Ministry of higher and secondary special education of the republic of uzbekistan теrmez state university

MINISTRY OF HIGHER AND SECONDARY SPECIAL EDUCATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN ТЕRMEZ STATE UNIVERSITY

FOREIGN PHILOLOGY FACULTY
THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE AND

LITERATURE

COURSE PAPER

on the theme
“Features of revealing the character of Shylock in Shakespeare's comedy "The Merchant of Venice"”


DONE BY: 4^rd course student of the English and literature department:
__________________________________________
SCIENTIFIC SUPERVISOR:
Navruz Madalov

TERMEZ - 2022

CONTENT
I.INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………...3
II.MAIN PART:………………………………………………………………….5
1.Shylock is a character in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice……………...5
2.Three Interpretations of Shylock……………………………………………….10
3.Antisemitism in Shakespeare’s "The Merchant of Venice"……………………16
4.Features of revealing the character of Shylock………………………………...19
III.CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………32
IV.REFERENCES………………………………………………………………34


INTRODUCTION
Shylock’s Appearances in The Merchant of Venice.First it can be stated that for being one of the absolute main characters of the plot Shylock in person only appears in relatively few scenes. This is of course also due to the second plot line describing Portia’s situation in far off Belmont, in which Shylock only plays a secondary role until Portia’s appearance in Venice.Nevertheless Shakespeare manages quite well in portraying Shylock as the embodiment of all common resentments and negative prejudices towards Jews in general. This can be seen on the one hand by his own statements in dialogues and asides,
I hate him for he is a Christian;
But more, for that in low simplicity
He lends out money gratis and brings down
The rate of usance here with us in Venice
As well as in conversations by all the other characters who “have a word or two to say on the subject of his character, and never a good one.” Here in the aside of his just mentioned we can see at least two of his bad qualities, which are intolerance and greed for material goods. This is of course an absolutely reliable source of information for the audience and “all the more telling because on an Elisabethan stage it would practically have been a soliloquy”, as Shakespeare had positioned these asides in well-contemplated places.
Shylock’s relationship to his only daughter Jessica can simply be defined as a wrecked one. Both of them do not seem to have any understanding for each other’s situation and needs as “nowhere in the play does Shylock show any tenderness towards his daughter”. In this respect Jessica is of course an ambiguous character. On one hand she evokes sympathies with the audience for being treated badly by her father who, because of his Jewish origin, makes it hard for her to find her place in Venetian society and makes her feel “estranged from parents whose foreign speech and ways seemed embarrassing and stultifying”to her as the next generation. On the other hand there are also her obvious flaws of character which have to be mentioned and cannot be excused simply by indicating her social background. For the audience this means that they “should like Jessica better if she had not robbed and deceived her father” the cruel way she did.