Blogpost 15
Towards the beginning of Act 3, Shylock makes a long speech that has to do with him being a Jew and the difficulty of being a Jew during the time. There was a lot of anti-semitism going on and Jews were very looked down on by Christians. I think this was very risky and controversial thing for Shakespeare to put this in the play considering the audience mainly consisting of white Christians. It was a new perspective on Jews that people had never really thought of. During Shylock's speech he really gave a true insight of what it would be like to be a Jew. I think this, while being extremely controversial within the audience, could have potentially really opened their eyes and let them think about it a bit more. In my opinion, this speech is a very important part of the play and also put Shylock's character in a much more deep and profound state.
The speech certainly humanizes Shylock in an unexpected way for the time. I wonder why Shakespeare would have included it. What do you think?
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