What Are The Audience’s Impressions Of Shylock Dur

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The first point in the play that we meet Shylock is during his important deal with fellow character Antonio. Shylock is a Jew and like most Jews at that time, his main job was to lend money and earn because of the interest. The Jews were hated for this by the Christians, who detested the idea of charging someone money for borrowing. Even so, Christians did use them as a source of temporary money, Antonio in this case, when it was needed quickly: because of their interest charges, Jews became very rich and therefore had large sums of money to offer very quickly.
As I said before, Antonio approaches Shylock to borrow some money while he waits for his ships loaded with his possessions to come back home. Antonio goes to meet Shylock with Bassanio and there, Shylock proposes Antonio an offer: he did not need to pay any interest on the 3000 ducats, but if he didn’t get the money back within three months, Shylock was allowed to take a pound of Antonio’s flesh (kill him). At first the audience believes that this pact is a bit harsh on Antonio and they dislike Shylock, but slowly Shakespeare reveals the horrible acts that Antonio has committed to Shylock: ‘Fair sir, you spat on me Wednesday last’ (Line 118 Act 1 Scene 3). This quote shows Shylocks sarcastic way to bring up what Antonio has done to him. Antonio also calls Shylock a ‘Dog’ and Shylock mocks him with a sarcastic rhetorical question: ‘Hath a dog money?’ (Line 113 Act 1 Scene 3). This makes the audience and the characters think about why Antonio wants money from someone he dislikes so much. Moreover, Shakespeare uses some clever stagecraft to enhance the hate between Shylock and Antonio by making them talk through Bassanio: ‘[to Bassanio] Is he yet possessed how much ye would?’ (Line 56 Act 1 Scene 3) and ‘[to Bassanio] you told me so’ (Line 59 Act1 Scene3) Shakespeare uses the ‘[to Bassanio]’ to show that Antonio
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