Title: Shylock
First published: 1989
Description: Analyzes the development of antisemitism from the early Renaissance to Nazism. Traces the figures of Shylock and of Ahasuerus, the Wandering Jew, in literary works and stage presentations, showing that they reflect changing attitudes to Jews. Suggests that Shakespeare's Shylock embodies all the traditional stereotypes of the Jew, such as bloodthirstiness and avarice. The plot of "The Merchant of Venice" is based on the interplay of bourgeois, aristocrat, and Jew, a triangle that recurs in history and in literature (e.g. in the Dreyfus Affair and in Gustav Freytag's "Soll und Haben"). Examines variations of the model in Disraeli and Marx, and the identification of Jews with any hated class or with all of them simultaneously, as in Nazism. Antisemitism was reinforced by the Church's allegations, after the French Revolution, of a world Jewish conspiracy, and by racist ideology. All these elements met in Hitler's vision of extirpating the strangers from society in order to return to pre-capitalist brotherhood. Describes the Nuremberg Trials as a counter-play to the trial scene in "The Merchant of Venice". Pp. 237-293 contain the text of a play by David Henry Wilson.
Subjects: Characters, Shylock, Jews, Jews in literature, Shylock (Fictitious character), Antisemitism, History, Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare, William)
People: William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
LC classification: PR2825 .S38 1989