What It Means to Be Human in The Merchant of Venice

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The fact that people have had to fight for their right to be recognized as human beings is pretty gross, and the fact that people still have to is even more so. It takes a special type of mind to look at someone nearly identical and think "Yeah, that's a sub-human" based on skin color, religion, etc. The mental gymnastics involved in circumventing the obvious fact that we're all the same is kind of impressive, but mostly it's just exhausting. And I think "exhausting" is a good way to describe one of the central conflicts in The Merchant of Venice.

 Act 2, Scene 1, which we're adapting for the Qualities of Mercy project, really gets to the heart of the matter. Shylock has probably my few favorite lines in the play: "Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions--fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh... " (492). Just based on personality and some of his actions, Shylock isn't the most likable character. But you really feel for him in this moment, as Shylock's frustrations boil over and he delivers this speech to Solanio and Solerio.

The fact that Shylock has to do this at all is saddening. He's making a point, here, and a very good one at that. Nothing sets him apart from the other characters in the play aside from his religion. He laughs as they do, he bleeds as they do, yet they treat him like the Devil himself. And things never really get better for Shylock, as he loses his cherished revenge and basically everything else that he held dear.

The persecution of Jews in the play is ridiculous, but it's not exactly a foreign concept. Sadly, things like this still happen today, which really sucks considering the gap between Shakespeare's time and ours. I'd like to think society has improved in a lot of ways, but we clearly have a long way to go.

Shakespeare, William, et al. The Norton Shakespeare: Comedies. W.W. Norton & Company, 2016.

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