was, SHAKESPEARE,?

Question

an anti semite, when he wrote the ,MERCHANT OF VENICE? is his plays banned in ISRAEL? for the plays portrayal of SHYLOCK? (if you cut me do i not bleed)........

to evie s. being IRISH, my knowledge of ENGLISH is limited. IRELAND as you are well aware made no contribution to ENGLISH LIT., I apologise for my error.........

to evie s. being IRISH, my knowledge of ENGLISH is limited. IRELAND as you are well aware made no contribution to ENGLISH LIT., I apologise for my error.........

( the woman doth protest too much)

Answer 1

Since Portia, Shylock's beautiful and intelligent daughter, is the heroine of "The Merchant of Venice", the comedy is not anti-Semitic any more than Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn" is racist because Huck calls Jim, his spiritual guide and mentor, a "n-----". An audience needs to interpret a literary work in its entirety as well as to consider its historical context.

Since Edward I drove the Jews out of England in 1290, and Shakespeare wrote "The Merchant of Venice" between 1594 and 96, he probably didn't know any Jews. [Oliver Cromwell would grant Jews permission to resettle in England in the 1650s.]

Shakespeare, incidentally, had the habit of setting his plays in exotic locations (Denmark, Scotland, and Venice, for example), and although modern-day Danes, Scots, or Jews might object to his stereotyping of certain characters, they would be missing out on some of the world's best literature if they didn't have a working knowledge of all his plays.

P. S. --"was, SHAKESPEARE,? an anti-semite, when he wrote the , MERCHANT OF VENICE? is his plays banned in ISRAEL? for the plays portrayal of SHYLOCK?" should read as follows:

Was Shakespeare an anti-Semite when he wrote "The Merchant of Venice"? Are his plays banned in Israel for the play's portrayal of Shylock ("If you cut me, do I not bleed . . . )?

Proofread and get some one-on-one help from an English composition instructor. I reread and revised my answer several times before I submitted it.

A reply to your added information: I assume that since you are Irish that your native language is Gaelic. I certainly didn't mean to offend you since some of my ancestors also originally spoke Gaelic as well. However, my suggestion to seek some help about your composition and grammar still stands. Similarly, I would expect a German or Spanish teacher to give me the same advice if I wrote a question in German or Spanish that really showed that I needed some extra coaching.

International business writing in English expects every one to conform to conventional usage just as any student would be expected to punctuate and capitalize correctly when learning any foreign language. By the way, many second language students actually come away with a better understanding of the language they are learning than native speakers.

Ant-Adh ort (which a computer link tells me is good luck) in your English studies. Oh, and in the way of protesting too much, I have heard of W. B. Yeats, James Joyce, and Samuel Beckett--all first-rate Irish writers who wrote in English.

Answer 2

Yes he probably was. In Shakespeare's day Jewish people were intensely disliked for the most part for two reasons; As bankers or money lenders they were known to charge interest. It seems that their practices gave usury a bad name. Maybe even employing henchmen to do their dirty work on defaulted loans. And to perhaps give a sort of dignity to this dislike, Jewish peoples at that time were disliked due to their treatment of Christ. But this is all secondary since the Catholics and Protestants were too busy burning and hanging each other to bother with the Jewish peoples much.

It is possible that Shakespeare had borrowed money form a 'Jewish' money lender and found the experience most unpleasant. How else to explain his specific and obvious dislike of this character? Or even bothering with writing this play that makes a very narrow point.

I can imagine, but won't bother to find out, that this play is not a favorite in Israel. One of Shylock's punishments is to renounce his faith. So you can guess that a country based on that faith will not embrace that concept.

Al Paccino [sp] plays Shylock in a recent movie adaptation of this play. It doesn't work very well because it attempts to portray Shylock as a victim.

Answer 3

I believe that Shakespeare was not an anti semite. There are many people who have created fictional characters, that do not bear any reflection upon their personal character or beliefs.

*It is nice that you are reflecting on things you are reading, and this is a good place to share your reflections. Please do not be intimidated by unsolicited grammar lessons.