The Victim of Venice. (the Merchant of Venice Book Essay)

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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). Antonio calls Shylock rude names and even spits on Shylock’s Jewish gaberdine, which is a very disrespecting and rude act. Shylock has done nothing to harm Antonio, but because Shylock is a Jew and Antonio is Christian, Antonio continues to treat Shylock this way. When Antonio says “I am as like to call thee so again, to spit on thee again, to spurn thee too” (1.3.-128-129), he impolitely refers to Shylock as ‘thee’ instead of ‘you’ which is proving his racism towards Shylock. Although Shylock is standing right near Antonio, Antonio continues to talk about Shylock as though he isn’t there and as if he’s worthless. When Jessica betrays her father, she leaves him devastated. When she says “Farewell, and if my fortune be not crossed, I have a father, you a daughter lost” (2.6.56-57), we can infer that Shylock would be beyond himself, and very upset that he just lost his daughter after everything that has been happening to him. Also after Jessica disowns herself from her father (2.6.56-57) we can infer that Shylock feels as though he has lost everything now, so this would likely put him into an unstable state

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