The Merchant of Venice by Harold Bloom -- Summary

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This summary is partial.

Bloom thinks The Merchant of Venice is very anti-semitic, though he is aware that many disagree. Shylock is more villainous than necessary for a comedy. Shakespeare certainly intended him to be a comic villain, both funny and scary.

At the time Shakespeare wrote the play, Jews weren't a very big problem in England, as there weren't many of them. There was anti-semitism however and Jews were an interesting issue.

The comedy is in Portia's story, and not Shylock's. Making Shylock a sympathetic character renders the play utterly incomprehensible. His personality is so vivid that he is made to be sympathetic instead of evil because we do not find his particular brand of evil amusing.

Shakespeare intended for Shylock to be a stereotype of a Jew, much like in Marlowe's Jew of Malta (except in Marlow the Jew is overtly evil and kills people). Marlowe's stereotype is exclusively evil, a stock character, whereas Shylock has more depth. Shylock's realism, then, does not serve to make him sympathetic but simply a more convincing villain.

It is "stage tradition", and not the text, that is responsible for Shylock's portrayal as sympathetic.


Harold Bloom. Image source


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