Tomorrow (Friday) you will be writing a timed practice exam question about Shylock – looking at whether he should be viewed as a villain or a victim. Your task is to prepare by annotating in detail the key speeches in your blue booklet, using the resources linked to on The Merchant of Venice page on this website.
For detailed analyses of particular scenes you should listen to the excellent Mr Bruff videos (follow the link on the page), while to find key quotations you could look at various sites including Quizlet, Sparknotes and BBC Bitesize. When you log onto our class Quizlet page you will find that I have linked to several sets of Merchant of Venice key quotations as well as other sets of information
By the end of the lesson you should have found and analysed between four and eight key quotations that will support your opinion of Shylock – you should be looking at both what he says and what people say about him.
This is a practice question so you will be allowed your blue booklet, the 16 analytical sentences handout and the WETRATS paragraph guide to help you – make sure you plan to make best use of all of them.
And finally – at the end of the lesson you need to add a comment here that contains the best quotation you have found and an explanation of why it is important.
mrs odriscoll 10W/E 
“If you prick us, do we not bleed? 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?”
LikeLike
“The villainy you teach me I will execute—and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.”
This quote is important because it portrays Shylock’s intolerance towards anti-semitic views about his religion and the inequality he has to face. Here, he is saying that he will follow the Christian example; he will be as cruel to Antonio as Antonio was to him.
LikeLike
• “So can I give no reason, nor I will not,
More than a lodged hate” – shylock
– Explaining the reason that he wants to do this to Antonio.
– Spoken to give the audience another reason to dislike shylock but also to speak about the hypocrisy of the Christians (if the roles were reversed)
LikeLike
He is verbally abused by the Christian characters in the play and is called cruel names including “villain with a smiling cheek, cut-throat dog, bloody creditor, damned inexecrable dog”.
LikeLike
“If you prick us, do we not bleed? 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?”
This is the most important for Shylock because it shows all the bottled up emotions and feelings he has towards the christians and their double standards. He talks about how they are both exactly the same, they just have different beliefs, but how they are still anti-semitic towards him.
LikeLike
If you prick us, do we not bleed?
LikeLike
“suff’rance is the badge of all our tribe” it shows how the anti-semitism they receive affects the Jewish community
LikeLike
why all the boys in venice follow him, crying, his stones, his daughter,and his ducats
this is good because it shows what some of the characters think of shylock.
LikeLike
“I hate him for he is Christian” this tells us that the major reason for hatred in 16th century Venice was due to their religion. However, he has the right to because at this time Jews were in the minority and thanks to propaganda such as the blood libel, Jews were seen as devils.
LikeLike
“What judgement shall I dread, doing no wrong.”
LikeLike
I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew hands? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? This quote is where Shylock questions why he can not be treated the same as a Christian, both religions are still human so why shouldn’t they be treated equally?
LikeLike
“Be nominated for an equal pound
Of your fair flesh, to be cut off and taken
In what part of your body pleaseth me”
I think this is an important quote because it is the part in the play where the bond is decided.
LikeLike
‘I hate him for he is Christian’ – This tells us that Shylock is treating Christians the way Jews are treated and that he wants revenge, thus foreshadowing the future events
LikeLike
If you prick us, do we not bleed? shows shylocks experiences of anti-Semitism
LikeLike
“If you prick us do we not bleed”
LikeLike
“Thou torturest me, Tubal,” You’re torturing me tubal
“I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor.” Leah gave it to me before we were married.
“I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys,” It isn’t worth giving away for anything
“Thou calledst me dog before thou had a cause,” he reminds Antonio, “But since I am a dog, beware my fangs.”
“Three thousand ducats,”
“I think I may take his bond.”
“I am a Jew. 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? 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?”
Shylock says jews are humans, just like Christians
“My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter,
Fled with a Christian! O my Christian ducats!”
These quotations are all important because it shows how Shakespeare has presented shylock as both a villain and a victim. The fact he used to have a wife is subtly mentioned makes him be seen as a victim underneath the mask of a villain. In Elizabethan times he would have been seen as more of a villain due to the fact he was jewish however a modern day audience can empathise with his hatred towards Antonio and that he isn’t all evil. The quotation where he says ‘…if you prick us, do we not bleed?…’ is most important when presenting shylock as a victim as he sounds sorrowful and angry.
The way he prioritises his ducats over his daughter is an oxymoron where he comes across as selfish when his largest concern should be that his daughter has left, not his money. However some might argue that it is understandable for him to react in this way because with out his money he is nothing. Jews were only allowed to be money lenders in Elizabethan times therefore he has lost his life now his ducats are gone.
LikeLike