The Merchant of Venice Shylock Quotes

There's no love lost between Shylock and Antonio. Shylock insists that he hates Antonio because he's a "Christian" and because he undermines his money-lending business and talks smack about him at the Rialto (the merchant's exchange in Venice). We also learn that Antonio hates Shylock's "sacred nation," and we'll soon learn just how much of an anti-Semite Antonio is.

Shylock's business proposition is associated with a racist stereotype. When he suggests that a pound of Antonio's "fair flesh" should serve as a bond for the loan, Shakespeare's 16th-century audience would have been reminded of the (completely false) stories about murderous Jews who supposedly sought Christian blood for use in religious rituals. 

Yikes! When Shylock points out that Antonio has treated him like garbage, Antonio is unapologetic and insists that his racist behavior will never change, not even if Shylock lends him money. When we read passages like this, we wonder whether Antonio's abuse of Shylock is at least partially to blame for our "villain's" treacherous behavior later in the play.  

This is probably the most famous passage in the entire play. When Shylock asks "if you prick us do we not bleed?" he insists on the fact that Jews and Christians share a common humanity. Here, Shylock also exposes the hypocrisy of the Christian characters who are always talking about Christian love and mercy but then go out of their way to alienate Shylock because he's Jewish and different. This is powerful stuff, but we should also point out that, elsewhere in the play, Shylock himself tends to emphasize the differences between Jews and Christians. (See 1.3.8 for evidence of this.)

Psst. Click here to check out our favorite performance of this speech, by actor Al Pacino.

Here, Shylock says he hates Antonio because the guy is 1) a Christian and 2) lends out money free of interest, which has a negative impact on Shylock's money-lending biz. As we know, one of the biggest bones of contention between Christians and Jews in this play is the practice of usury (lending out money and charging interest). The Christian characters think it's wrong to charge interest and make money off of loans, which is a reflection of 16th-century English attitudes about usury.

The Church believed that interest should never be charged when one Christian loaned money to another Christian. This idea comes from Deuteronomy 23:19-23: "You shall not lend upon interest to your brother, interest on money, interest on victuals, interest on anything that is lent for interest. To a foreigner, you may lend upon interest, but to your brother, you shall not lend upon interest." Christians in England were allowed, however, to borrow money (with interest) from foreigners. Since Jews were classified as "foreigners" in England, they were encouraged to set up banks when they arrived in England.

Shylock reveals his own prejudices about money here. When he talks about people's "goodness," he's not evaluating morality or character, just whether they're good for their borrowed money

In the previous passage Shylock was made out to be a jerk who cares more about money than his own family. Here, however, we see Shylock in a different light as he responds to the news that Jessica has traded a family heirloom for a pet monkey.  

The turquoise ring Jessica discarded is important to Shylock because it was a gift from his dead wife, not because it's worth a lot of money. So here we can see that Shylock isn't exactly the money-grubbing villain he's been made out to be. His pained response to Jessica's actions reveals that he is human and loved his wife very deeply.

Shylock is often portrayed as a money-grubber, but here we can see that he's not at all interested in profiting off of Antonio and Bassanio. Shylock wants to collect his pound of flesh and even refuses to accept triple the amount of money he's owed, which suggests that money isn't everything to him.

Shylock makes the reasonable point that it would be questionable if he were simply to repay Antonio's injustices against him with kindness. This would be merciful, but Antonio doesn't ask him for mercy, nor does Shylock seem too keen to give it. Their hatred of each other may have been justified, but when Antonio comes to seek help from Shylock, the tables are turned. Shylock can rightfully demand an apology, or at least some recognition of the injustice against him.

We've got to wonder why Shylock actually does want Antonio's flesh. It's suspicious that he had the pound-of-flesh solution in mind, and even more suspicious that he defends it so glibly as no big deal. Maybe Shylock was never kidding about the pound-of-flesh thing, and it was all premeditated.

Shylock is genuinely despairing here. It seems the fact that he has no recourse, vengeance, or justice is as upsetting to him as the fact that his daughter has stolen from him and run away. The only justice he can seek is against Antonio—even though Antonio had nothing to do with this particular affair. It's clear from this moment on that Shylock will pursue the law tooth and nail. His frustration with Antonio will combine with his frustration at having no love and no advocate.

Portia is about to beat Shylock at his own game, and she rubs it in. She has every reason to feel smug, but is she violating her own professed principles of mercy here? 

Shylock is not particularly loving with his daughter, is he?

Here Shylock seems to trust his daughter, and "my girl" seems affectionate enough (for Shylock at least). That he trusts her with his house, his wealth, and her dignity is a mark of his love for her. Of course, he's about to be betrayed big time, so this doesn't bode well for him loving and trusting again. If she's the only character in the play he can love, and she betrays him, then there's really no turning back his hatred.

Shylock is isolated from Christian society. He can engage with Christians in business dealings, and so he has a livelihood, but it's clear from this passage that he keeps his distance socially. He's a Jew in a Christian country, which explains the animosity we see from and toward him.

Shylock's offer seems too generous not to come with a catch. Still, perhaps he's trying to be the bigger man of the two. He might be offering up his friendship, and seeking Antonio's, because he sees these unusual circumstances as a chance for the two to break their cultural isolation from each other.

Even after Jessica's betrayal, Shylock still insists the girl is his flesh and blood. Salerio, in one savage swoop, challenges this notion by saying she's actually nothing like him at all. The proof of this is, implicitly, that Jessica chose to desert him. If Shylock held onto her as something close to him (which he obviously did, calling her his flesh and blood), then Salerio has brought home the realization that Shylock really is all alone in the world—even his flesh and blood has deserted him. Without recourse to get her back, it makes sense that he might seek the flesh and blood of another.

Shylock has been stripped of absolutely everything, and he leaves the court to return to a life of lonely isolation. Depending on one's view of justice, and Shylock's original intentions, this is a fitting end. But if the play is about mercy, then Shylock's resolution is a note missing from the final chord. To simply cast Shylock out of the play is a dissatisfying ending for this central character.

Shylock really dogs his daughter here, wishing she were dead at his feet so he could have his things back. 

In one way, it seems clear that he loves his wealth more than he loves Jessica. But in another respect, Jessica has made her choice. Salerio and Solanio have reinforced that the girl thought herself to be unlike him and deserted him. She has made him the laughingstock of Venice and left him entirely alone. 

Shylock too must make a choice. If he had been the sensitive kind of guy, Jessica might not have left him in the first place. Instead, he's got to piece his life back together, so he bemoans the one thing that can't actually desert him of its own accord. Money is all he's got left, so he chooses to focus on that rather than mourn the daughter who abandoned him.