The Merchant Of Venice: Is Shylock A Villain Or A Victim?

Is Shylock a Villain or a Victim? In the Merchant of Venice Shylock is a Jewish man that has constantly been teased and discarded because of his religion by the christian men around him. He has been looked at as an underclass man because of his religion. In the Merchant of Venice Antonio, a highly respected christian businessman has made a deal with Shylock and Shylock has taken the opportunity of Antonio being in his need of a loan to use it to his advantage. Shylock made a deal to where if the money that he loans Antonio didnt get back to his possession in time that instead of paying a higher interest he has proposed the idea that antonio would have to pay him with a pound of Antonio’s own flesh. Antonio, confident in his money being back in time makes the deal. This proposed idea by Shylock is nothing but his own grief towards Antonio and seeing the advantage of the deal to harm him and possibly take his life outweighs his need for money. This oddly particular deal shows that shylock is stubborn and has no mercy for Antonio and will do what he needs to do to get revenge on antonio for treating him so poorly for his whole life. Shylock can be seen as the villian in this situation

While the christian man is the one who has taunted him and treated him extremely poorly his whole life. Shylock had villianis characteristics but when it comes to who is truly the victim in the play shylock has too many unfortunate and desperate events happen to him throughout the play to not be considered a