Inner Turmoil And Outer Conflict Of Shylock

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Explore the ways Shakespeare presents the inner turmoil and outer conflict of Shylock in the play “The Merchant of Venice” There are many ways that Shakespeare presents Shylock’s inner turmoil and outer conflict in “The Merchant of Venice”. There are two very different views of him by characters in the play as his inner turmoil tells us that he is an evil and nasty man with no compassion for others feelings. This could however, just be that he is extremely over protective of his family and close ones, which is never a bad thing. Then Shylock’s outer conflict tells us that he is highly respected by the other Jews. This is because the Jews have recognized how Shylock has worked very hard to build his fortune by using the profession of a usurer. Firstly Shylock’s inner turmoil is shown in two ways by Shakespeare. There is his daughter, Jessica’s own point of view where she sees him as an old, inconsiderate monster. However this could just be because Shylock is very over protective oh her and may not want one single bad thing to happen to her as long as she is his daughter. The way Shakespeare shows Jessica’s view about shylock is very blunt and makes him seem excessively discourteous towards her. She also seems to think that he has not given her anything. Jessica even insults the very house she lives in for she called it a “house of hell”. Then she also refers to her house as being “tedious” and exclaims how she cannot do anything. Eventually Jessica can’t handle the stress and runs away with all of Shylock’s fortune to marry a Christian, which at this time was seen by the Jewish public as the most duplicitous act a Jew can do. Of course Shylock finds out and goes into a bewildering angriness and tells of how he wishes his daughter dead. This is just one of the five scenes we see shylock in the play but it does give us a lot of information as to how strongly Shylock

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