these families were, to have a ma, children, and a Dad. A Dad. I wish they'd known how blessed they were to have one. But Dad has to come home, right? Ma can’t possibly support the two of us on her own. She needs Dad. I need Dad. I stopped in my tracks. I heard bells ringing, which signaled the start of school. But I couldn’t move, though I had to go to school or else the money will go to waste. My chest started to tremble, and I felt the sting of tears coming. He had to be safe, right? He’s a strong person, and he’d never leave me or Ma, right? De Valera promis...
Read more

Imagery and Tone

Tone: Comical  The bright, vibrant green cap of the juice bottle shone brightly under the classroom lights, all basked in its reflective glory. The juice inside was supposed to fill the bottle, though it just barely covered the bottom of the bottle. How inconvenient. But the little liquid that was left in the bottle happily swished around it its messy glory, unknown of how unuseful the juice bottle was. 
Read more