Shakespeare's Presentation of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice

A villain is someone who performs evil actions that negatively affect another person. Carl Harmon in the novel Where Are the Children? by Mary Higgins Clark is indeed a villain. Carl Harmon is portrayed at first as an innocent but mysterious husband to his wife Nancy Harmon. As the book continues it is revealed that he is a manipulative and dangerous man. Carl Harmon is a villain and he has the greatest impact on the story because he creates conflict through his actions, and he provides suspense.

entirely in this scene as he stops thinking of love in a bad way as he

The antagonists of a story are usually not the ones critically acclaimed. Due to our human inclination it’s fairly relevant that, as readers, more of an emotional attachment is built with the protagonists. However, in spite of that, villains still deserve our attention. From taking a close look at a few villains and the methods in which they manipulate, parallels in strategy are prevalent. A few examples of antagonists that particularly stand out are: Iago from the tragedy Othello written by William Shakespeare, Roger Chillingworth from the novel The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Abigail Williams from Arthur Miller’s novel The Crucible, these characters all use isolation to manipulate others throughout the stories.

Why are people villains? Is it because of past mistakes, how they were raised or maybe it's in there blood to be a villain? The dictionary defines a villain as a character whose evil actions or motives are important to the plot, but others may define a villain as evil and monstrous simply by examples of the actions of the villain. Two characters are Odysseus, the most villainous in The Odyssey retold by Robin Lister, and Ursula from the film: The Little mermaid directed by Ron Clements and John Musker. When comparing these two villains, it is clear that Ursula is a much greater villain than Odysseus because of her trickery, she’s a liar, and a thief.

He develops a habit of putting his hand on his heart and turning pale. He is literally dying of guilt.

he gets very upset about it and washes it off. Also towards the end of

adopts a new attitude in place of the sorrow and despair he encountered earlier. Now filled with

In The Merchant of Venice, Grudges and Personal Rivalries in the trial scene has clearly been expressed with Shylock and Antonio. The central part and the twist of this novel are primarily caused by the rivalries between Shylock and Antonio. The “merry bond” that Antonio signed to help his dearest friend, Bassanio, was the main reason of the trial scene. According to Antonio, “Content in faith. I’ll seal to such a bond, and say there is much kindness in the Jew” (1.3.163-164) The bond which Antonio had willingly accepted was that if he failed to pay back 3 thousand ducats in 3 months, Shylock had the right to cut a pound of flesh from his body. As Antonio was a rich merchant and had plenty of ships coming in, with 9 times the money of the loan, he found no difficulty in accepting the bond. However, times were unfortunate for

In the middle he is starting to realize that this is not for him. In this part of the story K-Bones tells

He tries to get Mercutio to leave as he can tell that something bad is

Shylock is a character famously known as being the antagonist of Shakespeare’s play merchant of Venice. In this play, Shakespeare portrayal of Shylock the moneylender is one of anti-Semitic stereotype. Shylock is depicted as a typical bloodthirsty Jew who lives a life void of any depth or meaning. His sole purpose for living seems to be to amass wealth and vengeance as seen from his adamant claim for his “pound of flesh”. Despite Shakespeare’s attempts to humanize Shylock at points in the story, it appears that his primary focus is to steer the audience against Shylock, painting him as being a cruel, bitter and inaffable figure. It is clear that in both Shakespeare’s merchant of Venice and Grace Tiffany’s Turquoise Ring, Shylock exposes

Although the play fits the role of the melodrama with all of these characteristics, there is not a defined villain that reaches sentimental conversion. The villain could possibly be the soldiers that hurt the women living in the brothel, or it could be some of the war leaders like Commander Osembenga or Jerome Kisembe. Overall, this play is a representation of a melodrama.

portrayed him in this way. It is vital the believability and credit to the play

In the play the ‘Merchant of Venice’ by William Shakespeare the antagonist Shylock is both the victim and the villain. Shylock is a Jewish moneylender and is initially portrayed as anger filled and bloodthirsty but as the play continues we begin to see him as more human and his emotions become more evident. As the antagonist, Shylock is a fearful adversary to Antonio, the protagonist. But as good begins to win over evil, Shylock is crushed and we see evidence of his mortality in his grief. Shylock changes significantly though out the course of the play and he is formed into a too complex character to be labeled just victim or villain.

did this through Shylock. In Act 3 Scene 3, Shylock tells of how he is