Shakespeare's critique of ethnic hatred in "The Merchant of Venice"

¶ … 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.