Is The Merchant of Venice anti-Semitic?

[stanley2]

Hi Danik! Sometimes I think that Leah ran away with a wandering Portuguese knight. Jessica is following her example. Marchette Chute quoted a few lines from a character in LOVES LABOR'S LOST: "Adieu, valor, rust rapier, be still, drum; for your manager is in love. Yea, he loveth. Assist me, some extemporal god of rhyme, for I am sure I shall turn sonnet." Does Peter Quince, in MND, echo the above ?: "You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring." I think the author recalls the above in MV: "Some god direct my judgement. Let me see / I will survey th' inscriptions, back again"(MV2.7.13-14), two lines from the Prince of Morocco.

[hellsapoppin]

It´s now years ago that Lokasenna left. I used to like his posts.

The problem I see with Antonio is his antisemitism (which probably was generally shared by the Christian community. The Jews had to live in a ghetto).I´d rather consider that Shylock was also, to a good extent, a victim of prejudice. Would the ill feeling between him and Antonio have existed, without racism? Maybe, because there was also an economic reason. By lending money without demanding interest, Antonio put the Jews in a bad situation, as they made their living out of the interest. And if I rightly remember, at that time Jews were allowed to work only as usurers.

Viniculture and wine selling were also two principles industries among Jews of that era:


https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org...d-liquor-trade



There were also several wealthy Jews involved in the maritime industry as merchants, ship owners & captains, and even a few pirates.

[stanley2]

Let's return to the question of Shakespeare's religion. He may have been responding to Marlowe's satirical comment "I count religion but a childish toy and hold there is no sin but ignorance," from THE JEW OF MALTA. Perhaps Voltaire's comment, if God did not exist it would be necessary to invent one(I don't have it in front of me), is helpful here. In HAMLET, thought to have followed a few years later, we find: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, then are dreamt of in our philosophy"(HAM2.1.169 or so).

[Danik 2016]

Viniculture and wine selling were also two principles industries among Jews of that era:


https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org...d-liquor-trade



There were also several wealthy Jews involved in the maritime industry as merchants, ship owners & captains, and even a few pirates.

Welcome on this tread Poppins. This article about Jewish viticulture and vine trade is very interesting. I wonder how much it might apply to Shakespeare Venice in MV. Clear to me is only that Shylock worked exclusively as an usurer. There is no mention of him having any other occupation in the play.

@stanley-I wonder if that Portuguese knight would wander all the way from Portugal to UK only to meet Leah.

[stanley2]

In #481, I meant to recall a line from MND: "What's Thisbe, a wandering knight?"(MND1.2.135). The character named Flute has been assigned the part of Thisbe by the director Peter Quince.

[stanley2]

I've tried to find where the author tells us where Leah may be. I think that he does not tell us specifically, only that it is likely that she has passed on to eternity.

[hellsapoppin]

Welcome on this tread Poppins. This article about Jewish viticulture and vine trade is very interesting. I wonder how much it might apply to Shakespeare Venice in MV. Clear to me is only that Shylock worked exclusively as an usurer. There is no mention of him having any other occupation in the play.

@stanley-I wonder if that Portuguese knight would wander all the way from Portugal to UK only to meet Leah.

Actually I was here before: http://www.online-literature.com/for...=1#post1399857


I believe the only cargo mentioned in Act I, 1 was spices. No viticulture or other industry is mentioned. Also when Shylock loses his case at the end he is clearly broke which suggests he had no other business or resources to fall back on. I also remain convinced MOV was anti Semitic based on extensive research I did on the subject when I wrote my jurisprudence seminar paper in law school all those decades ago. One objectionable phrase widely used during that era involved a chorus or a town crier type saying to the crowd "I hope there is not a Jew among you". Sorry I don't have access to that seminar paper or I would give you a resource to check it out. Anyways, Shakespeare's milieu was one of rampant anti Semitism and he likely capitalized on it in this play.

[Danik 2016]

Sorry for taking so much time to answer, Poppins, this post needed some consideration and, as you must have noticed, the tread has long strayed from antisemitism to other matters.

I din´nt remember it, but I was here too and I supported your answer

"I agree with hellsapoppin, allbeit the Jew has his saying too. I particularly dislike the characterization of Jessica, his daughter, who is depicted as good, because she robs her father and goes over to the Christians." #450

My position remains the same. Shylock is a grotesque villain and his daughter Jessica is depicted as a positive character an redeemed because she evades her father ( after stealing money and precious stones) and becomes Christian.

Considering the antisemitic milieu of Shakespeare, nothing of these surprises. What may be new is that for a moment Shakespeare considers the matter from the Jews point of view

"To bait fish withal; if it will feed nothing else,
it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me and
hindered me half a million, laughed at my losses,
mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted
my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies—
and what’s his reason? I am a Jew. 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."
https://www.folger.edu/explore/shake...f-venice/read/