Language:
English
Year of publication:
1988
Titel der Quelle:
Shakespeare Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
20 (1988) 261-268
Keywords:
Shakespeare, William,
;
Antisemitism in literature
Abstract:
Discusses the audience's preconceptions about Jews in Shakespeare's time and in the present. The Elizabethan playgoer would have paid attention not to Shylock's race but to his occupation and religion, to both of which their immediate response would have been negative. We do not know what Shakespeare's intentions were, nor how Shylock should be played. The modern audience sees Shylock as epitomizing a long-suffering people, thereby perpetuating a post-Holocaust preconception. Recent productions either blacken the Christians or whitewash the Jew. States that Shakespeare depicts a Jew who is persecutor as well as persecuted, and who, under pressure, chooses to give up his religion rather than his money. Advocates viewing Shylock as a human being who is also a Jew, rather than as "the Jew", so that he can take his rightful place in the delicate balance of the drama.
URL:
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