Or was he just conveying the thoughts of the day?
"How like a fawning publican he looks!
I hate him for he is a Christian:
but more for that, in low simplicity,
He lends out money gratis, and brings down
The rate of usance here with us in Venice"
Shylock,
The Merchant of Venice.
2006-08-19 10:24:02 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous in Entertainment & Music ➔ Polls & Surveys
Jillybean 2213, Doesn't make sense! Sorry.
2006-08-19 10:31:34 · update #1
Insomniac! Just wanted a view!
2006-08-19 10:35:33 · update #2
Candi K. To try to put that awful actor Gibson on the same level as Shakespeare is sacrilege of the highest order! Gibson is a Toss pot!
2006-08-19 10:38:18 · update #3
Insomniac. And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?
2006-08-19 10:44:24 · update #4
He was definately playing with stereotypes of the time. He wrote merchant of venice in a time where Jews were the scapegoats of society and were stereotyped as greedy, cold, second rate citizens i think shakespeare plays with this but gives shylock a real character that the people of the time could indentify and sympathise with. However he doesn't go too far with it and ultimately the jew is "defeated" so he pleases public. I think if he was antic semitic we would also have to say he was sexist (twelth night) and racist (othello) as he uses the same kind of techiniques here in the way that the stereotypes of the day are questioned and at times turned around. Hope that makes sense! interesting question..
2006-08-19 11:26:51 · answer #1 · answered by bananapancakes 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No. Completely read the play. When you see that he has portrayed Shylock as a greedy, flawed human first, and as a Jew secondly, pleading for empathy "... prick us, and do we not bleed?..." and learning his lesson on the error of his ways, you will see his point. He was busting the stereotype of the day.
Incidentally, Will Shakespeares' father was imprisoned for usuary, for charging 20% on one loan, and 25% on another. Some credit-card companies charge as much as 46% in the UK to high-risk clients, in a self-fulfilling prohesy of the misery of the poverty trap. Things don't change. No-one has enough money.
2006-08-19 10:33:55 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
The play allowed many views of modern Shakespeare's contemporary society and therefore he did not necessarily throw in all of his. It was pretty controversial in that it showed a gay man making suggestive remarks to his heterosexual friend of hidden love and a woman taking up the role of a hidden professional lawyer and showing deep eloquence and of course the anti-Semitic remarks.
All of these were expressed no-no's but which were drama and which were Shakespeare's own view? Put it this way...it was not have been 'controversial' of him to be spiteful of Jews but since it is now believed he was a latent homosexual who expressed his love in his eloquent and romantic text, that was pretty controversial.
2006-08-19 12:03:08 · answer #3 · answered by mairimac158 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
He would were all those years in the past. Jews were banned from England for hundreds of years. Even in cutting-edge years as a lot because the conflict jews were hated in a great number of international locations,rightly or wrongly. The undesirable issues carried out to them through the Nazis because the conflict looks to have better their image,yet of direction many severe islamists nevertheless see them as an enemy regrettably. i in my opinion have continuously supported Jewish human beings.
2016-11-26 02:10:43 · answer #4 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
He was a Catholic and they have been noted as anti-Jewish.
At the time Catholics weren't allowed to lend money by Papal decree.
Thus anyone who did lend money would be Jewish.
Since when have bank mangers had a good reputation?
2006-08-19 11:12:49 · answer #5 · answered by Red P 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes he was and most people were to a certain extent at the time and had been for several hundred years.
2006-08-19 14:44:07 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
i could never do shakespear i prefer blatant communication as life is too complicated anyway too mince the word. i know he was artistic/creative which is another type of intelligence mel gibson is another creative intellectual. hmmm
2006-08-19 10:34:57 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
even then Christians were hypocrites. the church rather. shakespeare was just a man proclaiming truths in an artistic way to avoid persecution.
2006-08-19 10:30:20 · answer #8 · answered by jillybean2213 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes all Europeans were inherintly anti semitic.
2006-08-19 10:31:43 · answer #9 · answered by Auld Bawsack 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
One would tend to think so.... But for some reason I don't think so, maybe i don't want to think so... oh hell, i don't know...
2006-08-19 10:31:40 · answer #10 · answered by el 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