Shakespeare and Anti-Semitism in the Merchant of Venice

Anti-Semitism and the desecration of the Jewish population have been in existence for nearly five thousand years. In the Elizabethan era, a question of anti-Semitism invariably arises. In William Shakespeares The Merchant of Venice, we find that one of the characters is the embodiment and expression of anti-Semitic attitude that is pervasive in Elizabethan society. Anti-Semitism was an intricate part in Shakespeares years. Jews were considered vile and scorned upon. Shakespeare presents Judaism as an unchangeable trait (Bloom 37). Shakespeares age based their anti-Semitism on religious grounds because the Elizabethans inherited the fiction, fabricated by the early Church, that the Jews murdered Christ and were therefore in†¦show more content†¦In act two, scene two, lines twenty-four through twenty-eight, Launcelot Gobbo identifies Shylock as a kind of devil, the devil himself, and the very devil incarnation. Shylocks daughter, Jessica, identifies Shylocks house as h ell. Solanio identifies Shylock as the devil . . . in the likeness of a Jew (III,i,19-21) and Bassanio echoes this sentiment by identifying Shylock as a cruel devil (IV,i,217). Antonio further cements the association between Shylock and the devil by noting how Shylocks arguments remind him how The devil can cite scripture for his purpose (I,iii,97-100). This explicit demeaning of Shylock cannot but be significant in light of the historical outline that has been observed through the desecration of Jews for many years. The images of Jews as blood-thirsty murderers of Jesus who snatch innocent Christian children for slaughter in bizarre Passover rituals seems to provide a potent back-drop for the demonic appellations that are heaped upon Shylock in The Merchant of Venice (Fiedler 63). The progressive abuse of Shylock as a usurer, which leads to the reduction of his humanity to a demonic form, should fully prepares us for the revelation in The Merchant of Venice that Shylocks motive for the entire bond with Antonio is murder. By murdering Antonio, Shylock will be rid of a bothersome business of rival. The play appears to suggest that Bassanio was right to caution Antonio to suspect fair termsShow MoreRelated Is The Merchant of Venice an Anti-Semitic Play? Essay1491 Words   |  6 PagesIs The Merchant of Venice an Anti-Semitic Play?      Ã‚   The Merchant of Venice features a Jewish character that is abused and slandered by nearly every character in the play. Throughout the play the behavior of these characters seems justified. In this way, The Merchant of Venice appears to be an anti-Semitic play. However, The Merchant of Venice contains several key instances, which can be portrayed in a way that criticizes anti-Semitism. The first instance occurs in Act 1, scene 3 whenRead MoreA Study of Anti-Semitism in The Merchant of Venice Essay1540 Words   |  7 PagesA Study of Anti-Semitism in The Merchant of Venice ‘The Merchant of Venice’ was written by Shakespeare in 1596 and appeals to both audiences of comedy and tragedy. The play features anti-Semitism which is a response to 1500’s Britain as well as other literature of the time. Anti-Semitism is the term used to describe discrimination towards Jews and Judaism. ‘The Merchant of Venice’ has received both positive and negative comments over the centuries and throughout thisRead MoreRacial Discrimination In The Merchant Of Venice1496 Words   |  6 Pagesdiscriminated against Jews extensively. This was most prominent in Venice and England. Jews were forced to live on an island called the Ghetto in Venice and were cruelly oppressed throughout history in the Italian city.. In the 1200s, Jews were banned from England. Finally, they started to come back in the 1600s but had limitations because they were known for their high intelligence compared to the English, as well as in Venice. In Venice they were only allowed to be usurers, or loaners that demand highRead More Hath Not a Jew Eyes? The Identity of Shylock and Purpose of Anti-Semitism in The Merchant of Venice1992 Words   |  8 PagesShakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice continues to receive criticism because of the many controversial topics integrated within an already debatable plot. One such reproach is whether the play demonstrates factors of anti-Semitism or persists as a criticism of the anti-Sematic tendencies of Christians during Shakespeare’s time. The factor of genre plays an essential role in how the play is interpreted when regarding anti-Semitism, particularly when viewed as either a romantic comedy or a genre thatRead MoreAnti-Semitism and Racism in the Merchant of Venice1019 Words   |  5 PagesAnti-Semitism and racism in The Merchant Of Venice. Anti-Semitism