Presentation of Race and Religion in Act 1 Scene 3 of The Merchant of Venice Essay

Explore Shakespeares presentation of race and religion in Act 1 Scene 3 of The Merchant of Venice.

There are many ways in which Shakespeare presents his views on race and religion and the way he portrays the characters that have very different religious beliefs. The effect that The Merchant of Venice might have on the audiences is changing the way people think about race and religion. In this play, the main religions are Christianity and Judaism. At the time of Shakespeare, anti-Semitism was a big issue. Jews had faced and suffered from irrational hatred, persecution and discrimination, and yet they still had to live and even to some extent, to blend and fit in a Christian community in order to do business and earn a living. This play is set exactly in this situation, mirroring the reality. Antonio, a Christian and Shylock, a Jew who lives in a society full of his opponents, full of people who hate his tribe. Shakespeare uses the character of Shylock to give us negative impression of the Jews. This gives us an idea of how much people used to dislike the Jews at the time of his writing.

Act 1 Scene 3 is set in Venice and not Belmont, already from that piece of information, the audience can expect the scene to be something around the lines of trading, money and debt as Venice is a trading port. This scene in particular shows a strong contrast between the 2 religions. Firstly, right from the beginning of the scene, where Shylock, a Jew makes his first entrance in the whole play, Shakespeare presents him as the money-lender, the one that the Christians ask favour of and seems to have a superior status. This is quite unusual for a Christian to ask a Jew for a loan as they would have been considered as enemies. This implies to the audience that Bassanio has already tried every way that he could think of to get money. He, having to borrow money from his enemy expresses his desperation for the money.

When Bassanio asks Shylock for a loan of three thousand ducats, Shylock repeats well for several times and moreover he lies about not having money and has to borrow the money from his friend, another Jew called Tubal. The quotation furnish tells us that he would ask his friend, Tubal, to provide him with money. However towards the end of the scene, he breaks his own lie, by saying purse the ducats straight meaning that he would go back home and take the money straightaway. Shylock is acted to be hesitant and deliberately delayed his response when Bassanio is asking for his answer to his loan. He does that to winding Bassanio up, also I think he does that to allow him more time to think, to plan what to do, to take revenge. This indicates to us that he is on the upper hand and in control of the whole situation, which I think is basically Shakespeare himself sympathetic towards or even favouring the Jews. However, towards the end of the scene, it was the vice versa. Shakespeare plays a pun on gentle, which is similar to gentile, which has a meaning of a person who is not a Jew. This has the imputation that Antonio is saying Shylock is a Jew, but he is not behaving like one, revealing Shakespeares personal prejudice on the Jews.

Shylock laughs a lot and uses humour and jokes to loosen up the tense conversation between himself, Bassanio and Antonio. This suggests he is on the upper hand, or alternatively he might want to sound friendly if he really was to set a trap for Antonio as retaliation.

Inch Antonio that he is proud of his own nation.. andhis nation is kind.. he would lend him money. Bt Christian wont

In the language aspect of the play, Shakespeare applies several language devices in the play. In my opinion the device he used that struck the audience the most was the imagery. For instance, the metaphor catch him once upon the hip meaning if Shylock can get Antonio at a disadvantage, at a weak time. This also illustrates his initial hatred and grudge right from the beginning for Antonio.

Shakespeare wrote the book in the Elizathan period, and at that time, there was no scenery, props or sound effects available. Therefore, the language and the body language tend to be more physical hinting the contrast between religions in the play and the speeches between characters are tenser and more exaggerated. In writing Shylocks speech, Shakespeare uses the word gaberdine to show us that Shylock is really a Jew and that this is what they wear.

One of the ideas that Shakespeare is trying to put across in the play is that peoples religions encourage people to hate another person and to have negative views about that person. Even Antonio, who is the good guy in many peoples mind, is also biased against the Jews. This illustrates that religions really had a great impact on people at that time and even saints would have prejudice.

The way in which the Christians and the Jews earn their living and money is also another approach for Shakespeare to reflect his perception about race and religions.

In Shylocks speech, Shakespeare uses a punctuation, ; , the caesura, that is a cut in the middle of the line, to emphasise the two parts in the long sentence.

There is a vicious and tense relationship between Antonio and Shylock.

Shylock shows that he is finding the Christians as disgusting as how the Christians see them. Bassanios invitation provoked Shylocks strong feeling of disgust about Christian.

Shylock refers Antonio as fawning meaning creeping. This shows that Shylock thinks Antonio is a creep when at the same time we, the audience think that Shylock is also a creep to us.

At last, Shakespeare uses rhymes to end the scene, for instance kind and mind; dismay and day. The next scene settles the tension.

I think Shakespeare puts the play in a way that allows you to see the story in many different ways, making the play good fun to direct and more versatile. His writing feels like he is beyond and free of the serious prejudice that was going on at his time. He did not stereotype the characters in the play.

The play is heightened or intense, mention convention

There is a soliloquy Shylock was emotional, stamping and was being really loud, and we accept that the others cannot hear his actions even though in reality, this would not happen and are not real.

Shakespeares play has a wide complexity that it not only appeals to the contemporaries in the Elizabethan times, it also appeals to us, even though the century has changed and there is a huge transformation of the way we think about religions and discrimination.

One big contrast between Christianity and Judaism in Act 1 Scene 3 is ways of earnings. Christians had always been taught that taking interest was morally wrong, however this was the only way that Jews could earn money and do business. In Shylocks speech he mentioned Antonios way of earning is squandered meaning waste. This is the only word that gives away Shylock real feeling, the feeling that he thinks Antonios way of making money is not secure, risky and wasteful.