The Merchant of Venice

Was Shakespeare an antisemite? Many argue that his portrayal of Shylock in ‘The Merchant of Venice’ is proof that he was one. Shylock the Jew is a money lender who demands a pound of flesh from Antonio, loses his mind when his daughter elopes (setting off with his jewels and ducats) and refuses to curry-favour with the ‘pork eaters’.

But in the very same play, Antonio, the ‘merciful’ Christian is shown to have spat on Shylock, Christians are accused of being involved in the Slave trade, and Moors are disparaged for their dark skin.

Like all of Shakespeare, this play too, resists easy generalizations.

In 1290, the entire Jewish community of England was expelled and forbidden to return. So, three hundred years later, it is unlikely that Shakespeare or anyone in his audience would have ever interacted with a Jew. According to Stephen Greenblatt, the stereotypes of the era included absurdities such as:

Jews lured little children into their clutches, murdered them, and took their blood to make bread for Passover. Jews were immensely wealthy—even when they looked like paupers—and covertly pulled the strings of an enormous international network of capital and goods. Jews poisoned wells and were responsible for spreading the bubonic plague. Jews secretly plotted an apocalyptic war against the Christians. Jews had a peculiar stink. Jewish men menstruated.

Shakespeare’s alleged antisemitism must be judged in this backdrop. One of the most moving and poignant lines of all of Shakespeare are spoken by Shylock – Hath not a Jew eyes?

Hath not a Jew eyes?
Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?
Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons,
subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means,
warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is?
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?
If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.
If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge.
If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge.
The villainy you teach me, I will execute; and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction

Its hard not to be moved by these lines. What would an audience that dehumanized Jews have made of these lines? Would they have flinched for a brief moment?

Now, coming to the setting of the play – the choice of Venice. The sixteenth century had no concept of the Rule of Law. The Age of Genius that was the seventeenth century was yet to unfold. Hobbes and Locke’s political theory were still a few decades away. In such a world, there existed a city modelled as a Commercial Republic, where trade was paramount – Venice. In Venice, free trade was protected through contracts and credit. Jews were unmolested and enjoyed a comparatively safer degree of freedom in the city. The Popes themselves called for their protection from radical Christians, though with the ulterior motive of ensuring that they remain fearful, impoverished and second-class citizens – the price extracted for rejecting Christ.

The Venice of Shakespeare was the precursor for the libertarianism of our own age. One where the Rule of Law was supreme along with the Right to Life, Liberty and Property.

The homo-eroticism of Antonio and Bassanio, the cross-dressing, identity shifts, the Ottoman and Hapsburg representatives as the two other suitors of Portia. are all quite fascinating subtexts. Antonio’s wealth at sea, Shylock’s bond, Portia’s fortune and Jessica’s theft, all hint to Shakespeare’s shrewd interpretation of money as the currency of our social relations.

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