and the desecration of the Jewish population have been in existence for nearly five thousand years. In William Shakespeares â€Å"The Merchant of Venice†, we find that one of the characters is the subject and expression of anti-Semitic attitude that is persistent in Elizabethan society. William Shakespeares â€Å"The Merchant of Venice† contains many examples that insult Jewish heritage because they were the minority in London in ShakespeareanRead MoreExamples Of Anti-Semitism In The Merchant Of Venice1091 Words   |  5 Pageswith Jewish slurs, anti-Semitic remarks, and no justice for the main Jewish character is, in theory, seen as despicable. After the Holocaust, all Jewish slurs and stereotypes, like calling someone â€Å"dog Jew† or thinking Jews only care about money, have been exiled from moral society. This even applies to pieces of art that were produced pre-Holocaust. However, William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice is not only read, but taught in schools across the nation. The Merchant of Venice provides the taleRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s The Merchant Of Venice1320 Words   |  6 PagesIn England’s history, the Elizabethan era was notorious for its anti-Semitism. Jews were segregated by being forced to wear a red ha t when outside of the ghetto, and were treated as inferior to the rest of the city. William Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice exhibits the prejudicial attitudes of his era. Antonio, a Christian merchant, makes a deal with Shylock, a Jewish moneylender. Shylock uses it as an opportunity to exact revenge by demanding a pound of Antonio’s flesh if he does not meetRead MoreDetermining Whether there is a Presence of Anti-Semitism in William Shakespeares The Merchant of Venice893 Words   |  4 PagesDetermining Whether there is a Presence of Anti-Semitism in William Shakespeares The Merchant of Venice It is quite clear when reading The Merchant of Venice that there is a large focus on Shylock being a Jew. This is very prominent in his I am a Jew speech he, the Jewish moneylender, angry and betrayed, rails against the non-Jewish world which torments him. Antonio hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million, laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned myRead MoreThe Merchant Of Venice Anti-Semite Essay2020 Words   |  9 Pages many people consider the play â€Å"The Merchant of Venice† is one of the most problematic dramas written by Shakespeare because it promotes the prejudice against Jews or the ideology of anti-Semitism. In fact, the play depicts the villain as a devil, a usurer and a Jew who attempts to murder the good and godlike Christians for they have performed good will and mercy toward other people and ruined the Jew’s business. Whether it is his intention or not, Shakespeare chooses to create the image of a greedyRead MoreAnalysis Of The Movie The Merchant Of Venice 1918 Words   |  8 PagesPerformance Analysis of T he Merchant of Venice Jordan Thomas Mullineaux-Davis William Shakespeare has regularly throughout time been referred to and could be viewed as anti-Semitic because of the cultural implications within many of his plays. A particularly strong example of this could be The Merchant of Venice. This essay will explore arguments of post-colonialism within The Merchant of Venice, discussing the pertinent issues of anti-semitism, racial isolation and prejudice. It will also comment

Master At Greenville Technical College - 947 Words

Young 1 When I finish my associates in Arts at Greenville Technical College, I plan to transfer to get my Bachelors (B.A.) in Early Childhood Education from University of South Carolina- Columbia. I chose this career because I love children with a passion and every job I’ve had has been with children involved. Being in the presence of children makes me happy. I also chose this career because I know that when I wake up in the morning I will not dread going to work every day, I will gladly get up an strive to make a difference in their lives. I want to be an impact on as many of their lives as I can by being a part of their life and teaching them. I want to be someone they look up to, someone â€Å"who inspires and encourages us [them] to strive for greatness, live to our [their] full potential and see the best in [them]† (Teach). To become a teacher takes a lot of hard work and motivation. Education itself has come a long way. In the earlier times, certain races and genders were not able to learn, blacks and whites were not able to sit in the same classrooms, or use the same things, and many people just couldn’t get along. Today, every gender and race is entitled to make something of themselves and get an education, we all have the right to