Shylock presents a difficult problem for many modern audiences and critics. Is he a stereotypical "Jew," or is he a sympathetic figure intended to criticize the anti-Semitism of Shakespeare's time? We can say with certainty that Shylock is not without motivation. His treatment at the hands of the Christian merchants is decidedly un-Christian: they spit on him, call him a dog, and finally take half his money and force him to convert. All this in spite of Shylock's famous plea for sympathy: Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affectations, 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 summer and winter as a Christian is? If you prick us do we not bleed? (3.1.50-4)
Ο έμπορος της Βενετίας-Ομάδα: The venice team
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