The Merchant of Venice Is Anti-Semitic Due to Its Prolific Stereotyping of the Jewish People, the Lack of Redeemable Qualities in These Characters, and the Negative References That Are Directed Towards Shylock.

Thesis: The Merchant of Venice is anti-semitic due to its prolific stereotyping of the Jewish people, the lack of redeemable qualities in these characters, and the negative references that are directed towards Shylock.

Point 1:

Ex. 1. Act 2: Scene 8, Lines 15-17 “My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter,/Fled with a Christian! O my Christian ducats!/Justice, the law, my ducats, and my daughter!”

Ex. 2. Act 3: Scene 1, Lines 73-79 “The curse never fell upon our nation till now! I never felt it till now—Two thousand ducats in that, and other precious, precious jewels. I would my daughter were dead at my foot and the jewels in her ear! Would she were hearsed at my foot and the ducats in her coffin!”

Point 2:

Ex. 1. Act 3: Scene 1, Lines 45-50 “To bait fish withal. If it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me and hindered me half a million, laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies”

Ex. 2. Act 3: Scene 1, Lines 102-104 “Out upon her! Thou torturest me, Tubal. It was my turquoise. I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor. I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys.”

Point 3:

Ex. 1. Act 2: Scene 3, Lines 1-3 “ I am sorry thou wilt leave my father so.Our house is hell, and thou, a merry devil, Didst rob it of some taste of tediousness.”

Ex. 2 Act 2 Scene 2, Lines “ I should stay with the Jew my master, who, God bless the mark, is a kind of devil. And to run away from the Jew I should be ruled by the fiend, who, saving your reverence, is the devil himself. Certainly the Jew is the very devil incarnation”