SHYLOCK AS A SYMPATHETIC CHARACTER / "HATH NOT A JEW EYES?"

/.../ Some critics regard his well-known "Hath not a Jew eyes?" speech as a redeeming moment that lends him qualities of a tragic figure. In this speech, Shylock contends that he is fundamentally no different from the Christian characters.^[26] Critics who dispute a sympathetic reading of the speech note that it concludes with a call for revenge: "if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?" Those who view the passage more sympathetically emphasize that Shylock attributes his desire for retribution to the example set by the Christian characters: "If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction." /.../

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shylock#/media/File:Shylock_film.jpg 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shylock 

Shylock (/ˈʃaɪlɒk/ SHY-lok; spelled Shylocke in the First Folio) is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice (c. 1600). A Venetian Jewish moneylender, Shylock is the play's principal villain. His defeat and forced conversion to Christianity form the climax of the story.

Shylock's characterisation is composed of stereotypes, for instance greediness and vengefulness, although there were no legally practising Jews who lived in England during Shakespeare's time. Jews were expelled from the country in 1290 by Edward I in the Edict of Expulsion; this was not reversed until the mid-17th century (the Cromwell Era). 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Merchant_of_Venice 

/.../

Shylock as a sympathetic character 

Many modern readers and theatregoers have read the play as a plea for tolerance, noting that Shylock is a sympathetic character. They cite as evidence that Shylock's "trial" at the end of the play is a mockery of justice, with Portia acting as a judge when she has no right to do so. The characters who berated Shylock for dishonesty resort to trickery in order to win. In addition to this, Shakespeare gives Shylock one of his most eloquent speeches:

SALARINO: Why, I am sure if he forfeit, thou wilt not
take his flesh! What's that good for?

SHYLOCK: To bait fish withal; if it will feed nothing else,
it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me and
hindered me half a million, laughed at my losses,
mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted
my bargains, cooled 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
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. If a Jew wrong a Christian,
what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong
a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian
example? Why, revenge! The villainy you teach me I
will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the
instruction.

— Act III, scene I, l. 50–72^[24]

It is uncertain whether the sympathetic reading of Shylock is due to changing sensibilities among readers or that Shakespeare, a writer who created complex, multi-faceted characters, deliberately intended this reading. Stephen Greenblatt points out that, though Shylock is not a "lovable alien", he is given "more theatrical vitality, quite simply more urgent, compelling life, than anyone else in his world".^[25]

One basis for this interpretation is the emphasis on Shylock's marginalized position within Venetian society. Some critics regard his well-known "Hath not a Jew eyes?" speech as a redeeming moment that lends him qualities of a tragic figure. In this speech, Shylock contends that he is fundamentally no different from the Christian characters.^[26] Critics who dispute a sympathetic reading of the speech note that it concludes with a call for revenge: "if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?" Those who view the passage more sympathetically emphasize that Shylock attributes his desire for retribution to the example set by the Christian characters: "If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction."

Even if Shakespeare did not intend the play to be read this way, the fact that it retains its power on stage for audiences who may perceive its central conflicts in radically different terms is an illustration of the subtlety of Shakespeare's characterisations.^[27] Additionally, when Shylock discovers that his daughter, Jessica, has sold his ring, a gift from his wife Leah,^[28] the audience is provided with sympathetic biographical information tangential to the plot.^[25]

Later, in the trial Shylock represents what Elizabethan Christians believed to be the Jewish desire for "justice", contrasted with their obviously superior Christian value of mercy. The Christians in the courtroom urge Shylock to love his enemies, although they themselves have failed in the past. Jewish critic Harold Bloom suggests that, although the play gives merit to both cases, the portraits are not even-handed: "Shylock's shrewd indictment of Christian hypocrisy delights us, but ... Shakespeare's intimations do not alleviate the savagery of his portrait of the Jew..."^[29]

Notably, in Nazi Germany, concerns arose that the portrayal of Shylock would elicit too much sympathy for the plight of a Jewish person, thus prompting many alterations to the play, including the excision of Shylock's final speech.^[30] 

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