The Merchant of Venice

             ?I hate him for he is a Christian?.
             Shylock as agreed to lend a sum of money to Antonio. As part of the agreement, Shylock insists that if his money is not returned within a designated period of time, with the added interest, he be entitled to cut exactly one pound of flesh from Antonio's body.
             When the abuse of the Jew as usurer is combined with the Christian religious bias that marked Elizabethan England; the result is a natural demonization of the Jew. This demonization leads to the degradation of Shylock and portrays the image of a wanton murderer. In Elizabethan times, this corruption of the Jewish religion was of course perfectly acceptable. Jews were often subjected to public humiliation-.
             ?Laughed at my losses'mocked at my gains?.
             To live a fairly peaceful life, many Jews hid behind the pretend veil of Christianity, often practising this foreign religion in public to convince other people.
             It is this bond between Shylock and Antonio that results in the court scene in Act 4 Scene 1, the dramatic climax of the play. Although it is not the final scene, it is the finale of theThe Merchant of Venice? where all the perplexing sub-plots and main storyline are pulled together to create an explosive ending.
             One of the reasons Act 4 Scene 1 is so dramatically effective is due to the tension created between Shylock and Antonio. At the very beginning of the scene, a slight sense of injustice is induced due to the fact that Antonio is seated and Shylock is standing before the Duke. In a Venetian court of justice, the accused is standing with the accuser seated, not the reverse. This gives the impression that Shylock is the one on trial when in fact it is Antonio, who is resigned to his seemingly inevitable fate-.
             ?To suffer with a quietness of spirit?.
             Strong emotive language is used to emphasise this point-?Poor merchants flesh? to remind the jury that Antonio has suffered enough.
             As well as the stress caused from the trial, Antonio's greatest source of wealth, his argosies, sank earlier on in the plot, causing him a great deal of anxiety and losing him a substantial amount of money.