learn. We are able to get along with one another, use the same things and be in the same classrooms as the other. Today, we are able to help one another and encourage each other to do great things. Education has come a long way from what itShow MoreRelatedRobotics in Surgery5226 Words   |  21 PagesInstruments * Surgical Arm Cart Fig. 4 Surgeon Console Surgeon Console: The surgeon is situated at this console several feet away from the patient operating table. The surgeon has his head tilted forward and his hands inside the system’s master interface. The surgeon sits viewing a magnified three- dimensional image of the surgical field with a real-time progression of the instruments as he operates. The instrument controls enable the surgeon to move within a one cubic foot area of Fig.Read MoreStrategy Management18281 Words   |  74 Pages—Frank T. Rothaermel rot12737_fm_i-xlvi.indd v 17/11/11 7:37 PM Confirming Pages ABOUT THE AUTHOR FRANK T. ROTHAERMEL Georgia Institute of Technology Frank T. Rothaermel (PhD) is the Angel and Stephen M. Deedy Professor in the College of Management at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is an Alfred P. Sloan Industry Studies Fellow, and also holds a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award, which â€Å"is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation’sRead MoreIntroduction to Materials Management169665 Words   |  679 PagesLibrary of Girro From the Library of Girro@qq.com Introduction to Materials Management SIXTH EDITION From the Library of Girro J. R. Tony Arnold, P.E., CFPIM, CIRM Fleming College, Emeritus Stephen N. Chapman, Ph.D., CFPIM North Carolina State University Lloyd M. Clive, P.E., CFPIM Fleming College Upper Saddle River, New Jersey Columbus, Ohio From the Library of Girro@qq.com From the Library of Girro Editor in Chief: Vernon R. Anthony Acquisitions Editor: Eric KrassowRead MoreMarketing Mistakes and Successes175322 Words   |  702 PagesH. Furuhashi, Notre Dame; W. Jack Duncan, University of AlabamaBirmingham; Mike Farley, Del Mar College; Joseph W. Leonard, Miami University (OH); Abbas Nadim, University of New Haven; William O’Donnell, University of Phoenix; Howard Smith, University of New Mexico; James Wolter, University of Michigan, Flint; Vernon R. Stauble, California State Polytechnic University; Donna Giertz, Parkland College; Don Hantula, St. Joseph’s University; Milton Alexander, Auburn University; James F. Cashman,Read MoreCase Studies67624 Words   |  271 Pagesacquisitions was Coast Metals, a family-owned producer of speciality metals. When the acquisition fell through, Nuclear hired one of Coast’s top engineers as a consultant to recommend other acquisition targets. The engineer – Ken Iverson – had strong technical skills (including a graduate degree in metallurgy from Purdue University) and general management experience. Based on Iverson’s recommendation, Nuclear acquired a steel joist company in South Carolina. Subsequently, Iverson joined Nuclear as a vice

Short Notes Free Essays

â€Å"Two gentlemen of Verona† â€Å"An Irish Rose† are the two heart touching stories written by A. J. Cronin. We will write a custom essay sample on Short Notes or any similar topic only for you Order Now In an Irish Rose, the 14 year old Rose plays the central character of the story. She sacrifices her life to look after her baby brother who lost his mother when he was just one month old. In the â€Å"Two gentlemen of Verona † we find the touching story of Jacopo Nicola ,two brothers aged 12 13 who do odd jobs and live a hard life themselves to sustain and treat their elder sister Lucia who is suffering from tuberculosis of spine. Both stories of A J Cronin are heart touching. In an analysis of the characters portrayed in both the works we can find certain similarities. As stated above we can see the characters themselves in a moral and sacrificial light wherein they are not thinking or living for themselves but for their respective siblings. If we go into the actual character portrayal too, we can find how the characters are dressed in rags to save even the smallest penny for their siblings comfort. They do not even eat or dress well lest they have to spend any money, which can be found to have a better use for their siblings. In the Irish Rose as well as the Two Gentlemen of Verona, we find that the author finds hope for a better future of the world after meeting Rose, Jacopo and Nicolo. Never thinking for themselves, all three of his characters have fought to better the lives of their loved ones in every way possible. In both the stories the plot is set in a rousing manner and giving a detailed and graphic expression till the climax. In the Irish Rose, the main character Rose Donegan has to earn for the family, buy milk