Essays About Character Analysis
I think that the role of Shylock remains a popular one because Shylocks character can be open to interpretation. He can be played as a merciless old miser or as a persecuted bitter old loner. I don’t think that I would class him as neither a villain nor a victim, as he is a Jackal…
It is difficult to describe Shylock as a victim or a villain as there are many things that you can say for each. At the end of the play some of the audience may felt strongly that Shylock is a victim. However if had been able to get what he wanted people may have felt…
Over hundreds of years, great men and women of English literature have spent countless hours debating one of the most simple yet controversial questions: What did Shakespeare mean by Shylock? When he created him Shakespeare could not have anticipated that Shylock would become the emblem around which so much contention would rage. Shakespeare’s money-lender is…
In the Merchant of Venice, Shylock is a wealthy Jew and moneylender. Bassanio, a young Venetian, is a spendthrift, and asks his friend Antonio to lend him money in order for him to pay off his debts. Antonio agrees, but as his wealth relies on his ships, which are at sea, and therefore needs to…
The overall climax of this play is brilliantly displayed because the realism of the discrimination and prejudice towards Jews helps us to develop a sympathetic feeling for them. Shakespeare has included the historical and incorporated the biblical references in the speeches of this play. Examples such as the story of Jacob and his sheep from…
The Merchant of Venice is one of William Shakespeare’s best known plays and was written within 1596 – 98. This was the Tudor period. The play is set in this time, in Venice, Italy. During the Tudor/Elizabethan period society and morals were very different from today with Christianity being the main religion in Venice and…
In Venice during the 1590s, Jews were really badly discriminated against; they had to wear a red cap whenever they went outside and they had to live in the ghetto. They were not allowed to own any business nor to interact with Christians. In the play, Shylock didn’t adhere to these and was obviously hated…
In the Merchant of Venice, Shylock is shown to be an evil character, who tries to kill Antonio and is stopped by the good Antonio. Shakespeare probably made the play for a 16th Century, prejudicial and anti-Semitic audience, so a more modern audience would sympathize with some of Shylock’s actions. Shylock is a Jewish Puritan,…
In the play `The Merchant of Venice’ by William Shakespeare, the character Shylock has two sides to his personality. These two sides, victim and villain of the play, present themselves frequently in the play. Although many Christians see him as a great evil, the audience is forced to feel some sort of sympathy towards him,…
Shylock is one of the interesting and intriguing characters in The Merchant of Venice. Those who agree with the title statement believe that throughout the play he is looked down upon, betrayed, isolated, punished and humiliated by Christian society and even by his own daughter and that it is this which leads him to madness…
Described by many as the most complex character Shakespeare ever created, all view him as a greedy moneylender who cares little for his daughter and whose only concern is to receive his pound of flesh from a respectable merchant. Shylock is not just the stereotypical villain but in spite of this the audience might feel…
The Merchant of Venice, deals with issues that have as much of a relevance, if not more, in today’s society than they did in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century: money, discrimination and love between people that aren’t supposed to fall in love. Attitudes in the sixteenth century towards Jews meant that any Jewish…
In the Merchant of Venice Shylock is portrayed as both a victim and a villain. Shakespeare shows that he is firstly a villain as he is spoken about in a conversation between Salarnio and Salerio. They describe him as “dog Jew,” automatically we see him as the bad man of the play. We then sympathize…
Shylock, one of the most well-known characters from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, is a Jew and an Usurer, who is generally disliked within the play, and because of this he has his own distinctive way of speaking, and is addressed unusually by others. Shylock is addressed both politely and impolitely by other characters in The…
On the whole I feel that this is a fairly accurate description of the play’s characters, with the mercantile Venice and Belmont (which trades in a different commodity but is trade none the less) mirroring their inhabitants. However to say that money was their only reason would be missing vital elements of the play. The…
In The Merchant of Venice, the part of Shylock, a money lending Jew, is one which carries many emotions, pain, joy, cruelty and loss. His character’s contrary attributes mean that one moments sorrow for Shylock can turn to hate in the blink of an eye. In this essay, I must come to a conclusion on…
On the first reading of Shakespeare’s play, ‘The Merchant of Venice’, the character of Shylock the Jew seemed to me to be that of a villain. Because it is a play, an audience in Shakespeare’s time may well have thought the same and, indeed, may have been expected to do so. The reason for this…
In the day of Shakespeare’s plays going to the theatre to see a play was often a very popular source of entertainment. People would squash into the globe to see the performance, and feel part of the action; cheering and clapping away. Also when they felt anger, it was seen as ok, to throw mouldy…
Our impressions of the character Shylock before Act III Scene 1 are of a money daft man. He seems to be more concerned about his ducats rather than the loss of his daughter, showing that he is very obsessed with wealth and most certainly greedy, and a miser in every possible way. An example of…
I will be exploring how Shakespeare presents the character of Shylock in ‘The Merchant Of Venice’ by using close reference of the text. I will also examine how the character of Shylock could evoke sympathy of a modern audience. Throughout ‘The Merchant Of Venice’ there is a clear separation between Christians and Jews. This separation…
‘The Merchant of Venice’ by William Shakespeare is about a man called Shylock, he is Jewish. Throughout the play he is subject to severe racial hatred from the Christian people of Venice, Venice was primarily a Christian state so being of a different religious background, being a Jew was frowned upon. Shylock was a usurer…
In the play, A Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare presents Shylock as both a man who is sinning but also a man who has been sinned against. Shakespeare shows Shylock as a stereotypical villain as being greedy, malicious and a bitter man who is hated for his money lending but also for his religion. Having said…
Consider the character of Juliet. How does she change and develop from the beginning of the play and once she meets Romeo? Refer to Shakespeare’s use of language. Romeo and Juliet, one of the most revered and profoundly known love stories of all time. Adopted for play performance from an Italian poem first written by…
Of all of Shakespeare’s tragedies “Romeo and Juliet is perhaps the best known one, Shakespeare based much of his play on the reality of his time by managing to encompass much of his context in the play. This was the Elizabethan era, In the Elizabethan era it was very different in the way we live…
Capulet is a leading citizen of Verona and head of one of the two feuding families: Capulet and Montague. The way he reacts to different events shows a variety of sides to his character. We first meet him in Act 1, Scene 1 where we find him demanding for his long-sword to join in with…
William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy exploring the themes of love, loyalty and animosity revolving around two main characters Romeo, from the Montague family and Juliet, from the Capulet family. In the play, Shakespeare uses many poetic techniques to present the different stages of all these themes and to widen the audience’s perception…
In the play Twelfth Night Maria is a waiting gentlewoman for Lady Olivia. She mainly plays the part of a catalyst and shows an interest in playing jokes particularly on Malvolio. Another waiting gentlewoman is Charmian in the play Antony and Cleopatra. She can best be described as a loyal servant and friend to Cleopatra….
At the start of the play, Orsino, the Duke of Illyria is shown as a noble man. Shakespeare’s audience knew this or has noticed this by the way Orsino speaks. Orsino speaks in an elaborate and very sophisticated way. He does this by comparing music with food and love with appetite when he says, “If…
Viola makes her entrance into the play in Scene 2, when she emerges out of the sea after a ship wreck. She is distraught the first time we meet her, as she has just lost her twin brother in the ship wreck. The fact that she is so distraught needs to be emphasised in the…
In Twelfth Night William Shakespeare uses many forms of deception on Malvolio and the other characters for humour purposes. The deception devices used are mistaken identity, cross dressing, disguise, forged handwriting, self deception, word play and dramatic irony. Malvolio’s character is deceived by forged handwriting, disguise, word play and self deception. The devices used to…
