There are many people, after reading the Merchant of Venice, who think that Antonio is a 'saint', while Shylock is the mother of all evil. But personally, I know that Antonio should be depicted as the good guy while Shylock the bad, but I can't help but sympathize for Shylock. Just because he chose, or probably passes down from his ancestors, to be a Jew, he has to suffer the discrimination of Christians. Even though Antonio spat on him and despised him, it was because Antonio was prejudiced against him and not because Shylock offended Antonio in any way. Furthermore, in the end where Shylock, Antonio and Bassanio went to court, even though Shylock was wrong to obtain a pound of flesh from Antonio, basically Shylock had a right to do so. And that was also because Antonio and Bassanio did not return him the money that he had lent to them. Additionally, Shylock did not even plot against them even though he knew that there was a very small chance of a shipwreck of Antonio's ships, he did not do anything scheming at all. This shows us that Shylock is not as bad as we have pictured him. Maybe people should consider and put themselves in Shylock shoes, probably we will feel even a tad of compassion for him.
(Term 3 Post #1)
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