The Merchant of Venice is a play written by William Shakespeare that was first

performed in England during the early 17th century. Shakespeares play took on a life of its own
throughout Europe, influencing many Anti-Semites because of the negative portrayal of the Jew,
Shylock, in many of the scenes. The Merchant of Venice gives us the most important fictional
figure of the Jew in Anti-Semitism. The play has been used by Anti-Semites throughout history,
including the Nazis, who used it as propaganda. The Merchant of Venice is an Anti-Semitic play
because of its negative portrayal of the Jew which is the Anti-Semites number one enemy.
While the Merchant of Venice is an Anti-Semitic play, it at the same time is not because it may
have not been Shakespeares intention to create a work that would become a symbol of AntiJudaism. The Merchant of Venice is set hundreds of years before it was written because the
Jews had been expelled from England in 1290 by King Edward. Shakespeare most likely never
had even met a Jew when he wrote Merchant of Venice because of this. These facts cause the
reader to ask themselves if the Jews were not causing problems in English society at the time that
Shakespeare wrote the play, what was? The answer is that Shakespeare tried to use the
relationship between Christians and Jews in the Merchant of Venice to speak on other tensions
seen throughout England at this time. These tensions include; religious, economic, and legal.
Following the lead of countries like Spain, starting in the 15th century, England began to
create colonies and trade routes in the Americas and Asia. This allowed England to gradually
become a world power, which in turn brought new economic tensions. These tensions include the
fact that beginning in 1571 the lending of money at interest became legal for Christians in
England. This brought about the growth of Mercantilism along with an increase in merchants.
Merchants make money by buying things at one price and selling them at another. Christians in
the money lending business become a seemingly bigger problem for the Church. This caused

Merchant to be increasingly more stigmatized by the church by the twelfth century. The Church
(Moralists) felt that Christians should never be merchants. Like usury, this was seen as
Jewish. These two words were near synonyms, and because of this fact William Shakespeare
addresses the growing economic tension of Mercantilism by portraying a Jew, Shylock, as
greedy. Shakespeare wanted the audience to wonder are they bound to money or relationships,
like the characters in the Merchant of Venice. In the Merchant of Venice there are two
businessmen: The Christian merchant Antonio and the Jewish money lender Shylock Examples
of this include Shylock mainly hating Antonio, because he hurt Shylocks finances. Another
example of this is seen when Salano, a friend of Antonios, says that Shylock cant distinguish
between the loss of his daughter and his money. This is after Shylocks daughter Jessica steals
his money and runs away. These examples get Shakespeares point across, while at the same
time creating an unpleasant image of the Jews.
These economic tensions brought extra-legal tensions to England. Shakespeare addresses
these tensions by making Shylock a law abiding citizen to an extreme extent. Shylock lends
Antonio 3000 dockets (money), with a stipulation that if Antonio cannot return it in three
months, Shylock will receive a pound of his flesh. Shylock doesnt mean this literally, at first
because he trusts that Antonio will pay him back. Antonio does not though so they go to court
where everyone expects Shylock to show Antonio mercy. Shylock chooses to read his contract
literally and demands a pound of Shylocks flesh. Portia, who has dressed up as a male lawyer,
starts by pleading for mercy but after that doesnt work she reads the contracts even more
literally. She states that the contract does not include Antonios blood, so there is no possible
way Shylock could obtain the pound of flesh. Shakespeare shows this scenario because language
is the law to Shakespeare. Shakespeare wanted to extend the dangers seen on Jews and their use

of reading contracts literally onto the people of his time. Shakespeare doesnt want people in his
countries words to mean less than they are promising. Shakespeare wanted people Wants them
to be truthful without having to write a contract. With this we also must know what our
promises oblige us to, the person who is promised something has the power to force them to do
whatever their words suggested. Shakespeare wants there to be morals in the legal and
economic realms
Along with legal and economic tensions, England possessed religious tensions in the
early 16th century due to the Protestant Reformation. The Protestant Reformation caused
Christianity to split into Catholicism and Protestantism. Though Queen Elisabeth I outlawed the
practice of Catholicism, those who believed in Catholicism still could live as a Catholic. This
caused England at this time to be marked by the clash between Protestantism and Catholicism.
The clash between Christians and Jews in the Merchant of Venice is a representation of this
clash. This is because in both of these clashes, there is also a battle of the spiritual and physical
elements of religions.

Conclusion: Shakespeare is using the Jew to work out anxieties that were taking place in
England at this time. He could not address these issues directly, so he addressed them from a
distance, by placing the play hundreds of years in the past. Along with this Shakespeare used
addressed these issues by using a different issue, The Jew.