Was Shakespeare anti-Semitic?

Cafe Society
41

"The most common defense of Shylock rests on a reading of his best-known speech, which asks plaintively “If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh?” This speech, the reading goes, is a multicultural plea to see all people, Jews and gentiles, as equals. The problem with this interpretation is that, like so many of Shylock’s monologues, this speech is actually a piece of rhetoric. In this case, it is a piece of rhetoric designed explicitly to justify one simple point: Not that Jews are like everyone else, but that Jews, like everyone else, are entitled to their revenge. Shylock’s series of questions are a preamble to this crucial point: “And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.”

…Shylock may have started as a simple archetype—based on Marlowe’s prototypical Jewish villain—but Shakespeare couldn’t help but make him more complex and compelling. Other productions that have set out to be faithful to the original play have gone further in portraying Shylock as a vile stick figure, but that too does the play a disservice.
… He is not a likable hero, but no victim either.

42

It’s not worth it, which is part of the point.

To conclude, we’re left with the authoritative view that “sane” “modern day” people treat the dramatic works of Shakespeare, and in particular the views and actions of dramatic characters, as Shakespeare’s personal views and therefore he was an anti-Semite.

And just as a reminder, this board is about fighting ignorance.

43

Who claimed that? All I said was that the views Shakespeare held of Jews are views that sane modern people would regard as antisemitic. And sane modern people do indeed find it antisemitic to regard Jews as money-grubbing usurers.

44

up_the_junction: Enough of this hijack.

You are confusing debate with threadshitting (and now being insulting). If you cannot distinguish between the two it is best you refrain from posting in this thread.

Anymore discussion about this needs to be taken to ATMB or a warning will be issued.

Everyone else: Let’s drop the hijack regarding what “sane people” believe and get back to the topic at hand.

45

But Jews were money-grubbing usurers. Money grubbing usury was illegal in England at the time. Shakespeare’s own father had been denounced to the authorities as a usurer. According to scripture Jews were permitted to charge interest to non Jews on monetary loans. Those modern people apalled at Shakespeare depicting Jews as usurers need reminding of the usury laws of the time. Laws which lead to Christians to view many Jews as Shylock type characters(not that they necessarily needed much evidence to confirm their anti-semitism).

Please note I am not saying all Jews were usurers. Simply that the usury laws existed, and that Shakespeare might see a terrific drama/comedy/tragedy out of the conflict.

46

The stereotypical Jew would have been out for money, as much of it as he could get. Shylock specifically isn’t in this for the money. When Portia tells him ‘Shylock, there’s thrice thy money offered thee,’ he turns it down.

Look, Shylock is not a nice guy. You don’t get the urge to go for a few pints and a chat with him. But ‘writing a Jewish character who isn’t a saint’ is an entirely different thing from ‘being anti-Semitic’. It’s not like all the Jewish characters are horrible: the play has one ‘good’ Jewish character (Jessica); one neutral one (Tubal); and one nasty one (Shylock). And in the case of the nasty one, it’s made blindingly clear that a) he’s nasty not because he’s Jewish, but because he’s taken so much abuse, and b) he specifically does not conform to the stereotypes.

47

I’ve read arguments that Shylock is just a wronged man who happens to be Jewish,and the argument runs along the lines of "Wouldn’t you react like Shylock if others like Antonio had treated you the same way? I don’t buy it. The Merchant of Venice was written at a time when anti-Semitism was definitely strong (think: the Dr. Lopez Plot) and religion a mainstay in people’s lives. The play without a character like Shylock who plays to a large degree to the stereotypical Jew but with a degree of difference to earn our sympathy only to lose it again when he like the stereotypical Jew won’t compromise and show some humanity towards his debtor.

48

I don’t get why you asked the question to begun with. You seem to have made up your mind that Shakespeare was anti-semitic and Shylock was written as a stereotype with some modifications, to the point where you’ve got no interest in what the text actually says.

I’ve never heard of a Jewish stereotype that included ‘being a stickler for the law’ or ‘emphasising justice over mercy’. To the extent that those characteristics are associated with Jewish people, I’m betting it’s purely because of Shylock, rather than the other way around. Do you know of a single pre-Shylock reference to any such stereotype?

49

What, really? Judaism is, at its foundation, a legalistic religion, and Jews are overrepresented among lawyers.

50

Nope, never heard it. I’m totally willing to believe I’ve just missed it along the way, though, which is why I asked davidmich if there are any pre-Shylock references to it.

I’ve definitely heard of the Jewish-lawyer stereotype, but the version I’ve always heard has the Jewish lawyer as the slippery type who focuses on loopholes and small print. Which, again, in Merchant of Venice is the province of the Gentile characters and the exact opposite of Shylock.

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" Nowadays we are shocked at the prejudice because we are living after the holocaust when Hitler attempted to wipe out the whole Jewish race and now everyone has a degree of sympathy for Jews.The anti-Semitism shown in the play would be seen as comedy in the Elizabethan period. Shakespeare’s play was so successful because Queen Elizabeth’s doctor was executed for high treason in 1954. He was a Jew. Shylock has been seen as both the victim and the villain of the play. A victim because he loses all his money and has to change his religion at the end of the trial scene. Also he is the victim of lots of prejudice from the Christians like them spitting on him and calling him names. But in conclusion I think that ultimately Shylock is a villain."

52

Dude, you’re quoting the exam paper of 16-year old.

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Theme of The Merchant of Venice
The play The Merchant of Venice is categorised as a Comedy

54

All that means is it doesn’t have a tragic ending.

Whatever knocks against Jews are in the play, they weren’t done for laughs.

