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This scum Shylock is driving Cruella insane! IT MUST BE REWRITTEN OR ADDED TO!! So sayeth the great Lord of Darkness Sauron, or he will send Darth Vader to terminate you. Help improve this article by rewriting, expanding, updating the poorly written text of the article.
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| “ | 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 diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer that 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? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that! If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. And if a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be, by Christian example? Why, revenge! The villainy you teach me, I will execute, and it will go hard but I will better the instruction! | „ |
| ~ Shylock's famous speech - his most famous quote, as well as one of the most famous play quotes of all time. |
Shylock is the main antagonist of William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.
He has been portrayed by several actors on stage and screen, but arguably the two most well-known are Laurence Olivier (who also portrayed Christian Szell in Marathon Man, Heathcliff in the 1939 adaptation of Wuthering Heights, Dr. Totenkopf in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, and another Shakespeare villain, King Richard III, in the 1955 adaptation of Richard III) in the 1973 film adaptation of the play, and Al Pacino (who also portrayed Michael Corleone in The Godfather films, Tony Montana in Scarface, Big Boy in Dick Tracy, Lefty in Donnie Brasco, John Milton in The Devil's Advocate, David Fisk in Righteous Kill, Willy Bank in Ocean's Thirteen, Jimmy Hoffa in The Irishman, Roy Cohn in Angels in America, Wilhelm Zuchs in Hunters, Walter Burke in The Recruit, and another Shakespeare villain, King Richard III, in Looking for Richard) in the 2004 film adaptation.
Biography[]
Shylock is a rich Jewish money lender, who hates Antonio, the main character of the play. Due to Shylock being a Jew and Antonio a Christian, Antonio has shown his hatred for Shylock in the past by spitting on him and treating him horribly due to him being a Jew, as Jews were hated by Christians at the time. Bassanio, Antonio's closest friend, wishes for Shylock to pay Antonio money and despite having a severe hatred for Antonio, Shylock agrees. However, should Antonio fail to pay him back, Shylock will extract a pound of flesh from Antonio's body, which will kill him.
Shylock ends up getting more aggressive which leads to him losing his daughter (then wanting her dead) and unmerciful and obsessed with revenge. But he's defeated when Portia, the woman whom Bassanio in in love with, dresses herself up as a lawyer and brings up that Shylock is forbidden to spill the blood of a Christian. Therefore Shylock is now accused of planning to cause harm to a Christian. He is forgiven on the condition that he converts to Christianity. Forced to accept, Shylock leaves the court, a broken man.