Understanding Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice by Robert A. Albano - HTML preview

Katherine E. Maus,Norton Shakespeare

Is the play anti-semitic?

Does it criticize anti-semitism?

Does it neither condemn nor endorse anti-semitism?

Are the Christians right to call Shylock a “devil” and a “dog”?

Is Shylock simply a victim of bigotry?

What was WS own attitudes about Jews?

He probably never encountered a Jew in is lifetime.

Joseph Rosenblum,Reader’s Guide

Shylock “is not wholly a comic character, for despite often appearing ridiculous, he poses too much of a threat to be dismissed lightly. Yet he is too ineffectual and grotesque to be a villain as cold and terrifying as Iago or Edmund, or one as engaging as Richard III. He is a malevolentforce.”