Character sketch of shylock in the story merchant of venice
Answers
Rajdeep here...
We see that Shylock is a cruel Jew, who is greedy for money and revenge. When Lorenzo, a Christian friend of Antonio and Bassanio, elopes with his daughter Jessica, Jessica takes all the ducats and stones and jewels of Shylock along with her. Shylock wishes that her daughter fall dead at his feet, with the ducats and jewels on her body (in the coffin). He does not show any concern for the life of his daughter.
Again, his cruelness is proved in the trial scene, in the Venetian Court of Justice. The Duke himself, the other magnificoes and noble men, and even the Doctor of Law (Portia in disguise) requested Shylock not to take the forfeiture of the bond (a pound of flesh from Antonio's chest). Even Bassanio offered him 6000 ducats instead of 3000. In reply, he said that if those six thousand ducats were divided into six parts and each part was a ducat, then also he wouldn't accept them. This shows how much cruel and ruthless he is.
Further, we should not see only his cruelness, for he is helpless too. He was a foreigner in Venice, as he was a Jew in the Christian society. In the Christian society, Jews were given no jobs. Their only job was lending money with interest. Antonio lent it without interest, because he had other business too. This hampered the job of Shylock. He had no friends in Venice. His only friend, Tubal, taunts him. So, being helpless, his cruelness kept on growing. However, since this is a Comedy, The Merchant of Venice ended happily as Antonio got his ships back and Shylock, who is the main villain, loses.
Thanks.
Hope my answer is satisfactory!
Answer:
Shylock is a Jewish moneylender in Venice, who detests and despises Christians.
He makes his money by charging interest on his loans, and dislikes Antonio for not doing so and therefore ruining his business – particularly as Antonio sometimes pays the debts of those who cannot repay their loans in time, and therefore spoils Shylock’s enrichment by taking control of their forfeitures. When he calls Antonio out on the latter’s insults, he merely provokes more insults from the merchant.
He decides to ask for a pound of flesh as his bond from Antonio, apparently as a jest. He is a miser and something of a puritan, having no taste for music or other reveling, starving his servant and letting him wear out his clothes rather than replacing them. Considering Launcelot a spendthrift, he is happy to let him leave to go serve Bassanio, as this will make the latter go through his money more swiftly. Even his daughter considers him cruel.
He flies into a wild passion when she flees his house, taking with her massive amounts of his money, and has her chased after as much if not more for the money than for her own sake. Knowing that Antonio was aware of this abduction, and hearing that the latter is ruined, he is delighted at the possibility of cutting out the merchant’s heart.
He is able to justify revenge on the basis of the bad behavior of Christians. His insistence on the letter of the law will be his undoing, leaving him not only unable to kill Antonio, but losing all the extra money offered him, the return of his principal, and soon forfeiting all of his wealth and his life. He accepts to turn Christian to save his life, but is left ill by the sudden reversal in his fortune. He is not a particularly nice man.