1. ‘Which is the Merchant here, and which the Jew?’
Jewish Stereotypes & ‘Otherness’ in The Jew of Malta and
The Merchant of Venice

2. The question of Anti-Semitism
‘Is Shylock a money-grubbing usurer eager to take a knife to Christians, or a Lear-like Jew, more sinned against than sinning?’(Shapiro 2007)
Is Shakespeare simply mirroring Jewish stereotypes through Shylock’s character or questioning them and Christian values?

3. Jewish stereotypes: Murder
Middle of 14th Century = Bubonic Plague (The Black Death)
Jews accused of poisoning wells and spreading the disease (even though Jews were also dying from the plague)
“Blood Libel” = accusation that Jews kidnapped and murdered the children of Christians in order to use their blood as part of their religious rituals during Jewish holidays
Some believed Jews had horns and tails – “devilish”/animal imagery

4. Jewish stereotypes: Greed
Martin Luther, Von den Juden und Ihre Lügen (About the Jews and Their Lies),1543
‘Their breath stinks with lust for the Gentiles’ gold and silver; for no nation under the sun is greedier than they were, still are, and always will be, as is evident from their accursed usury. … They live among us, enjoy our shield and protection, they use our country and our highways, our markets and streets. Meanwhile our princes and rulers… let the Jews, by means of their usury, skin and fleece them and their subjects and make them beggars with their own money.’
*this pamphlet was reprinted by the Nazis in 1935

5. Edict of Expulsion, 1290
English Jews had to wear identifying yellow badges from 1218
All Jews were ordered to leave England by Edward I in 1290
Most settled in Spain, Germany, Poland and Itlay (Venice, of course, had its own Jewish Ghetto)
The edict was not overturned until 1656

6. Shakespeare’s Influences: Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta
Christopher Marlowe’s play, The Jew of Malta, written in 1592; biggest theatrical hit of its time
Barabas, the Jew of the title, is an anti-Semitic caricature
Barabas kills the sick, poisons wells and an entire nunnery
Many despicable non-Jewish characters in the play, as well = Marlowe possibly critiquing morality of Christians of his time
Marlowe’s work controversial, but many simply saw the caricature for its face value and stereotypes

7. Shakespeare’s Influences: The Trial of Roderigo Lopez
Shakespeare would have surely heard about an event of his time, the famous trial of a supposed Jewish traitor
Roderigo Lopez - Portuguese practicing Protestant (converted Jew), physician to Elizabeth I, accused in 1594 that ‘upon a contract for ducats, he had promised to poison the Queen’:
‘They were all of them condemned, and after three months put to death at Tyburn, Lopez affirming that he had loved the Queen as he loved Jesus Christ, which from a man of the Jewish profession was heard not without laughter.’
(William Camden, The Historie of the Life and Reigne of that Famous Princesse, Elizabeth, 1629.)
Described by his prosecutors as a ‘vile Jew’
Hanged on 7 June 1594 in front of a mocking crowd of Londoners

8. SHYLOCK as: Stereotypical/Flat Sympathetic/Round
Greedy/loves money
Evidence:
Devilish/Animalish
Immoral/Evil
Violent/Murderous
Ideas & Evidence?

9. Shylock and Barabas as the Jewish ‘Other’
Mary Metzger describes Shylock’s first appearance as ‘the incarnation of the inherently evil Jew of medieval and early modern Christian legend’: scheming, greedy, satanic, and bloodthirsty (1998: 56).
SHYLOCK. (aside) How like a fawning publican he looks. I hate him for he is a Christian; But more, for that in low simplicity He lends out money gratis, and brings down The rate of usance here with us in Venice. ( )
Compare Barabas’ first appearance in The Jew of Malta, ‘in his counting-house, with heaps of gold before him’

10. Shylock and Barabas as the Jewish ‘Other’
SOLANIO. I never heard a passion so confused, So strange, outrageous, and so variable As the dog Jew did utter in the streets. ‘My daughter! O, my ducats! O, my daughter!’ ( )
Like Shylock, Barabas is never clear which he loves the most: his gold, or his daughter.
BARABAS. O girl, O gold, O beauty, O my bliss! (2.1.54)
But both texts leave space for either interpretation…
Which Christian character also seems to weigh love and money equally? What do you make of this parallel?

