Context: Anti-Semitism & Elizabethan Venice
Anti-Semitism in Shakespeare’s England
Shakespeare wrote The Merchant of Venice around 1596–98. Jews had been expelled from England by Edward I in 1290 and would not be officially readmitted until 1656. Most of Shakespeare’s audience had never met a Jewish person. Anti-Semitism was embedded in English culture: Jews were associated with usury (money-lending at interest), devilry, and the ritual murder of Christian children. The most famous literary Jew before Shylock was Christopher Marlowe’s Barabas in The Jew of Malta (c. 1589) — a cartoonish villain who poisons wells and murders nuns.
In 1594, two years before The Merchant, the Queen’s Jewish physician Roderigo Lopez was executed for allegedly plotting to poison Elizabeth I. The trial whipped up anti-Jewish sentiment. Shakespeare wrote his play in this atmosphere, but his treatment of Shylock is far more complex than Marlowe’s Barabas. Shylock is given the play’s most powerful speech (“Hath not a Jew eyes?”) and his grievances are shown to be real. Exploring how Shakespeare both uses and subverts anti-Semitic stereotypes is essential for a strong answer.
Jews were expelled from England in 1290 and not readmitted until 1656. Most Elizabethans had never met a Jewish person. Anti-Semitic stereotypes were fuelled by the Lopez trial (1594) and Marlowe’s Jew of Malta. Shakespeare both draws on and challenges these stereotypes: Shylock is not a cartoon villain but a complex figure whose suffering the audience is forced to acknowledge.
Venice: Commerce, Law & Outsiders
Shakespeare sets the play in Venice, a city-state renowned for its wealth, trade and strict legal system. Venice was one of the few European cities where Jews could live relatively openly, though they were confined to a segregated area called the Ghetto (the word comes from Venice). Shylock exists within this system: tolerated for his economic usefulness (Christians need his money) but despised for his religion. Antonio spits on him, calls him “dog” and “misbeliever,” yet borrows his money when he needs it. This hypocrisy is central to the play.
Belmont, Portia’s estate, provides a pastoral contrast to Venice’s mercantile harshness. Belmont is a world of music, moonlight and love — but it is also a world that excludes. Shylock is never seen in Belmont. The play’s dual setting creates a structural opposition between commerce and romance, law and love, outsiders and insiders.
The Merchant of Venice was first classified as a comedy, and it does end with marriages and the restoration of social harmony. But the trial scene’s cruelty — Shylock stripped of his wealth, his faith and his dignity — sits uneasily with the moonlit celebration of Act 5. Modern scholars often classify it as a problem play: a work that resists simple classification. An Elizabethan audience may have seen Shylock’s forced conversion as genuinely merciful (saving his soul). A modern audience almost certainly does not. Shakespeare’s own position is deliberately unclear, and this ambiguity is the play’s greatest analytical strength in the exam.
Shakespeare’s Sources
The play draws on two main sources: the “pound of flesh” story (found in medieval collections including Il Pecorone by Giovanni Fiorentino, 1558) and the “three caskets” story (from the Gesta Romanorum, a medieval Latin collection). Shakespeare combines these separate stories into a single plot, linking the bond to the courtship. He also significantly deepens Shylock: in the sources, the Jewish money-lender is a flat villain. Shakespeare gives him a family (Jessica), a history of persecution, and the devastating “Hath not a Jew eyes?” speech. These additions transform the play from a simple morality tale into a complex exploration of prejudice, justice and mercy.
Shakespeare deepened the flat villain of his sources by giving Shylock a daughter (Jessica), a history of persecution (Antonio’s abuse), and the “Hath not a Jew eyes?” speech. These additions force the audience to see Shylock as a human being, not just a stereotype — making the play’s treatment of him far more disturbing and morally complex.
The Shakespeare question tests AO1 (understanding and response), AO2 (analysis of language, form and structure) and AO4 (accurate, well-organised writing). Context is not a separate objective here, so it earns no marks on its own. You answer a question on a printed extract and a question on the whole play, worth 40 marks together. Context for The Merchant of Venice still matters: anti-Semitism, usury, the Lopez trial, Venice’s legal system, and the difference between Elizabethan and modern audience responses to Shylock. Use it inside your analysis — never as a separate paragraph.