Shylock Quotes Flashcards
‘I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following; but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you.’
Shylock utters these words during his first interaction with Antonio and Bassanio in the play which reveals how complicated a figure Shylock will become in The Merchant of Venice. He will have more pitiful moments like this, despite his more general role as antagonist who seems to literally seek Antonio’s flesh and blood. Here, as Shylock describes the rules he follows as he interacts with society, he also expresses the categorical isolation he feels as a member of the Jewish community, who is largely excluded from social aspects within the Christian Venice. He can participate in the public space of the marketplace and engage in commerce (and “buy,” “sell,” and “walk” with others), but he ‘will not’ enter the more intimate spaces (to engage in worship or participate in meals).
‘How like a fawning publican he looks!
I hate him for he is a Christian,
But more for that in low simplicity
He lends out money gratis’
Contextually, in the 16th century, Christians thought that it was a sin to lend money for profit, but Jews did not (causing conflict). Shylock also hates him because he lends money without charging interest which affects Shylock’s business.
‘Cursèd be my tribe If I forgive him!’
Shylock believes that he would be letting other Jews down if he didn’t seek justice for the horrible way Antonio treated him. He believes that revenge is the only way to achieve justice.
‘Many a time and oft
In the Rialto you have rated me
About my moneys and my usances:
Still I have borne it with a patient shrug,
For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe.
You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog,
And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine,
And all for use of that which is mine own.’
Shylock here describes the type of prejudice and discrimination that he faces, and that “all our tribe” faces, in Venice. Yet here Shylock also explains that the very individuals who denigrate him as a “misbeliever” or “cut-throat dog,” also use him as a money-lender, borrowing his own funds “that which is mine own.” Shylock exposes the unfortunate contradiction that Venetians mistreat the individuals whom they need, the money-lenders who fulfil an essential and respectable function in society. The injustices he lists here also serve to make Shylock a more complex character, one who is portrayed as a caricatural villain, but who has possibly been made that way by the prejudice of a “Christian” society.
‘Let the forfeit
Be nominated for an equal pound
Of your fair flesh, to be cut off and taken In what part of your body pleaseth me.’
Here, the audience may perceive Shylock as a ‘devil’ and a very cruel man as he is essentially implying that he wishes to kill Antonio. The alliteration of ‘fair’ and ‘flesh’ draws attention to the grisly nature of his request. Structurally, we can see how Shylock does not answer Bassanio until the end of the scene which shows that he enjoys holding power over the Christian. Alternatively, the audience may also feel that this is right considering Antonio’s treatment of Shylock.
‘There is some ill a-brewing towards my rest,
For I did dream of money bags tonight.’
Shylock senses that something bad is about to happen but he is not sure what it is. The audience knows that Jessica is planning to escape which creates dramatic irony. Dreaming of money bags used to be seen as a sign of bad luck.
‘If it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge.’
Shylock claims that Antonio’s flesh would “feed my revenge.” It would allow Shylock to finally avenge the way that Antonio and others mistreat him (and other members of the Jewish community). By claiming that acts of vengeance would “feed” his revenge, Shylock implies that revenge is a natural human desire, like sexual desire or physical hunger – and it is sated not by anything technically “useful,” but only by inflicting more pain and spreading one’s bitterness to others.
‘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, 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.’
Here, Shylock uses rhetorical questions to draw a parallel between Jews and Christians but more noticeably he tries to state that Jews are also humans through his use of the lexical field of the human body by describing different parts. By highlighting this he makes a modern audience feel sympathetic for him as he faces racial prejudice.
‘The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard, but I will better the instruction.’
Shylock describes how Jewish and Christian peoples are not as different as they seem to be in Venice, he claims that he has learned his lust for greed and revenge from the Christian individuals who have so mistreated him. He suggests that his own behaviour is a reaction to the intolerance which he has faced and which he is currently confronting. He alludes to the fact that Venice’s current social currents have been prefaced by prior stigmatisation and discrimination, and this perspective certainly makes him a more complicated and sympathetic character than he may have initially appeared to be.
‘I would my daughter dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear’
The audience sees the inhumane side of Shylock’s character as he describes how he loves money more than his daughter. Contextually, this fits the 16th century idea that Jews were obsessed with money.
‘I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys’
The ring from Leah (possibly his wife) is valuable to Shylock for sentimental reasons. He is still concerned about his money, but he proves that money isn’t all that matters to him.
‘I’ll have my bond’
The repetition of this phrase demonstrates how determined Shylock is to get revenge on Antonio. The use of the possessive pronoun ‘my’ alludes to the fact that he is getting revenge for Antonio’s mistreatment of him but more importantly, revenge for the racial prejudice his tribe faced.
‘The pound of flesh, which I demand of him, Is dearly bought; ‘tis mine and I will have it.’
To Shylock, only a pound of flesh will count as justice. The flesh is a symbol of Shylock’s desire to see Antonio suffer for how he has treated him in the past.
‘Nay, take my life and; pardon not that’
He claims that his property sustains his life, so taking his property is the same as taking his life. Similarly, for Shylock, his wealth sustains his property, so an individual takes his property by taking his wealth. Here, Shylock articulates an indirect but powerful link between his life and his wealth, a direct correspondence which is not surprising given Shylock’s generally greedy nature and concern with material possessions. The audience may question how fair the law actually is.
