Shylock revisited

[microrobert]

Shylock revisited

It is Shylock’s demand for his pound of flesh that resounds down the centuries, Shakespeare’s contribution to the demonising of the Jew. No wonder “The Merchant of Venice” was one of Hitler’s favourite plays.

Chillingly, the full title of Shakespeare’s play in the 1600 First Folio is The most excellent Historie of the Merchant of Venice with the extreame crueltie of Shylocke the Jews towards the sayd Merchant in cutting just a pound of his flesh ...’

So is Shylock simply Shakespeare’s crowd-pleasing answer to Barabbas, the exuberantly villainous anti-hero of Marlowe’s Jew of Malta? And even if he is a more rounded character, are the famous words Shakespeare puts into his mouth asserting his humanity ‘Hath not a Jew eyes …’ enough to exonerate the writer from a charge of fuelling anti-Semitism and even contributing to the holocaust?


http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=2546

[Joe McCarthy]

Any work of this sort is functionally anti-Semitic, as it gives fodder to anti-Semites. Sombart's work on Jews and capitalism probably wasn't intended to be anti-Semitic, for example, but like 'The Merchant of Venice' it does assist anti-Semitic arguments.

[microrobert]

Shylock – to ban or not to ban?

Jewish theater troupe in ironic tug of war with an anti-Israel group who wants to shut down a production of the Merchant of Venice.

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=257678