Merchant of Venice

In my holiday in Auckland I went to academy theatre and watched Merchant of Venice. I haven't seen or read the play before. One thing I usually hate in Shakespeare movies is set in a modern scenery, so the movie set in a stunningly accurate early Venice (beautiful in some places but also dark streets) attracted me instantley to the movie. But really every part of the movie was excellently performed.

While I knew of the general persecution of Jews throughout history by Christians as "Christ-killers" and Martin Luther writing the screed "On the Jews and Their Lies" I hadn't realised the full extent of their nazi-like persecution of Jews in Venice til this movie. It shows all Jews had to wear red hats to identify themselves (on pain of death) and were spat on and humiliated. Thus it has a sympathetic interpretation of Shylock who is shown more as a begrieved father who through personal tragedy becomes vengeful. A little dip into wikipedia reveals there is debate over whether Shakespeare intended Merchant to be anti-semitic. As almost everyone in his time was anti-semitic and unless I uncovered Shakespeare as a moral genius as well as a literary I would sugest he was anti-semitic but then Shylock has this speech:

"Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, heal'd by the same means, warm'd and cool'd by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction."

This is a speech I have to memorise its sheer beauty and anti-semitic message. Anti-semitism was the norm in Shakespeares society so perhaps he hopes to use Shylock as a Jewish caricature which most people were reasonably comfortable with then use this speech to send shockwaves to them to reconsider their judgement? Or another possibility, hes trying to send a message to the more enlightened secure in that the masses will fail to pick it up.