Shylock Character Analysis in the Merchant of Venice

549 Words3 Pages
Doa’a M. Al-Shabaan
Professor
Shakespeare
11th of Nov, 2012
Shylock Character analysis in the Merchant of Venice
Introduction
Shylock character is one of the most controversial characters in the novel. At the least that what I have noticed while I was surfing through the net. As more I read about this character as more I got engaged with it. Though his character isn’t the favorite for the one who reads the novel as he represents the stereotype of a Jewish moneylender, who happened to be the antagonist, hatred is his motivation and uses his devilish mind to fulfill his evil plan of getting his revenge from Antonio. However; this paper will discuss his character from two aspects which are Shylock the materialist man and Shylock’s conversion into Christianity.
Shylock the materialist man As we go though the novel it gets so clear how Shylock cherishes money over anything in his life, he even cherishes it more than he do to human relations including his daughter’s. At the beginning of the novel we see that he doesn’t care what is the mean as long as he gets to his end which is money. He takes the advantage of people need for money in order to get the interests. also when his daughter ,Jessica, runaway from him he was more worried about the money more than about his daughter as I’ll quote from the novel "'My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter! / Fled with a Christian! O my Christian ducats!" (2.8.2) . As he is willing to give up his own religion for the sake of getting the half of his wealth in the end of the novel. Which indicates that he has no principles nor loyalty except for his money.

Christianity Vs Judaism As we read the novel we’ll find that Shakespeare makes a clear comparison between Christians and Jews by representing generous Christian characters like Antonio who is defending the poor
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