This Month's Merchant Feature >>

With the exception of the New Testament character of Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Jesus, no name evokes more anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic feeling over the centuries of Western, Christian cultural development than that of Shylock, the villain of Shakespeare's Merchant. This facet of the play has been covered in the critical discussion and does not require further elaboration: At his worst, Shylock embodies all of the negative traits that Christians have attributed to Jews since the early years of the first millenium. Shylock is a stereotypical Jew and a variant upon the stock comedy figure of the rich, protective father blocking his daughter's union with a poor, but worthy youth. At his darkest, Shylock assumes the burden of historical hatred between Jews and Christians interwoven with a greedy, money-grubbing heart. It is interesting to note that while Portia orders musicians to play while Bassanio chooses among the chests, Shylock is couched as a critic of all such frivolity, as an individual who wants to stop the music of Christian revelry.