Antonio (who's flesh Shylock wanted) stepped in to spare Shylock's life, with conditions that he became a Christian and that Jessica should inherit all his possessions upon his death, I think. I may have forgotten some of it.

Basically Shylock is being evil in the play, but you have to consider where that behaviour originated from

jealousy iirc

oh pleeeeease if only it were that simple. Shylock being a Jew is marginalised in his society and the only *profession* open to him is usury; for religious & historical reasons in medieval and renaissance Europe, Christians couldnt be money-lenders, so Jews did it as they were excluded from almost all other means of making a living. In the process they gained a further stigma as usurers and became even more hated, although theyir financial services greased the wheels of the economies of Flanders, Burgundy, England, France, Northern Germany and the Italian City States.

And it wasn't as if they were even thanked for their efforts by the people they provided funds to. Very often defaulters (Christian) would denounce the Jewish financier they owed money to and have him run out of town, steal his possessions and fortune, even have him lynched. Sounds familiar? Nazi anti-semitism has its roots in medieval European attitudes towards Jews.

so Shylock isn't simply jealous. he's been victimised all his life and treated with contempt and now he has an opportunity to turn the tables for once. And once again he's betrayed. Yes he's an unpleasant character, but he breaks no laws and he's q entitled to ask and demand for the agreed payment. That's the whole crux of the play.

so is WS being anti-semitic or not? on the face of it yes, but perhaps not. but he couldn't make a jew the hero, because that would have been impossible in his day and age (it's a contemporary setting after all, and anti-semitism was an accepted part of life in Chrustendom - only heathen Moslems tolerated Jews) In fact the first European literary work I can think of that depicts Jews in a positive light as decent and noble people is "Ivanhoe" and even then the Jewish girl still doesn't get the hero, even though she does all the hard work, he gets off with the Saxon princess.

Edited by - Tawakalna on 10/17/2004 3:43:40 AM

as I said, I cant remember what really happened, iirc he didnt like that fact that Antonio was rich?
I forgot all about the money lending thing.
Shylock was entitled to repayment yes, but the way in which he did it was despicable, he knew Antonio wouldnt haave the money, that was why he lent it to him in the first place.
Jealousy is simply the easy solution
but oh well luckily the exam about that has been written long ago and I dont have to worry about it anymore

But Ophelia was slipping into insanity.... Polonius kind of was the catalyst that clinched it, she being such a pliable and impressionable girl. Those characteristics don't make her less loving of Hamlet. Just a weak character.

Then again, WS really did not spend much time to explain Ophelia to us anyway so
she's not totally present in the play. We only see parts of her as needs to be made to suit a scene.

So you're saying that Ophelia was in "Hamlet" merely to add background colour, Indy?

No. Not background but she's kind of more of an accessory as far as character
development goes. Well at least for me. I felt that WS wouldn't let me get to
understand her (and don't give me the 'nature of women' cr*p) very well.

she's really only there as a catalyst for Hamlet. There isn't a really developed character to discuss, although she has a very important role. personally i think modern commentators have given far too much attention to her.

very popular with the Victorian romantic painters, esp the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. My first wife was a big Ophelia fan and q bizarrely used to try to make herself look like her.

Beeing from Denmark, and often seeing the butifull situated castle at Elsinore, it's fun for me to see this kind of discussion here...

BTW, the castles website in english is http://www.kronborgcastle.com/' Target=_Blank>http://www.kronborgcastle.com/

Best Regards
Christian "Bargib" Koerner
The Lancers Reactor

Well if you would like to join us in debating the merits of "Hamlet" Bargib, we'll be happy to have you .

cheers Gib. it's a place I've wanted to visit for a long time, but on the rare Tawakalnic state visits to Denmarkland, I never get outside of wonderful wonderful Copenhagen - apart from Legoland. I think Mrs Taw would appreciate it though, she'd a big WS fan (more taste for Ibsen meself) so on your recommendation I think a brief excursion across the NordSee is in the offing.

"Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are (still) Dead"

Oh well, they asked about the last scene, where Hamlet and Laertes fight.
Or we could do an essay question, it was something about Hamlet being more about questions than answers

haven't we done most of your exam for you already?

actually you've done none, I honestly didnt use anything I got here. What did I get here btw?
I really enjoyed the LOTF essay question though, it was about the last paragraphs about the book and what it symbolizes and the best of all, the w/e I got a pice explaining that very question