for her youngest brother Michel. She had to cook, attend to the children and father. With a slum child’s elemental knowledge she had to do everything, even she would bargain the baker to extend her credit for an extra loaf. As in the case of the Two Gentlemen OF Verona, the writer himself becomes a character in the plot of Irish Rose. Along with the writer the rest of the characters too play a significant role in the plot to finally bring out the actual sacrifice of the three children. In both the stories the importance given to the children’s attitude towards work, love and responsibility shows how important the said characters are in the view of the author too. Herein we find the hope for a better world when these children grow up rather than the war ravaged time frame in which the stories are set. It was W. B. Yeats who said that, â€Å"Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart†. But through these stories Cronin has endeavored to prove Yeats wrong, as nicely as possible. He was also able to teach us the value of not running away from our responsibilities. How to cite Short Notes, Essay examples

Leonardo Da Vinci modern review Essay Example For Students

Leonardo Da Vinci modern review Essay You are about to read a story of Leonardo Da Vinci. We hasten to tell you we have another variant Leonardos biography. Leonardo Da Vinci (Born 1452. Died 1519) The fourth centenary of Leonardo da Vinci has been celebrated in Italy; in England the date of the death of this strange and legendary figure of the latter half of the fifteenth century, who was still climbing after knowledge infinite,† has passed almost unnoticed. Always one of the world’s greatest names—for no artist of the past lent himself so readily to apotheosis — his fame has grown with the revelation of his greatness as a man of science. Other sons of the Renaissance, such as Leon Battista Alberti, were gifted with comprehensive genius, but the quality of Leonardo’s endowment dwarfs their record when we sum up his activities as painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, hydraulician, anatomist, mathematician, geologist, botanist, astronomer, and geographer. Apart from his guesses and achievements in these provinces, there is something in his personal character â€Å"super-European and silent,† as Nietzsche terms it, â€Å"the character- istic of one who has seen too wide a circle of things good and evil.† He behaved in such a way as to arouse the wonder of his contemporaries. â€Å"He dressed with originality and distinction, bore himself impressively. Sur- rounded, so to speak, by censer-swinging acolytes, he acted the part of hierophant and modern Empedocles, and was not far from being a precursor of Paracelsus.† He was  unconditioned, above the law, the divine artist, the worker of miracles. Yet he was a solitary in the midst of court life, in the changes and chances of his employment, and speaks of the necessity of the solitary life in no uncertain voice: â€Å"If you are alone, you belong entirely to yourself; if you are accompanied even by one companion, you belong only half to yourself, or even less in proportion to the thoughtlessness of his conduct; and if you have more than one companion, vou will fall more deeply into the same plight.†* We see how the strange and solitary power is impressed on his red chalk drawing in his old age of his silent face. The index of a mind forever Voyaging through strange seas of thought alone.† For all his cryptic utterances and the reserve of his spirit, we must not suppose that he was in any respect a charlatan, a suspicion that clings to the name of Para- celsus. His notebooks bear witness to the intense and laborious concentration of his mind upon the problems of science, physics, or engineering he had set before himself, to his patient and manifold industry, the ordered continuity and range of his effort. His personal character, as shown in the glass of his notebooks rather than in the distorting mirror of Vasari’s famous Life, reveals an authentic greatness. â€Å"I wish,† he says, â€Å"to work miracles; I may have fewer possessions than other men who are more tranquil and those who wish to grow rich in a day.† â€Å"As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.† â€Å"Our body is subject to heaven, and heaven is subject to the spirit.† â€Å"Where there is most power of feeling, there of mar- tyrs is the greatest martyr.† â€Å"Intellectual passion drives out sensuality.† â€Å"To the ambitious, whom neither the boon of life nor the beauty of the world suffices to content, it comes as a penance that life with them is squandered, and that they possess neither the benefits nor the beauty of the world.