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is shakespear anti semetic

Answers · 6

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As i know when we passed Shakespear, in encyclopedia was written that there is no any Shakespear and all his works was written in differen way and they differ from each other. Also in his biography was given a little about his childhood, education and others.
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You are specifically asking about The Merchant of Venice - we were given this question at uni as well. ;) One major trap is that the expression "anti-semetic" was first used about 250 years after Shakespeare wrote his plays. So while one could argue that the play was written with an anti-semetic attitude and marginalising the Jewish community was rife in England circa 1600, anti-semitism as a concept was unknown. It is a trap to judge one period of history based on knowledge from a later time. A better question would be "Could Shakepeare's works be construed as anti-semetic"? The answer is yes (eg. Shylock is the villain in MoV) and also no (eg. Shylock can be interpreted as a sympathetic character - this is the modern interpretation). Interpreting Shylock as a character whose bloodthirsty actions are justified is a relatively recent concept - from about the end of the 1800's onwards.
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Anti-Semitism, like all bigotry, requires that the object of your bigotry be de-humanized. If you can perceive another man as less than a man, it is easier to injure him, and to make that injury an act of institutionalized principles. For example, in wartime, the enemy is depicted as a monster, caricatured, and ridiculed to relieve a nation's conscience for killing. The same is true in the depiction of slaves as childish, ignorant, and helpless. So we can look at Shakespeare's work to see if he dehumanizes Jews. The most famous example of this is Shylock's courtroom scene in "The Merchant of Venice." Here, he says, "He hath disgrac'd me, and hinder'd me of half a million, laughed at my losses, mock'd at my gains, scorn'd my nation, thwarted my bargains, cool'd my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. 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, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer that 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?" It would be hard to find a more eloquent humanization of the Jew than Shylock's speech. It appears to be important to Shakespeare to portray the equality of man; this is inconsistent with any form of bigotry, including anti-Semitism. So I would say no.
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Hmmm, I'm not sure. I didn't know him.
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Shakespeare was a product of his time, trying to judge his morals on current ones is difficult and dangerous.

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