The Merchant of Venice - The Protagonist

8:32 AM Unknown 0 Comments

Who was the real protagonist of The Merchant of Venice? Was it Antonio or Shylock? Some may say that Shylock is the antagonist because Antonio’s the protagonist. But who is the real merchant of Venice? Throughout the movie, the parts that really stick out to me was the hardships and struggles that Shylock had to go through because he was disliked and a Jew. Also, from my observation, Shylock’s character was more interesting than Antonio’s character just because he had to go through more hardships and he felt more emotions. Perhaps pain just makes a character more interesting. 

Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, 2004

In the story, Shylock is a merchant and he is a Jew, so he charged interest. Bassanio borrows money from him through Antonio’s credit and they created a bond, which stated 3000 ducats from three months, and if he couldn’t pay it off, he’d have to give a pound of flesh from the part of his body that’s near Antonio’s heart. As the story progresses, a bunch of unfortunate events happen to Shylock. For example, his daughter Jessica takes away ALL of his money leaving him with basically nothing. Antonio’s ships get lost at sea, meaning he is unable to pay him back the ducats, which leaves him with no money once again. In the end, when he is accused of attempted murder, he has to give away more of his money…which probably leaves him with nothing at this point compared to the amount he had before.

So in my opinion, I think that Shylock would be suited as the protagonist, even though he may be viewed and portrayed as the villain in the story. I think that his hardships and the amount of money that he loses contributes to how strong his character is.

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