Merchant of Venice: Is Shylock

Merchant of Venice": Is Shylock the Jew the most money-hungry character in the play?

William Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" is a play primarily concerned about the importance of money, and how placing too much value upon money can disturb relationships in society. At the beginning of the play, Bassanio wishes to marry the heiress Portia, primarily because he needs money. He appeals to his friend Antonio, the merchant of the title, for enough money so he can at least appear to be wealthy when he acts as a suitor towards the wealthy Portia. Antonio cares deeply for Bassanio, and is willing to risk everything for him as he values his relationship with Bassanio above money. Antonio must borrow from Shylock, a Jewish moneylender, to give his friend the money he needs. Antonio places his physical safety and reputation below his love for Bassanio, unlike Bassanio, who is willing to put his friend at risk and to engage in a love match merely for mercenary purposes.

But like Antonio, Shylock also places love above wealth, despite the fact that as a Jewish person in a largely Christian society, he is assumed to be avaricious. When Shylock's daughter Jessica runs away from home and converts to Christianity, although her father is angered by her theft of his ducats, when his friend Tubal says to him: "One of them showed me a ring that he had of your/daughter for a monkey," Shylock says, in a more serious vein than perhaps his comment that he wishes his daughter were dead, with the ducats in her ear: "Thou torturest me, Tubal: it was my/turquoise; I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor:/I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys." (3.1) in short, although Shylock may be a moneylender, and use his ability to lend money as a way of defending his position in an anti-Semitic Venice, ultimately he places his feelings for his family, his love and his hatred for the women in his life, above money. He is willing to sacrifice his professional reputation in court, so long as he can humiliate Antonio in revenge for what Christians have done, breaking up his happy home. The ring that represents his connection to his dead wife Leah is worth more to him than a wilderness of monkeys.

It is the Christian Bassanio, ironically, who is the most money-conscious of all of the persons in the play. Bassanio chooses lead, when asked to select from the three caskets that Portia offers to test her suitors. She is happy that he wins, and the lead is supposed to be the correct choice, for the person who chooses lead is supposed to be a man who has hazarded all he has, to win Portia. But in truth, Bassanio has hazarded nothing and desires Portia's gold. It is Antonio who has taken the risk in lending money for his friend. Now that Shylock is angered because of the loss of his daughter, he resolves to call upon the bond Antonio made in jest, a pound of flesh. The jest-like nature of the false bond was reflected when Antonio said that: "The Hebrew will turn Christian: he grows kind." (I.2) in other words, Shylock asked for no interest or money upon the loan in an effort to cement his relationship with Antonio (another example of how Shylock does not always put money before relationships). However, Shylock's kindness turns to cruelty, because a Christian has sundered his relationship with his beloved daughter -- a Christian, incidentally, in need of money that willingly spends the ducats stolen by his stolen bride from Shylock's coffers.