William Shakespeare’s play, The Merchant of Venice has recently caused controversy in high schools because of the Jewish stereotypes depicted in the play through Shakespeare’s character, an outsider Jew named Shylock. Schools have elected not to read the play out of fear that it will encourage anti-Semitism amongst high school students. Rather than ignoring the stereotypes in the play by not reading it at all, the school system can address their students about the Jewish stereotypes depicted in The Merchant of Venice and discuss how the play written in the end of the 1500s has an effect on our present day culture.
From 1988 to 1995, Suffern High School in New York removed The Merchant of Venice from the English syllabus after a substitute teacher sent letters to three area rabbis and the school district superintendent (Wilson 44). The substitute argued that both the BBC version of the film and the play “convey the blatant anti-Semitism of the Elizabethan period. Shylock is portrayed as a stereotypical avaricious Jew, mugging the camera by gesticulating and cringing in turn, underlining his rage and later obsequiousness with a Yiddish accent” (Wilson 43). The substitute teacher went on to argue that “non-Jewish students fail to be repelled by the vilification to which Shylock is subject” (Wilson 43). Yes, there are Jewish stereotypes within the play but instead of censoring the play, teachers should be allowed to teach students about these stereotypes and look at the probable reasons why Shakespeare used them in The Merchant of Venice. By censoring the play, students aren’t educated about the stereotypes, they ignore them. They may read the play on their own and learn what the stereotypes are but they won’t know why the stereotypes came about.
Shakespeare wrote The Merchant of Venice in 1596 and finished in 1597, which is during the Elizabethan period. The Elizabethans were by far, mostly Christian. The few Jewish people of the Elizabethan period in London were converted into the only true religion of it’s time, Christianity. It was a rarity that anyone would know a Jew (Lang 1). Furthermore, Shakespeare more than likely did not know any Jewish people. Because of this, Shakespeare only knew stereotypes of Jewish people, which usually happens when people don’t know much of anything about a particular subject. Shakespeare made the only Jewish character in the play, Shylock, a moneylender. Perhaps, Shakespeare took what little he knew about Jewish people and incorporated it into The Merchant ofVenice. The Torah, what Jewish people follow, says people have the right to lend money and rightfully charge interest. Using Shakespeare’s stereotypes and its connection with Judaism, educators can teach students why Shakespeare portrayed Shylock in this manner.
Besides the censorship at Suffern High School in New York, another teacher, Thomas McKendy, pushed for The Merchant of Venice not to be censored at their school. McKendy, did an exercise with his students. He had his students write down a list of things they knew about Gypsies. Predictably, the students knowledge of Gypsies included stereotypes such as, “hot-tempered and carefree; they have large families and travel form place to place in caravans, cheating the unwary and stealing their children; Gypsies wear loose-fitting clothes with lots of bracelets and earrings; they play the violin and read fortunes from crystal balls or cards; there is always a king” (McKendy 23). These stereotypes show that the students obviously don’t know any Gypsies and they wrote down the characteristics that our culture shows through movies, television shows, commercials and literature. When McKendy asked the students if they knew what language Gypsies speak, what religion they practice or what foods they eat, the students failed to answer (McKendy 25). If Shakespeare were to write down a list of what he knew about Jews, it would probably have characteristics that he himself have not see or have any basis for, but entirely from his knowledge of what he has heard or what the Elizabethan culture has shown him. McKendy goes on to say, “I ask my students to imagine themselves writing a story or a television script in which one of the characters is a Gypsy and the script included a fortune teller, I suspect that that character would more likely be a Gypsy than a German, an Australian, or a Japanese” (Mckendy 25). Having students imagine this or even discussing Gypsies with the students’ points out that Shakespeare viewed Jews just as they viewed Gypsies.
In The Merchant ofVenice, Shylock’s “Hath not a Jew eyes?” speech in Act III, scene i, is very important. Although Shakespeare wrote the character, Shylock as this stereotypical Jew villain, he also writes Shylock as a character that the audience can sympathize with and learn from. Shylock says in Act III, scene i, lines 58-66:
I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passion? – 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? If you poison us, do we not die?
This speech is of great significance because it can teach students who view an outsider or someone different from the majority that we are all the same. Through Shylock’s speech Shakespeare is saying that Shylock is a Jew, but more importantly he is human just like the Christians in the play, Salerio and Solanio. Looking back at the play in the present, students can learn that although someone appears to be different because of their beliefs or racial background, they too have feelings and can be easily hurt or angered just as anyone else can be. So although the play has anti-Semitic stereotypes, teachers can turn it around and discuss the effects it has on treating someone different. With the play being censored, students are further away from something that has really happened and adapted in literature, anti-Semitism, and explore the negative effects it has.
Censorship of literature isn’t helpful when the reader has the capacity to logically think things through. Censorship only hurts the learner. At the high school level, students are able to read a story and analyze what they read. They may need some insight from a teacher or someone informed on the literature, but they’re able to analyze a story. The Merchant of Venice shouldn’t be censored because of the anti-Semitic stereotypes Shakespeare incorporated in the play but read because of them.
Works Cited
On Shylock: a reassessment of Shakespeare’s tragic Jew. (Arts and Letters). (Critical Essay). Allen A. Lang. Midstream 49.2 (Feb-March 2003): p31(3). URL: http://find.galegroup.com.proxy.lib.csus.edu/itx/infomark.do?prodld=eaim&usergroupname;=csus_main&version;=1.0
Censorship, Anti-Semitism, and “The Merchant ofVenice“. Robert J. Wilson. The English Journal, Vol. 86, No. 2, Censorship. (Feb., 1997), pp. 43-45. URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici-0013-82742819970229863a23c433acaa22mo3e2.0.ca3b2-9
Gypsies, Jews, and “The Merchant ofVenice“ (in EJ Forum: Shakespeare Alive!). Thomas McKendy. The English Journal, Vol. 77, No. 7. (Nov., 1988), pp. 24-26. URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=001382742819881129773a73c243agja22mo3e2.0.co3b2-3
