The Merchant of Venice (Folger Shakespeare Library)

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Shylock's character?

 

angelina b #220777
Jan 22, 2012 3:29 PM

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Shylock's character?

the school where i go to in Saskatchewan is so hard! and they don't explain to us what round and flat characters are, so Shylock would be a round, static, antagonist, and stock, no?

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Aslan
Jan 22, 2012 3:34 PM

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Shylock is difficult to put a label on. He certainly is a round character. His pain, pride, anguish, jealousy all becomes apparent. Although on the surface he is a greedy antagonist, Shylock proves to be much more complicated than that.In the end Shakespeare leaves us wondering if it is the Christian who wields the ultimate in cruelty (they force him to convert to Christianity just for kicks) or Shylock with his whole pound of flesh thing. I think Shylock is static. At the end he is defeated but I don't think his heart has changed.
 

angelina b #220777
Jan 22, 2012 3:44 PM

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so, is there like something, like an object to represent the Shylock's place in the story?
 

coco s #17435
Feb 06, 2012 10:12 PM

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Some consider Shylock the antagonist against the Christians. Others, however, consider Shylock to be the main character of this play. They see Shakespeare's message to be the lack of mercy shown by the Christians for the Jew.
 

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