EN 3620 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Blood Libel, Moneylender, Metatheatre
Document Summary
Shylock"s speech comes from his own humanity: shylock is a villain but how is his villainy portrayed, his anger is justified, don"t agree with, but respect his anger, shylock is systematically abused. Do people really like antonio or is just because he throws money around - lends without asking interest. Problematic play because it doesn"t behave like a comedy (which it is) Side note: england was the first to label jewish people with symbols. The vice figure leads people into temptation and sin. Shylock is mercurial figure: the text itself doesn"t give us a very good idea of how he will appear on stage, he can be tragic, comedic, fatherly, or manic. The merchant of venice: some context: probably first performed in 1598. Is this play about racism or is it a racist play: the money-lending jew was a stock character in early modern england: In shakespeare"s source for this play, one of the stories in giovanni fiorentino"s il.
