Alaeddin Nahvi - Art University, Tehran, Iran

How do we feel today about this controversial, complex character? Do we hate him for his uncompromising quest for revenge, for his inability to show mercy, for his intention to extract the pound of flesh himself? Or we feel sympathy for him as a tortured object of such irrational, abusive prejudice? Do we feel compassion for him as a father cruelly betrayed by a daughter? Do we pity him for his devastating public humiliation, for his lose of human right, of dignity? Shylock’s strength of character, his patriotism, his convictions, his religious pride, his magnificent rationalism and his pride and self esteem, far outweigh the bad traits of his character. The punishment that is meted out to him at the end of the trial scene is as barbaric as his feeling for revenge. Throughout the play, his persecution is massive, and heart rendering. After the third scene he is deprived of all his wealth and what is worse is ordered to convert to Christianity, if he is to save his life. He is left friendless and without relatives, for his sole daughter, Jessica, betrays him for Lorenzo. We can not but feel sympathy for the man at the end of the play. For some one so viril and larger than life. Shakespeare lets him disappear from the play without a whimper, making us believe he is more sinned against than sinning.

anti-Semitism, inhumanity, injustice, victim of prejudice