The Merchant of Venice is a controversial play with many intolerant characters. The Catholic characters are prejudiced against Shylock, a Jewish moneylender, who also resents them as Christians. Even the way characters refer to Shylock as “the Jew” is an expression of bigotry, defining him, negatively, by his religion and ethnicity.
The following are a few examples of many statements of prejudice. Shylock reports that Antonio, one of the main characters, spat on him, kicked him, and called him “misbeliever, cut-throat dog.” Launcelot, Shylock’s servant, rails against his master, whom he calls the devil. He says, “My master's a very Jew,” using the term as an insult. Gratiano compliments Shylock’s beautiful daughter Jessica, who falls in love with a Christian and soon converts to Christianity, as “a Gentile and no Jew.”
The Catholic characters associate Jewishness with negative qualities and Christianity with virtue, while Shylock is frustrated at people like Antonio, who are Christians who condemn Shylock’s moneylending even as they take advantage of it. The play has pointed criticisms of prejudice (as found in Shylock’s “Hath not a Jew eyes?” monologue) as well as numerous expressions of bigotry and antisemitism.
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