Merchant of Venice Shylock Study

This character sketch will be on Shylock, describing his physical and personality traits. Shylock is an older, Jewish money lender who has one daughter named Jessica. Shylock is introduced into the novel when Antonio’s friend, Gratiano needs money in order to impress a girl. Antonio at the time does not have any money and sends Gratiano to Shylock to borrow money from him. Shylock does not like Antonio because of past experiences where Antonio …

…half his money and he has to become a Christian. Now in the world this seems to be a ridiculous and horrible price to pay. What do you gain by making a person give up there religion. In Shakespeare’s time this might have been acceptable but now it is just silly. It makes the reader feel sorry for Shylock in the end, because he has to give up the last thing he cares about.