Essay: To what extent do you agree that Shylock is the villain?

To what extent do you agree that Shylock is the villain of The Merchant of Venice in The Merchant of Venice.
In some parts of the play Shylock is presented as a villain but in other parts Shakespeare presents him as a victim. Our first expectations of Shylock are that he is a stereotypical villain but throughout the play we see the more human and emotional side that Shakespeare presents.
Shakespeare first introduces Shylock as a stereotypical, greedy Jew because his first words are “Three thousand ducats”, which is about money and Jews were seen in this way since their religion allowed them to lend money at interest whilst Christians were not allowed to. The fact that Shylock is presented to meet this stereotype suggests he fits in with the other, worse, stereotypes of Shakespeare’s time that Jews were evil and murderous since Christians believed Jews were responsible for the death of Christ and that Jews used Christian children’s blood for Passover. This is backed up when Shylock is doing the deal with Antonio and asks for “an equal pound of your fair flesh” as a forfeit because this is an evil action as it would involve murdering Antonio. Shakespeare presents this as even more villainous when Shylock says, “ your fair flesh [is] to be cut off and taken in what part of your body pleaseth me”, with the phrase “pleaseth me” suggesting Shylock would take pleasure in hurting Antonio.
Another way Shakespeare presents Shylock to be the villain is at the start of Act 4 when they are in court. This is when Shylock would “rather choose to have a weight of carrion flesh than to receive three thousand ducat”. The fact that Shylock will not take the money shows how determined he is to kill Antonio which makes him appear to be the villain of The Merchant of Venice. Shakespeare emphasises Shylock’s determination to kill Antonio when Shylock says, “if every ducat in six thousand ducats were in six parts and every part a ducat I would not draw them: I would have my bond”. This portrays Shylock as even more villainous and vengeful as he says he would decline a lot of money and the phrase “my bond” signifies how personal this has become for Shylock and that it is now more than a business deal. This is because he has become vengeful and has developed a deeper, more personal, hatred against Antonio; we know this because Shylock says, “If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example. Why, revenge!”, and “a lodg’d hate and a certain loathing I bear Antonio”. “Why, revenge!” implies Shylock thinks revenge is the obvious option and the words “certain” and “lodg’d” tells us that Shylock has developed a greater hatred for Antonio. This shows us that Shylock is being portrayed as more hateful, therefore more villainous, by Shakespeare.
The audience of Shakespeare’s time would see Shylock as the villain of The Merchant of Venice because of the anti-Semitism of their society. We know this because of how the Christian characters in the play treat Shylock and other Jews, for example when Salanio says, “Here comes another of the tribe; a third cannot be matched, unless the devil himself turn Jew”, this would be how the audience thought of Jews and comparing Shylock and Tubal to the devil which suggests a villainous and inhuman view of Jews. Furthermore, the only things the audience would have known about Jews were the stereotypes, which were extremely negative and they portrayed Jews as evil, since they were banished from England in 1290 by the Edict of Expulsion. However a modern audience would see Shylock not as the villain, but more of a victim since Shakespeare puts moments in the play which allows a modern audience, that is far less anti-Semitic, to empathise with Shylock. One of these moments is when Shylock is told that Jessica sold “[his] turquoise [ring], [he] had of Leah”. A modern audience can empathise with this because they have all lost something of sentimental value and know that it hurts, especially something of that value. The fact that the audience can empathise with Shylock presents him as more human, therefore allowing the audience to see how badly the Christians have treated and victimised him. This shows that a modern audience, us, would see Shylock as a victim whilst an audience of Shakespeare’s time would see Shylock as the villain.
After Portia saves Antonio in court, Shakespeare presents Shylock as a victim because he loses “thy lands and goods”. Shylock becomes even more of a victim when Antonio forces Shylock to give “half [his wealth] … unto the gentleman that lately stole his daughter” and that Shylock “presently become Christian”. We can tell Shylock is the victim here as he begs the Duke to “take [his] life”. This not only shows that Shylock is the victim as he would rather die, but that Antonio is presented as the villain by Shakespeare because of the two requests he makes Shylock do that are merciless and villainous. We know these requests will have a significant effect on Shylock as Shakespeare presents him as a very strict Jew and as having a deep hatred for Christianity and Christians, because he says, “I hate him [Antonio] for he is a Christian”. This means that when he becomes Christian he will lose an important part of his life, his religion, and become what he hates. The other request will have a large impact on Shylock because it means he will have to help the “gentleman [Lorenzo] that lately stole his daughter” and the word “stole” heavily reinforces that Shylock did not want Lorenzo and Jessica being together. We can see that these requests are merciless and villainous from Shylock’s reaction as he says, “[he is] not well” and asks for them to “send the deed after [him]”, which shows us that what Antonio and the other Christians have done has made him “not well” and want to leave the court immediately since it has brought him much pain.
Shylock’s speech in Act 3 shows that Jews are very similar to, and just as human as ,Christians. Shakespeare presents Shylock as using simple fact, for example, “Hath a Jew not eyes?… If you poison us do we not die?”, in the form of questions with undeniable answers to prove this. Earlier in the speech Shylock tells us that Antonio “hath disgraced [him]” and “laughed at [his] loses”; since Shylock has just proved to the audience he is human too, this allows the audience to empathise with Shylock due to what Antonio has done to him. This means that the audience are able to understand Shylock’s desire for revenge which presents him as much less of a villain.
To conclude, Shylock is not the villain of the play, even though he does do villainous actions, for example, he would “rather choose to have a weight of carrion flesh than to receive three thousand ducats”. However, Antonio is even more villainous towards Shylock by making him “presently become Christian” and the way in which he treats Shylock before the start of the play. Therefore Shakespeare shows Antonio as more of a villain whilst Shylock to be more of a victim in The Merchant of Venice.
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