† These sublimations of Leonardo’s experience are expressed with a concision which renders him, like Blake, the master of significant language. Leonardo’s life is a paradox. He recommends for the artist a life spent in the seclusion of the studio; his own was spent in courts; a wanderer, from place to place Florence, Milan, Rome, finally Amboise in France. The most laborious of men, he has left little realized and achieved work in building and the arts behind him. None of his monumental projects of construction or town-planning seem to have been carried out, most of his paintings and sculptures were never executed, others were left half finished. He has survived his masterpieces. Modern research has shown him to have been, not the capricious and inconstant artist whose performance was always less than his promise, but the most learned of painters, studying with the intentness of a scientist the medium in which he worked, the structure of the human body, plants, trees, and rocks, in order that he should know their essence and inner reality. His habit of scientific investigation* in the end drew him aside from the practice of his art; he was rapt away by the Virgilian passion rerum cognoscere causas. It was impossible, Isabella d’Este found, to get a picture out of him. She had applied to a friar of the Carmelite Order whom she knew, to know what manner of life the master was leading, and the answer was returned that he was â€Å"entirely wrapped up in geometry, and has no patience for painting.† The whole world of knowledge was his province. In reading his notebooks there is at first a feeling of dis- appointment at the meagerness of the scientific result, but this is counterbalanced by the realization that he is the first of the moderns in his belief in experimental methods, his distrust for mere authority in science as in the arts he practised. â€Å"Whoever in discussion,† he writes, â€Å"adduces authority, uses not intellect, but rather memory.†4 He has been loosely said to have been the forerunner of Bacon, Watt, Newton and Harvey, but it cannot be maintained that he anticipated their discoveries in any definite sense. Though he set down in unusually large letters â€Å"the sun does not move,†9 and surmised that the earth was a star â€Å"much like the moon,† and knew that blood moved,* and so forth, his actual achievements were in the invention of certain ingenious devices, such as the diving-bell and the lifebelt, and in the employment of a definitely scientific method, as in his discovery of the significance of fossils found in the mountain ridges of Lombardy as showing the waters at one time covered the earth. â€Å"If you should say that the shells which are visible at the present time within the borders of Italy, far away from the sea at great heights, are due to the Flood having de- posited them there, I reply that, granting this Flood to have risen seven cubits above the highest mountain. those shells which always inhabit near the shores of the sea   ought to be found lying on the mountain side, and not at so short a distance above their bases, and all at the same level, layer upon layer. Should you say that the nature of these shells is to keep near the edge of the sea, and that as the sea rose in height the shells left their former place and followed the rising waters to their highest level: —to this I reply that the cockle is incapable of more rapid movement than a snail out of water, or is even somewhat slower, since it does not swim, but makes a furrow in the sand, and supporting itself by means of the sides of this furrow it will travel between three and four braccia a day; and therefore with such a motion as this it could not have traveled from the Adriatic Sea as far as Monferrato in Lombardy, a distance of two hundred and fifty miles, in forty days. Art History: The Movement II: People EssayHe sings hymns to Law and Causation: â€Å"Nature never breaks her own law. â€Å"O marvelous necessity, thou with supreme reason constrainest all efforts to be the direct result of their causes, and by a supreme and irrevocable law every natural action obeys thee by the shortest possible process. â€Å"Who would believe that so small a space could contain the images of all the universe? O mighty process, what talent can avail to penetrate a nature such as thine? What tongue will it be that can unfold so great a wonder? Verily none. This it is that guides the human discourse to the considering of divine things.