Racism in ”The Merchant of Venice” by Shakespeare

In one of his plays, titled “The Merchant of Venice”, Shakespeare presents to us several views on a form of racism, namely anti-Semitism. The main “victim” is the character Shylock, a Jewish moneylender, who is mistreated by Antonio. Antonio openly hates Jews, and makes like hard for Shylock for no other reason than religion. It should be noted though that Shylock himself has also become a racist. This is proven when he makes a comment about Antonio saying “I hate him for he is a Christian.” Both of these men are prejudiced towards people of other religions. This is likely to apply nowadays too where “victims” of racism themselves begin to hate the other race. Therefore they cannot sincerely say that they are better people.

The theme of racism also appears in the character of Portia, the otherwise seemingly innocent and flawless lady. She judges one of her suitors by their skin color before she has even met him. She considers him to have “the complexion of the devil” and so he does not even have a chance with her (disregarding the caskets) because of something he was born with and cannot change (disregarding Michael Jackson). In reality, this suitor, who is the Prince of Morocco, is as far as the audience can tell from the play, not a bad man. He also seems not to care that Portia is white.

In today’s society we have learn tat prejudice is wrong, at least in the more civilized parts of the world. A person’s religion is now rarely referred to, and when it is, it makes no difference as to how that person is treated. While skin color is harder to ignore, most people will get used to, accept, and finally disregard the difference it makes when they learn that there’s more in the book than on the cover. A certain respect and interest has now replaced what used to be fear and mistrust of other races. Many wealthy people will try and enjoy food from several origins, the rap music of famous African-American’s has become very popular, and in a lot of schools children get a chance to learn about other religions. In many areas around the world race has become socially irrelevant.

Sadly there remain a lot of racists in the world. Some just have a few unkind thoughts, some let it influence how they interact with other people, and some will judge a person by their race. Some actually hate an entire race or several races in general and put their feelings to action, directly or indirectly abusing or neglecting what are usually minority groups. Often racism is connected to feelings of jealousy, especially when a non-indigenous race is economically better off, for example before the May 2000 coup in Fiji. In New Zealand for example, many people openly give Maoris stereotypes. This is very unfair, and says a few things about the person making the comments. What people must understand is that no person can change how or when or by whom they are born. Making things tough for an ethnic person is completely pointless.

The argument that the theme of racial discrimination or prejudice presented in the play is just as relevant today as is was in Shakespeare’s time is debatable. However my personal view is that most humans cannot honestly pronounce themselves innocent of racial discrimination. Therefore I consider the statement to be true.