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Shylock (/ ʃ aɪ ˈ l ɒ k /) is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice (c. 1600). A Venetian Jewish moneylender, Shylock is the play's principal villain. His defeat and conversion to Christianity form the climax of the story.
The Merchant of Venice is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598.A merchant in Venice named Antonio defaults on a large loan taken out on behalf of his dear friend, Bassanio, and provided by a Jewish moneylender, Shylock, with seemingly inevitable fatal consequences.
Jessica is the daughter of Shylock, a Jewish moneylender, in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (c. 1598).In the play, she elopes with Lorenzo, a penniless Christian, and a chest of her father's money, eventually ending up in Portia and Bassanio's household.
A print of Edmund Kean as Shylock in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. For several years his prospects were very gloomy, but in 1814 the committee of Drury Lane Theatre, which was on the verge of bankruptcy, resolved to give him a chance among the "experiments" they were making to win a return of their popularity. When the expectation of ...
"This is the Jew/ That Shakespeare drew" is a phrase attributed to Pope. [2] Many tried to replicate Macklin's performance of Shylock, but none of the six actors that attempted the role at the rival Covent Garden theatre from 1744 to 1746 were able to match nearly the acclaim that Macklin had received for his Shylock.
Since Shylock is so insistent on absolute adherence to the law he is made to lose his bond and since he as a foreigner attempted to harm the life of a Venetian he is himself subject to punishment. Shylock leaves without his revenge with the added pain of having lost a portion of his wealth and his identity as a Jew through forced conversion.
His thoughts on Shakespeare's plays as a whole (particularly the tragedies), his discussions of certain characters such as Shylock, Falstaff, Imogen, Caliban and Iago and his ideas about the nature of drama and poetry in general, such as expressed in the essay on Coriolanus, gained renewed appreciation and influenced other Shakespearean criticism.
The main character, Jewish actor Jon Davies, asserts that Shakespeare intended the character of Shylock to be played as a villain in The Merchant of Venice based on the attitudes towards Jews during the era he was writing; thus, past productions either presented Shylock as a clown or tragic victim while maintaining the hostile attitude towards Jews in classical Venice. [4]