the merchant of venice is so weird bc like on the one hand it genuinely is extremely antisemitic but on the other hand it's got that one absolute BANGER monologue that is such an awesome (even if unintentionally so) condemnation of antisemitism that i as a jew enjoy so much despite...everything else about the play
The Merchant of Venice isn't ambiguous - it's 100% antisemitic, totally packed with Judenhass.
We perceive that monologue with dissonance because the world has changed since it was written.
When Shakespeare wrote "Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?" his audience heard a villain justifying his revenge.
The speech was meant to make Shylock more threatening. Look, Shakespeare shows us, he can reason like us, he knows what he's doing is wrong, and he's choosing cruelty anyway.
The humanity Shylock displays...makes the villainy worse.
We, however, don't hear it that way.
We hear a persecuted man asserting his dignity. The exact same words that made Elizabethans recoil in moral horror make us want to stand up and cheer.
Shakespeare didn't accidentally create tension between structure and character- the cultural ground shifted beneath the text since it was written.
What his audience processed as escalation ("this villain is rational enough to know better") we process as justification: "this man has every right to be angry."
The rest of the play holds up exactly as intended. The Christians are still the heroes. Shylock's forced conversion is still framed as justice and his exit is the necessary expulsion that allows harmony to return, so the romantic comedy structure resolves exactly as intended.
Only that one speech doesn't work as intended with modern audiences because It crossed centuries intact and landed in a world with a different moral architecture. We can't hear it the way it was written. The words are too clear, too irrefutable. They make claims about human equality that Shakespeare's audience could comfortably reject, but which we now hold as inviolable, axiomatic truths.
So what's written as a villain speech sounds to us like a hero speech...and the happy ending feels like an atrocity...because it is.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
ā Live Streamingā Interactive Chatā Private Showsā HD Qualityā Free Actions
Free to watch ā¢ No registration required ā¢ HD streaming
[INDEX] Sonatina of the Perverse and Intoxicating Service (Completed)
"Even if I'm laughed at and ridiculed, I like living freely as I please, however I feel like it. If I can't do that, itāsĀ better for me to just turn to stones."
Characters: Shylock, Owen, Oz, Mitile, Akira.
I don't know what I'm reading 80% of the time I translate this because it sounds like a fanfiction but apparently, it's not.
Also, should I warn that there is collar and chain involved....
This Sonatina is actually a really interesting read because honestly, we rarely see these two interact. Although I feel the "similarity" between them is a bit forceful (as individuality is something all wizards have anw and not just them), the portrayal of Shylock in this event is well done. I always like his crazy side more than the gentle, polite side because we all know he is not just your local friendly bartender. So, seeing him bet his life just to make an "according to keikaku" moment at the end, is pretty awesome.
Wish they could dig more deeply into Shylock's loneliness tho.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
ā Live Streamingā Interactive Chatā Private Showsā HD Qualityā Free Actions
Free to watch ā¢ No registration required ā¢ HD streaming
thereās this one speech in a merchant of Venice where Shylock is crashing out and and saying stuff like āwhen you prick us [jews], do we not bleed? When you tickle us, do we not laugh?ā And tbh if I bet if Jean ever hears that speech itāll be a life altering moment.
Hereās the whole speech
To bait fish withal. [this part is about what Shylock is gonna do with the pound of Antonioās flesh around his heart, if Antonio canāt pay the debt] 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, and whatās his reason? I am a Jew. [ in Jeans case a Moreau] Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?Ā If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.-Act 3 scene 1
