Throughout the whole play Shylock is not treated equally because of his religous beliefs (Jewish). Shylock in a speech says this about Antonio "He hath disgraced me and hindered me half a million, laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies—and what’s his reason? I am a Jew. ", (3.1.44-48). This speech Shylock says to Salarino & Solanio summurizes the way he is treated by the Christains because he is jewish.
Antonio has treated Shylock very rudely and disrespectfully, even calling him a “dog” because of his religion, and now he is coming to him for money. Shylock uses this bond as an opportunity not only to get revenge against Antonio for all of his wrongdoing, but also to achieve more respect in the Venetian community. In addition, in Act 3, Scene 1, during Shylock’s speech to Solanio and Salarino, he declares, “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?
The Czars were afraid of losing power so they created laws to persecute the Jews as well. In the middle of all these years was the fact that the nobility and the peasants were on both sides of the hatred of the Jews. When Paul saw the complete rejection of Christianity by the Jews, he was livid and that anger turned to hatred (Schloss, p. 89). This is really just an egotistical person unable to deal with rejection. The first crusade is another case where a power hungry pope decided to wage war in order to unite all to obey him.
Victim of Venice Shylock is the victim in The Merchant of Venice, because he is always being mistreated due to his religion of being Jewish, his own daughter betrayed him, and he was given a terrible sentence in the court of law. Shylock is mistreated due to his religion. We see this when Bassanio said to Shylock that he could dine with Antonio and himself, “If it please you to dine with us” (1.3.28). For religious reasons Shylock is not able to eat with the men, so this comes across as an insult, as if the men are bragging about being able to eat while Shylock cannot dine with them because he is Jewish. Another time mistreatment is shown is when Shylock says to Antonio “You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog, and spit upon my Jewish gaberdine” (1.3.110-111).
As Christianity spread Jews were often seen as the biblical “Christ-killers” which made much of the European community suspicious of them. As it was frowned upon by Christians to be a moneylender or even a banker but Jews were free to do this, it made them even more different from the Christians and made them seem obsessed with money. They were seen as pure evil. In the 14th Century laws were passed which forced Jews to live in specially made ‘ghettos’ where the living conditions were awful and incredibly cramped. They were hated by much of Europe’s Christian population.
The characters in the play are mostly Christians, who are all prejudice against Jews. Antonio is probably the biggest Jew-hater, and Shakespeare shows this view of Antonio’s and all the other Christians as the main idea of the story. “You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog, and spit upon my Jewish gabardine, and all for use of that which is mine own.” (act1.3 line108) Although Jews are condemned and hated, this isn’t to emphasize the prejudice, it’s only to show how unfairly they are treated, and to make the audience see, and feel sorry for Shylock, being a Jew. In January 1933, about 522,000 Jews lived in Germany. In the first 6 years of the Nazi dictatorship, over half the Jews moved, leaving under 214,000 Jews in Germany just before World War II.
She never says anything when he speaks to her in this scene, but then everything changes when he begins to blame her for his "irrational and unclear thinking," immediately he then proceeds to beat her. When genocide occurs, it strikes a nerve in everyone when it is one country or one type of people going after another. When it occurs within a state or nationality is still wrong, but looked upon as them doing it to themselves. What happened to the Jews in Europe as Germany progressed in World War II was in fact genocide. It was the Germans looking down upon the Jewish community as monsters, witches, and simply put people that the world would be better off if they ceased to
Because of his treatment, Shylock (as he tells us) is always looking for a way to get back at Antonio. And so when Antonio wanted to borrow money from him in Act I, Shylock puts forward the forfeit of a pound of flesh on failing to pay back the loan. When one man (Shylock) is in a position of power of another (Antonio), the second man should surely seek the approval of the first. But even when signing the bond, Antonio expresses his lack of remorse for his actions. Even though Antonio may see himself as more important than any Jew, Shylock’s profession will always put him in a place with Antonio under his control.
His own family disapproved of it. The reason for that was because they knew it was going to be biased. There were too many risks in taking that case. He risks being criticized by the townsfolk in Maycomb. Mrs. Dubose criticizes him at one point and says, “Atticus is a Nigger lover!” or when she says, “Your father’s no better than the niggers and trash he works for!” He also puts his re-election for legislature in jeopardy because of all the racist people living there.
However, Shylock is just as prejudice. He judges Antonio by his religion: He says ‘I hate him for he is a Christian.’ (1:3 l.36) This means that even though he does not like being judged and hated because he is a Jew, he still hates others because they are Christian. When Antonio lent the money from Shylock, he agreed that if he could not pay off his debt of 3,000 ducats