† Leonardo, who sums up war as a â€Å"bestial frenzy† (in   the descriptive passage entitled â€Å"The Way to Represent a Battle†), was the inventor of numerous engines of war, steam guns and breech-loading arms with screw breech block, and in the draft of a letter in which he offers his services as architect and military engineer to Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, he claims that he can â€Å"construct bridges that arc very light and strong and very portable, with which to pursue and defeat the enemy, and others more solid, which resist fire or assault,† also â€Å"a kind of cannon which is light and easy of transport, with which to hurl small stones like hail,† â€Å"catapults, mangonels, tra- bocchi, and other instruments of admirable efficacy not in general use,† and â€Å"armored wagons carrying artillery which shall break through the most serried ranks of the enemy, and so open a safe passage for the infantry†he can also construct †Å"subterranean passages either straight or winding, passing if necessary underneath trenches or a river. † As far as the evidence of Leonardo’s manuscripts can substantiate the claims put forward, they have been found to have been correct; and Dr. Mà ¼ller-Walde,18 in that por- tion of his work dealing with Leonardo as a military en- gineer, has shown that Leonardo did in fact study the construction and use of the engines of warfare mentioned in the first seven clauses of the letter. In the arts of peace, his schemes and sketches for canalization and the layout of towns are no less remarkable. According to specialists’ opinions, Benedetto Castelli, who is considered to be the actual originator of the Lombardy canal system, appears to have studied Leonardo’s schemes, in which practical standards for hydraulic engineering are already worked out. He wished to lay out cleaner and healthier cities, so that the people would not need to live â€Å"packed together like goats, and pollute the air for one another,† and proposed to II Moro to build ten cities, each with 5000 houses and accomodating 30,000 inhabitants. These cities are to be seated on rivers regulated by locks; the streets are to be as wide as the height of the houses, and laid out with wide squares and market-places. Moreover, he provides two kinds of streets on different levels, the higher and spotless walks for foot passengers, and the lower for traffic, which can be cleaned by flushi ng from locked rivers.*8 In his notebooks are found a wealth of designs, exhausting every possible combination of circular and polygonal ground-plans for domed public buildings and churches. As he himself states, it was his intention to write a treatise on the theory of cupola construction. His devices and designs for hydraulic work, and for warlike machines, were, for the most part, within the limits of possible construction in his day. It is otherwise with the problem that occupied so much of his time, that of flight. He had for many years watched the flight of birds, and made himself, thanks to an amazingly keen power of fixing rapid movement, familiar with every characteristic of wing action. The subject gives its name to a treatise which exists in a more or less complete form—II Codice sul volo degli uccelli. and is also treated in the Codice Atlantico and other of Leonardo’s manuscripts. The conviction grew on him that men might raise themselves above the earth on wings, for: â€Å"A bird is an instrument working according to mathematical law, which instrument it is within the capacity of man to reproduce, with all its movements, but not with a corresponding degree of strength, though it is deficient only in the power of maintaining equilibrium. We may there- fore say that such an instrument constructed by man is lacking in nothing except the life of the bird, and this life must needs be supplied from that of man.† Flight is a natural phenomenon, and consequently its laws are to be deduced by observation of nature. Yet Leonardo doubted the adequacy of strength of the human agent to accomplish more than short flights, and sought to supplement it by a screw-propeller. He has a drawing of a large screw constructed to revolve round a vertical axis. â€Å"The notes at the side and below the drawing tell of the materials and dimensions, and reveal also the purpose which it was intended to serve. M. Govi, who first called attention to the significance of these passages, speaks of them as proving not only that Leonardo invented the screw-propeller, but that he had considered small paper models for this purpose, which were set in motion by fine bent steel wires.† He must have, at one moment, at any rate, felt sure of success, when he wrote triumphantly that â€Å"the huge bird will take his first flight high aloft on the ridge of his great Ceceri—the mountain between Majano and Fiesole—he will fill the universe with wonder and all writings with his fame.† The experimental flight must have failed, but from his own day Leonardo has not been judged by his achievement, for, in the words of his earliest biographer, â€Å"his spirit was never at rest, his mind was ever devising new things.†