Is the play anti semitic

My question is ‘is the merchant of Venice anti Semitic?’ Anti Semitism is hate or discrimination towards Jews. This discrimination was clear in 16th century Venice and was not classed as a hate crime. Jews had to live in a separate place to the Christians which was called the ghetto. In the play Christians and Jews have a clear feud. In this essay I will look more in to how Jews are discriminated against.

William Shakespeare gets the point across of anti-Semitism through many of his characters. People today may think that the play is offensive, where as people who lived during Shakespeare’s time would have accepted the play as part of everyday life. Most of London’s population at the time was anti-Semitic because there were very few Jews living there.

The point of anti-Semitism is used  through the character of Antonio. Antonio doesn’t like Jews so Shylock confronts him for spitting on his gabardine and calling him a dog, Antonio replies with, “I am like to call thee so again, To spet on thee again, to spurn thee, too. This shows that Antonio has no remorse for showing hate towards a Jews (Shylock) beliefs and traditions. This shows that the play is anti Semitic as Antonio is discriminating Shylock and his religion.

In the second act, Launcelot is considering if he should look for a new person to serve. His problem is he works for Shylock, who is a Jew. Launcelot says to himself, “Certainly the Jew is the very devil incarnation” he decides to run away from Shylock and work for Bassanio He then says, “I am a Jew if I serve the Jew any longer” to his father. This shows that if he continues to work for Shylock he will turn into a Jew, this can be seen as anti semitic as he would rather work for a Christian than a Jew.

Shylock is also seen to be bloodthirsty as he had an agreement that he may have a pound of Antonio’s flesh if he didn’t pay him back. He turns down triple the amount of money and is so insistent to have his bond “If every ducat in six thousand ducats were in six parts, and every part a ducat, I would not draw them, I would have my bond”, this could be saying he is bloodthirsty. A rumour among Christians was that Jews actually did eat human flesh, and since there were no Jews in the country, no one was there to deny this rumour and it was generally believed. This can be seen as anti Semitic as they are saying that Jews are barbarous and bloodthirsty for wanting a pound of a man’s flesh.

Jessica is Shylock’s only daughter. She breaks her dad’s heart by running off to marry a Christian (Lorenzo) and helps herself to her dad’s ducats and some treasured family jewels. Anti Semitism is shown when Shylock seems to be worried more about his ducats than his own daughter. This can be seen as anti Semitic as Jews were the people who handled money in the sixteenth century.

When Shylock is taken to court, he points out the fact that what he is doing isn’t as bad As what the venetian state has been doing (purchasing slaves). Even though  cutting off flesh is similar because he is taking a piece of a man. He makes it clear that they are hypocrites. He says that if the tables were turned the flesh would have already been taken because they have bought them. So why cant shylock take his flesh since he has given money to antonio.’You have among many a purchased slave,Which, like your asses and your dogs and mules,You use in abject and in slavish parts,Because you bought them.’This shows hypocrisy and anti semitism as the christians are aloud to do anything with slaves but Syhlock cant do anything with antonio because he is a jew.

In the second act Lorenzo insults Shylock when he tells Jessica that if her father ever makes it to heaven, it is only because Jessica converted to Christianity and that is shown when Loremzo says, ‘If e’er the Jew her father come to heaven, It will be for his gentle daughter.’ This shows that in Venice you had to be Christian to go to heaven showing that if you was a jew you had no chance of getting into heaven unless one of your family members was Christians this is anti semitic because it shows that jewshe were hated because they didn’t have the same beliefs and because of that they would not make it into heaven

When the play was first released it was to be seen as a comedy. It was seen as a comedy because in the sixteenth century discrimination against Jews was seen to be entertaining for the audience. Many people in our time would see this this play as racist and not entertaining. This can be seen as anti semitic because Shakespeare made this play a comedy meaning we are supposed to laugh at Jews being judged, mistreated and discriminated against.

Antonio came out and expressed his hatred for Jews. Launcelot decided to find a new master because he thought that working for a Jew was bad for his health and mind. Lorenzo said that the only way Shylock would get to heaven is by his gentle daughter. Jessica showed her hate towards Jews when she ran away from her father to marry a Christian man. These characters thoughts throughout “The Merchant of Venice” makes it an anti- Semitic play.