¶ … Merchant of Venice is an anti-Semitic play. Rather, what I see in the play is Shakespeare cleverly mocking stereotyped views of both Jews and Christians. Shylock, the Jew, is cruel and inhumane in his demand of a pound of flesh from Antonio for his unpaid debt. On the other hand, the Jew, who is definitely not a nice guy, and who was the subject of laughter in early scenes, becomes a sympathetic victim of un-Christian Christians as the court scene progresses. In the end the Christians who trick the Jew out of not only his wealth, but his religion, and perhaps his very soul, appear to be as incredibly cruel as the villainous Jew. In my opinion The Merchant of Venice is Shakespeare's treatise against hate and inhumanity.

The blessings of mercy as described in the famous speech of Portia that begins "The quality of mercy is not strain'd, / It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven" (Iv. ii. 1184-185), seem, in my opinion, to be the heart of what Shakespeare is asking his audience to consider here. In his portrait of Shylock Shakespeare includes all the extremely negative stereotyped characteristics that Elizabethans attributed to Jews.

He definitely fits the offensive pattern of a usurer and a potential bloody murderer. This exaggerated portrayal works, in my opinion, to demonstrate how silly and small minded it is to judge an entire ethnic group rather than considering people as individuals.

In the famous "hath not a Jew eyes... If you prick us do we not bleed" (III, I, 59-70) speech Shylock pleads that his humanity be recognized.

This character created by Shakespeare's genius appealed to Elizabethan audiences who were quite anti-Semitic, yet offered the opportunity also to see that Shylock, no matter how despicable, was at the core just as human as they were. Perhaps they would even realize that this particular Jew was the product of centuries of persecution. For those who could see it, Shakespeare was holding up a mirror to reveal the effects of irrational ethnic hatred.