Understanding Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice by Robert A. Albano - HTML preview

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commit harm and violence to Antonio. He is not the victim in this play, he is theperpetrator.

Antonio does not back down in his view of Shylock. He still thinks that Shylock deserves to be ill-treated because Shylock still continues to engage in a practice (money-lending) that Antonio finds to be both sleazy and evil. Antonio adds that money- lending has nothing to do with friendship and that a money-lender should rather loan money to his enemy anyway so that if the borrower does not pay back the loan on time, the lender will not have any feelings of sorrow or guilt. Rather, the lender will be happy to penalize the borrower and thus get more money in thebargain.

Shylock, though, is the consummate hypocrite. He tells Antonio and Bassanio that he wishes to be friends with them and that he does not wish to charge them any interest at all for the 3000 ducats. Shylock claims to be offering kindness (line 137). Of course, he really hopes to trick Antonio into losing something far more valuable than money. He hopes to trick Antonio into losing his life.