Help!

[FireDragon]

Hey, I'm new here and I need help with an essay that I have to write on the Merchant of Venice. I chose the topic of racism within the play, and I need some ideas for arguements...

Note: My thesis is something along the line of...
Shakespeare wrote this play to show that Jews are human too, and should be treated equally.

The arguements that I've came up with are:
- Christians in the play hate Shylock for what he does – lending money with interest. Also the main character, Antonio, always insults and bully him in public.

- When Shylock learned that Jessica, his daughter traded the ring left behind by his wife for a monkey, he felt sad not because of the monetary value of the ring but the sentimental values it holds.

- At the end, Portia disguised as the lawyer tells Shylock to have mercy, but when he is loses the case Portia didn't give him mercy.

...and I also need sub arguements for each...and I have to use secondary source quotes in the essay, can anyone give me suggestions for secondary sources?

Please help, I'm kind of stuck...thanks in advance!

BTW, is this statement true?
"Shylock is the most famous Jew in literature."

[ed_olsen_gene]

hey man i dont think racism would have been the proper topic to describe the actions expressed between shylock and antonio... it was maybe more of a hate of the belief, because in the time line of the story, people had always hated jews.

[Arethusa]

Anit-semitism was, (especially before the birth of Christ, but even today), considered a form of racism because Judaism was the religion of a race of people called the Hebrews. The Hebrews, unlike the Romans, Greeks and other conquering nations, did not seek to propagate their religion by converting others to their belief system. They were happy, especially before the birth of Christ, with not calling attention to themselves by evangelizing and ergo keeping their religion, Judaism, and their ethnicity, Hebraic, synonymous. Many of the reasons that people disliked the Hebrews had nothing to do with their theology, ie their practice of lending money with interest.

Long story short, that's why anti-semitism is considered a form of racism.

[Bandini]

Hey, I'm new here and I need help with an essay that I have to write on the Merchant of Venice. I chose the topic of racism within the play, and I need some ideas for arguements...

Note: My thesis is something along the line of...
Shakespeare wrote this play to show that Jews are human too, and should be treated equally.

The arguements that I've came up with are:
- Christians in the play hate Shylock for what he does – lending money with interest. Also the main character, Antonio, always insults and bully him in public.

- When Shylock learned that Jessica, his daughter traded the ring left behind by his wife for a monkey, he felt sad not because of the monetary value of the ring but the sentimental values it holds.

- At the end, Portia disguised as the lawyer tells Shylock to have mercy, but when he is loses the case Portia didn't give him mercy.

...and I also need sub arguements for each...and I have to use secondary source quotes in the essay, can anyone give me suggestions for secondary sources?

Please help, I'm kind of stuck...thanks in advance!

BTW, is this statement true?
"Shylock is the most famous Jew in literature."

Anti-semitism is not racism - Jewish = religion not race. But it's on par innit?

Jesus might be the most famous Jew in literature!

Money Lending Fact: Ursary (lending money) was viewed in the same light as buggery - hey I just googled 'ursary buggery' and it was a google whack. Which makes me think I was misinformed!

[FireDragon]

Okay...so racism is not the right word...would cultural conflict be better?

[Bandini]

Anti-semitism is usually used in this context.

[FireDragon]

I see...so can anyone help me out on my essay?

[Xamonas Chegwe]

Anti-semitism is not racism - Jewish = religion not race. But it's on par innit?

Jesus might be the most famous Jew in literature!

Money Lending Fact: Ursary (lending money) was viewed in the same light as buggery - hey I just googled 'ursary buggery' and it was a google whack. Which makes me think I was misinformed!

Probably because the word you should have googled was "USURY".

[Bandini]

oh! Thanks - I blame my mates pronunciation.

[Bandini]

There's some craaaazy - stuff on google for that!

[juicyfruity1452]

ok so first of all... everyone who said that anti-semitism isnt the appropriate word is a wrong. the semites are a race and anti-semitism comes from that. jews all originally come from (unless they converted) the semites. i was writing a paper on this too a while back * except that i said that the message was to be tolerant* and here are some arguments supporting your theory that i have. look at shylock's speech act 3 sc 1. look closely at the messages in the caskets. the gold one says basically to not judge by appearance. and the lead casket, which is despised by the other two suitors, is the right one. in addition, Shakespeare probably didn't want to show that Christians were good by making Bassanio choose the right box, because the prince of aragon was probably a christian too, since he came from spain. you could also say that Antonio, salarino, and salanio, who mocked Shylock the most, all ended up uncoupled and not necessarily happy. also remember, that, for orthodox jews, if a person converts to christianity, then they are considered dead ( this supports the fact that Shylock didn't care about his money more than his daughter, because his daughter was in fact "dead" to him) well thats all i can remember, hope it helps

[Chava]

Actually, when i was writing about this, (no real arguments aside the previous) but, it interested me to find that Shakespeare probably wrote The merchant of Venice as a response to a competeing theatre group that had recently written a piece about a jew. I believe that Shakespeare was actually asked to write this piece for sake of competition, but i'll be buggered that i can't recollect the name of the other play, or competeing group...
No point really, just an interesting fact, (or so i think)