11. The Merchant of Venice (after reading Act 4)
The trial scene:
‘…arguably the darkest moment in Shakespearean comedy’ (Berry 2002: 126).
The Duke calls Shylock ‘an inhuman wretch / Uncapable of pity, void and empty / From any dram of mercy.’ ( )

12. The trial scene Berry on Shylock’s conversion:
‘Although some critics (mercifully few) argue that from an Elizabethan perspective forced conversion represents genuine mercy, the moment seems intended to shock. By losing his status as “other,” Shylock loses his sense of self. … Acceptance of the “other” seems in this case more malicious than ostracism.’ (2002: 126)

13. Other ‘Others’?
‘Given the nature of the dominant ideology and social ethos of Elizabethan England, one is not surprised to find in Shakespeare’s comedies biases in favour of aristocratic, male, white, English, heterosexual Christians. In Elizabethan culture, such categories define a normative “self”; those who fall outside them are considered “other”.’ (Berry 2002: 124)
By Berry’s logic, nearly all the characters in The Merchant of Venice are ‘othered’ in some way.
The whole play becomes about a system in which every character is included somehow, but excluded in another way.

14. Other ‘Others’: Race
MOROCCO. Mislike me not for my complexion, The shadowed livery of the burnished sun, To whom I am a neighbour and near bred. Bring me the fairest creature northward born, Where Phoebus’ fire scarce thaws the icicles, And let us make incision for your love, To prove whose blood is reddest, his or mine. ( )
PORTIA. A gentle riddance. Draw the curtains, go. Let all of his complexion choose me so. ( )
- Also says he has the “complexion of a devil” (2.1)

15. Other ‘Others’: Gender
PORTIA. …this reasoning is not in the fashion to choose me a husband. O me, the word ‘choose’! I may neither choose who I would nor refuse who I dislike; so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father. ( )
PORTIA. Myself and what is mine to you and yours Is now converted. But now I was the lord Of this fair mansion, master of my servants, Queen o’er myself; and even now, but now, This house, these servants, and this same myself Are yours, my lord’s. I give them with this ring. ( )

16. Other ‘Others’: Homosexuality
DISCLAIMER: The idea that sexuality is a defining factor in a person’s identity is a relatively modern one. While some Elizabethans certainly engaged in what we might now call ‘homosexual’ activities, then, they did not think of ‘homosexuality’ in anything like the modern sense (indeed, the word did not then exist).
SALERIO. And even there, his eye being big with tears, Turning his face, he put his hand behind him And, with affection wondrous sensible, He wrung Bassanio’s hand; and so they parted.
SOLANIO. I think he only loves the world for him. ( )

17. Other ‘Others’: Homosexuality
SOLANIO. Why then, you are in love.
ANTONIO. Fie, fie. (1.1.46)
ANTONIO. My purse, my person, my extremest means Lie all unlock’d to your occasions. ( )
ANTONIO. Commend me to your honourable wife.
Tell her the process of Antonio’s end.
Say how I loved you. Speak me fair in death,
And when the tale is told, bid her be judge
Whether Bassanio had not once a love. ( )

18. Consequences of “Otherness”
What happens to those who are “other” in the play? Consider the outcomes for:
Antonio
Portia
Shylock
Jessica
Based on how/where these characters end up, what does Shakespeare suggest about being “other”?
How do we reconcile Shylock’s forced conversion – after he has been stripped of his wealth, his work, and his daughter – with the play’s comic closure?

19. Final thoughts:
Shakespeare’s father, John Shakespeare, was accused at least twice of lending money at exorbitant rates, and William Shakespeare was also likely to have been involved with borrowing money. He also had wealthy patrons pay for his theatrical pursuits, remember.
Consider all of the examples of Christian hypocrisy in the play concerning attitudes/valuation of money (sometimes disguised as love).
Does this information change your reading of the play and its messages?

20. References
Berry, Edward (2002) ‘Laughing at “Others”’, in Leggatt, A. [ed.] The Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean Comedy, Cambridge: C.U.P.,
Cohen, D. M. (1980) ‘The Jew and Shylock’, Shakespeare Quarterly, 31: 1,
Garber, Marjorie (2004) Shakespeare After All, New York: Pantheon Books.
Kleinberg, Seymour (1985) ‘The Merchant of Venice: The Homosexual as Anti-Semite in Nascent Capitalism’ in Kellog, S. [ed.] Literary Visions of Homosexuality, New York: The Haworth Press.

21. References
Metzger, Mary Janell (1998) ‘“Now by My Hood, a Gentle and No Jew”: Jessica, The Merchant of Venice, and the Discourse of Early Modern English Identity’, PMLA, 113: 1,
O’Rourke, James (2003) ‘Racism and Homophobia in The Merchant of Venice’, ELH, 70: 2,
Shapiro, James (2007) ‘The Villainy You Teach Me’, Financial Times, January 12.
Sinfield, Alan (1996) ‘How to Read The Merchant of Venice without being Heterosexist’, in Terence Hawkes [ed.] Alternative Shakespeares 2, London: Routledge,