Shylock: The Man the Play Cannot Contain
First appears: Act 1, Scene 3
Shylock arrives in the play as Antonio's creditor and exits it as his victim. In between, Shakespeare gives him the most powerful speech in the play and the most human grievance. When his daughter Jessica runs off with Lorenzo and takes his money and his jewels, his cry ('My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter!') is played for laughs by the other characters. Whether an audience laughs depends entirely on how it has been watching.
His 'Hath not a Jew eyes?' speech in Act 3 Scene 1 is not a plea for tolerance. It is a justification for revenge. The logic is precise: if Christians teach him injury, he will improve on the lesson. That argument is watertight and chilling.
The trial scene in Act 4 breaks him. Portia strips away his legal ground with the same precision he brought to the contract. He loses his bond, half his wealth, his religion, and his daughter's inheritance in the space of one scene. Whether the play intends his forced conversion as mercy or cruelty is a question every production has to answer for itself.
Key Scenes
Famous Quotes
“Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?”
Shylock — Act 3, Scene 1
“If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?”
Shylock — Act 3, Scene 1
“The villainy you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.”
Shylock — Act 3, Scene 1
Themes
Other Characters in The Merchant of Venice
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