Prejudice in the Merchant of Venice
...at the Shakespeare Festival or in any other way in front of an audience. I feel this way because while we were discussing the play in class and reading along with the class nightly, the class was able to understand the characters and reasons behind some of the things they did or said. But when you are watching and listening to students perform their plays in the auditorium, it is difficult to grasp what each character represents or what they are trying to get across to the audience. I felt this way while I was watching other classes perform and I’m sure other classes felt this way while we were performing our parts. If someone were to only hear the anti-Semitic statements, they would think it was a terrible thing and might take it as a negative thing. One very anti-Semitic quotation was spoken by Lancelet when he said, “Certainly the Jew is the very Devil incarnation” (II.II.25-26). That is one of many lines that would make viewers in the audience question the morality of the play, which is not what William Shakespeare had intended for when he first wrote this play and should not be the main focus of the play as a whole. Some people feel that the play could actually be helping Jews and forcing people to feel sympathetic and compassionate towards them. The most famous lines in the play, spoken by Shylock to Salerio and Solanio when he stated “I am a Jew. 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 dis...