Question

what are the characstics of shylock in merchant of venice?
(About 100 lines)

Answer 1

                                      Characteristics of Shylock 

Shylock is one of the main characters of the Story 'Merchant of Venice. He is presented in the story as a Money lender in Jewish. He is a father of Jessica.
He also has an enemy namely Antonio. He is portrayed in the story as a comic villain, devil etc. He is represented in the story in various ways. He is also refered to an 'angry man'. His attitude towards money and human relations overheads a bit of strength in the story. Through out his acts he is mentioned as a busy man. In the story we can understand that he cares more his daughter than money. He care more the gold which we can understand from the part were his daughter is gone and the gold is stole.

Answer 2

 Shylock is a rich jewish money lender of Venice who lends money on interest. One needs to keep in mind here that being a Jew living in an alien Christian world he was ostracized, victimized in that society. Moreover, the medieval Christian tradition does not allow the Christians to do money lending & as the Jews cannot participate in any profession apart from money-lending therefore Shylock is left with no other profession to pursue. His hatred from the Christian society & his love for money and wealth ( as that is the only security he has in an alien society) is therefore justified. But when he plots against the life of Antonio, it shows his villianous mind which is motivated only by hatred & revenge. Therefore, his daughter, Jessica abhors him & elopes with Christian Lorenzo. At the trial scene, her villiany becomes evident when he whets the knife to take his due – a pound of Antonio’s flesh, though Portia’s eloquence & legal expertize makes him fall in that pit he had dug for Antonio to fall.