Merchant_of_Venice

Charles Nguyen Mrs. Luyks ENG2D Thursday, November, 12, 2009 The book The Merchant of Venice is the most controversial book that Shakespeare has written. Victimisation is a big topic in The Merchant of Venice. This occurs for many people. Victimisation is when someone treats someone unfairly, for example not allowing Jews to have a citizenship. The victims would be the Jews. This occurs for many people in the play Merchant of Venice, but specifically for Shylock. Shylock is a victim because he has a very poor relationship with his daughter, he experiences a lot of prejudice, and he loses everything. Shylock always had a bad relationship with Jessica. She never treated him like a farther. Jessica shows that she is not very fond of her farther when she says to Launcelot before he left “ I’m sorry those wilt leave my farther so; our house is hell” (2.3 1-2). This tells readers that she does not want to live with Shylock. In the play Jessica plans to leave her farther because she hates her farther and wants to live with her love, Lorenzo. Before she leaves Shylock she is in her room and shylock enters. At the end she says “Farewell and if I am lucky I have a farther, you a daughter, lost” (2.5 56-57). She honestly never wants to see her own farther again. Jessica was asked to protect her father's money and jewels because he had a dream that someone took his money bags. While he is gone she runs away with Lorenzo. When he arrives at her house, Jessica takes Shylock's ducats and jewels. She also sold the ring that Shylock gave to his wife, his wife has died. Shylock is shocked and angered that she sold the ring, he says "a diamond gone, cost me two thousand ducats in Frankfurt!"(3.1 77-78). Shylock loves her cruel daughter Jessica but she doesn’t really understand that. Shylock having a bad relationship with Jessica is a very big concern for Shylocks fortune. As Jessica leaves Shylock, Shylock loses his heir, His only daughter, and all of his jewels. Although Jessica leaves Shylock and steals all of his money, he is also a victim because gentiles are prejudice against him. In Venice, being a Jew would be very unpleasant. Shylock a mistreated is a Jew; Jews in Shakespeare's time had to wear different clothes than everyone else did, so people could recognize them as a Jew. They also got locked up at night so that they didn't get away. He gets spit on by Antonio and calls him different names, for example he was called a dog. Shylock says to Antonio "You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog, and spit upon my Jewish gaberdine" (1.3 107-108). Shylock is a money lender, but he lends with interest. People insult Jews when they lend money for interest. Shylock says to Antonio (when Antonio is asking to loan money) “Many a time and oft you have rated me in the Rialto money lending with interest” (1.3 103-104). Shylock has been treated like this for his whole life, however, in the Shylock loses absolutely everything! The bond signed by Antonio and Shylock had the intention of Antonio losing every, but in the end Shylock is the one who loses everything. Portia explains that Shylock may have one pound of flesh, but not even one misalign drop of blood. “This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood” (4.1 303). It would be impossible for Shylock to cut up his flesh without a drop of blood. Since Shylock cannot do his part of the bond, therefore absolutely everything that Shylock owns is will confiscated. Shylock tells the Duke “Nay, take my life and all pardon not that: you take my house, when you take the prop that doth sustain my house; you take my life when you do take the means whereby I live.” (4.1 371-374). He is explaining that he would rather die than lose everything that he owned. The Duke decides to compromise, allowing him to keep half of what he owns but, he must convert to Christianity, and when he dies absolutely everything that he has left goes straight to Jessica and Lorenzo. In the end of all this disaster, Shylock, the man who is mistreated and thought of as a dog, and who has lost everything never received justice. In the end Shylock is the victim and did not get his revenge. Shylock tries so hard just to get revenge on his number-one enemy, Antonio. Antonio was the one that is supposed to be one who loses his life and everything. That never came true because of Portia. In the end Shylock is the one who lost everything, his daughter, half of what he owns, and he lost his right to be a Jew. Shylock is clearly the victim in this play, but, there is one message to take out of this play, and that is, two wrongs don’t make a right.