55

Of course Shylock would have been booed.
I have no idea what Shakespeare’s real attitude toward Jews was. No one does. All we can do is guess based on his times and his work. I’m pretty sure he shared some of the same prejudices of his day and since religion was a dominant topic of conversation, he would have had his prejudices and possibly sympathies for an ostracized group such as the Jews.

Anyone familiar with audience behavior in Elizabethan England? How would a typical Elizabethan audience behaved watching a Shakespeare play?

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http://www.oxfordjewishheritage.co.uk/news-a-events/news/254-persecution-of-elizabethan-oxford-jews

Persecution of Elizabethan Oxford Jews
This article appeared in the Oxford Times of 7th May 2015

57

It’s still a fairly dark play for a comedy. We do not know how the play, or character of Shylock, was performed originally. I do know that by 1709 a Shakespeare editor was lambasting actors for playing Shylock comedically. This critic was himself incredulous that Shakespeare intended the play as comedic. If this relatively early critic was unsure then I think we have to remain unsure.

Nicholas Rowe: "Though we have seen the play received and acted as a comedy, I cannot but think it was designed tragically by the author.”

The audiences were rowdy. The Globe(MoV is dated pre Globe) was attended by a slightly better behaved audience than other theatres. At least the arrest records at The Globe were less than at other theatres.

58

‘Comedy’ didn’t mean the same thing then. It meant a play in which nobody died and there was probably at least one wedding at the end. It didn’t mean a play that was written entirely for yuks.

Davidmich’s entire argument appears to be ‘There was a lot of antisemitism in Elizabethan England, therefore we can assume that Shakespeare was antisemitic.’ Which is like me saying ‘There’s a lot of homophobia is 21st-century America, therefore we can assume that davidmich is homophobic.’

59

Actually, there is one speech in which the presentation of Shylock does move into stereotype: Solanio’s account of the moment where he discovers that Jessica’s run off with Lorenzo, taking her father’s savings with her. All that ‘my daughter and my ducats’ stuff does strongly imply that he values his money and his daughter equally.

However. We don’t actually see Shylock shouting that; what we see is Solanio telling the story in order to mock Shylock, which undermines its reliability to some extent. And I’d argue that, while Shylock clearly cares about money throughout the play, Shakespeare makes it clear that this is because - due to the laws about moneylending, and to general antisemitism - money is the only aspect of Shylock’s whole life in which he has any kind of rights, any kind of power. Hence also his obsessive focus on the law (which he also shouts about when he discovers Jessica and his money gone): that’s the only other place in society where he’s supposed to have some kind of rights. And look how that ends up.

Seriously, I don’t see how anyone who’s read or seen this play can possibly think it’s a comedy in the modern sense of the word.

60

I was referring to comedy as it was used in Shakespeare’s day. Elizabethan sense of humor was much more ribald. We’d consider it offensive today.

Humor in Shakespeare’s time was very vulgar and not really considered very funny by modern standards at all. The scene with Launcelot and Old Gobbo where Launcelot is pretending to be someone else would of been considered humorous as would the whole affair with the rings when they are given away by the husbands to be when they promised their fiancées they would keep them forever as a symbol of their love of one another. The whole Shylock losing everything after wanting his “pound of flesh” might have been seen as ironically humorous.
The Merchant of Venice is technically classified as a comedy, but it’s sometimes referred to as a “problem comedy” (mostly because it’s so controversial) or a “tragicomedy,” because it shares features in common with comedies but also contains the kind of dark elements we typically find in tragedies. (Shylock’s desire for a pound of flesh is pretty intense, wouldn’t you say? And the way Shylock is treated by the Christian characters is pretty sickening and, well, tragic.)

All of this can get a little confusing, so let’s take a look at our Shakespearean comedy checklist to see how and why the play fits into the genre.

Comedy Checklist

Light, humorous tone: Check. Sort of. There are definitely moments of levity in this play (especially when Lancelot the clown is involved and when Shylock is played as a buffoon) but, like we said earlier, the play’s tone can be pretty dark at times, especially when it comes to the whole “pound of flesh” thing.

Clever dialogue and witty banter: Check. Just check out the scenes involving Lancelot and Gobbo.

Deception and disguise: Check. Jessica deceives her father when she disguises herself as a boy and runs off to marry Lorenzo. Portia cross-dresses as a male lawyer and shows up in the courtroom to defend Antonio.

Mistaken identity: Check—see “deception and disguise,” above.

Love overcomes obstacles: Check. What better way is there for Jessica and Lorenzo to overcome the obstacle of Shylock than to elope? Plus, once Portia saves Antonio’s life in the dramatic courtroom showdown, Bassanio is free to return to Belmont, where they can get busy (pun intended) being man and wife.

Family drama: Check. Jessica runs away from her dad’s house and says she’s ashamed to be his daughter. Lancelot plays a really cruel joke on his blind father. And Bassanio is more loyal to his BFF than his wife. Sounds like family drama to us.

Multiple plots with twists and turns: Check. The play has two main plots: Bassanio’s adventures playing the lotto to win a rich wife and Shylock’s pursuit of Antonio’s “pound of flesh.”

(Re)unification of families: Check. This is true for the newly married couple Portia and Bassanio, but not for Shylock, who, tragically, never gets a family reunion with his daughter Jessica. She has run away and converted to Christianity in one fell swoop.

Marriage: One of the biggest clues that you’re reading a Shakespearean comedy is that the play ends in a marriage (or the promise of one). By the time The Merchant of Venice is over, just about everybody is married (except Shylock and poor Antonio, who has just lost his best pal to Portia).