A World Shattered, A Man Betrayed

“My daughter!  O, my ducats!  O, my daughter!”  This rings loudly from a man who has been destroyed inside.  Shylock is a Jew, a man who is wronged in a most heinous manner including by the one whom he trusted most, his daughter.  The emotional distress he incurs within 2.8 of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice leads us to view a man who is so distressed over the apparent turn of his daughter and loss of money that he runs to the streets while searching for justice, ranting and raving like a lunatic.  While many people have taken their own spins upon the subject of Shylock, a complete look shows us that Shakespeare had an excellent grasp both on human nature and the affect of emotion that runs deeply into the lives of the affected.

From the very beginning of scene 2.8, the reader is able to notice something that should not be overlooked.  Rather than see the reaction of Shylock to his robbery and run-away daughter, the reader instead sees this emotionally trying event through the eyes of Salanio and Salarino.  We do not see Shylock’s turmoil through his own eyes, or even with him onstage.  Shakespeare takes a different twist on this scene, and we see the actions of the “other” through the eyes of the Christian majority:  “The villain Jew with outcries raised the Duke,” (2.8.4).  This is simply the start of a religiously stereotyped view of the actions of Shylock.  Solanio sees him as a “villain Jew” and describes that his “outcries” raised the Duke.  From this beginning look, we can tell that Shylock is in an altered state of mind. 

            Solanio continues on describing the state of mind of Shylock upon realizing that his daughter had already eluded him:  “I never heard a passion so confused, / So strange, outrageous, and so variable,” (2.8.12-3).  Shylock is crying out, according to Solanio, in such a manner as to disturb not only his, but the entire universe.  His “passion so confused” shows Shylock’s rapidly changing and sinking world.  He speaks in an “outrageous” and “variable” fashion that leads to the confusion once more.  Shylock is fitting the mold of one who has been so wronged that he is unable to take intelligent action to right the wrongs that have incurred.  Instead, he is powerless and lost within his own rambling outcries.

            Shakespeare continues to setup the religiously biased opinion of the people from the mouth of Solanio:  “As the dog Jew did utter in the streets,” (2.8.14).  The “dog Jew”, according to Solanio, began to “utter” the words that Solanio will so carefully recite next:

                        Solanio:  ‘My daughter!  O, my ducats!  O, my daughter!

                                       Fled with a Christian!  O, my Christian ducats!

                                       Justice!  The law!  My ducats and my daughter!

                                       A sealed bag, two sealed bags of ducats,

                                       Of double ducats, stol’n from me by my daughter!

                                       And jewels, two stones, two rich and precious stones,

                                       Stol’n by my daughter!  Justice!  Find the girl!

                                       She hath the stones upon her and his ducats!’  (2.8.15-22)

From the beginning of this passage, we see the alliteration through the letter “d” in line 15.  The words “daughter”, “ducats”, and then “daughter” again display this repetition.  Shakespeare put this into the tainted representation of the “villain Jew’s” words as a sign of his despair and lack of ability to think through things well.  Solanio’s Shylock is ranting and raving as the end-stopped lines and exclamation points suggest.  The first three lines are filled with these things, as the exclamation points head into caesuras over and again.  Normally in Shakespeare’s writing, caesuras indicate a moment when the character speaking reflects on a situation and/or comes to realization; however, in this particular passage Shylock is not reflecting.  Instead, through the use of the exclamation points, we can see that he is instead enacting just the opposite effect.  He is raving and speaking without any real structure whatsoever.  We are able to see that Shylock is acting as one would assume when he encounters the feeling the moment he sees he does not know his own daughter.

            The repetition of the monetary words “ducats” and “stones” allow the reader to see that Shakespeare does not necessarily agree that these are Shylock’s exact words.  Instead, it shows us that the stereotype of a “money-grubbing Jew” is in fact intact here.  This does slightly diminish the likelihood that Shylock actually spoke some of this in his mad rage through the city-streets, but does not mask the feelings that we can infer Shylock is dealing with here.

            Through this speech, we are left to wonder Shakespeare’s intentions towards Shakespeare.  Does he want us to pity the man who has become an emotional wreck in the aftermath of this horrible turn of events, or should we instead laugh at him in his miserable state?  Shakespeare brings this question to the forefront when Salerio says:  “Why, all the boys in Venice follow him, / Crying, ‘His stones, his daughter, and his ducats!’ (2.8.23-4).  Shakespeare brings children into the equation that affects the sentiments of the audience.  As the boys mock him, Shakespeare specifically shows us that his children represent miniature versions of adults, and they, like their prejudice parents, take to mocking Shylock in his utmost moment of grief.

            While Shakespeare leaves the question unanswered, the painter Sir John Gilbert does not.  In his painting Shylock After the Trial, we can see that he has implemented the children in a very important way.  Rather than have Shylock in the center of the painting, we instead have the children in the center, chasing a distraught older man through the street.  Shylock has his arms in the air, showing that Shylock is attempting to escape being pulled by the miming children.  In the far right of the painting, we can see a boy who is directly mocking Shylock’s arms.  Also, it would appear that Gilbert was specifically playing on the gender of the children.  Rather than have the more aggressive, and generally misbehaved, boys being the followers, he has included girls as well.  From the painting it would definitely appear that Gilbert sees this scene as a time to pity the old Jew.  The people are against him, the children are against him, and even his own daughter whom he thought he knew well has turned against him.

            What about Shylock as a father?  Is the grief he experiences truly for his runaway daughter or for his lost ducats?  These questions come from an incident that occurred rather recently within our history, the brutal slayings at Jefferson County High School in Colorado.  Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were misunderstood, “filled with rage, sick of life and mocking their families and authority,” (Seibert 1).  To quote Creed:  “What If?” (Tremonti). What if the rage and mock they felt is also inherit in Jessica?  Is that what caused her to flee from her father and abandon her upbringing.  Jessica was tired of being teased, tired of being tortured for her beliefs, and was ready to do something about it.  This is unfortunately how Klebold and Harris felt, and they struck out in a similar manner as well.  What Shakespeare shows us is a girl who has been ignored, insulted and finally takes action for what she wants.  In doing this, she completely destroys her father’s capacity for happiness. 

What if Shylock saw this coming and simply ignored the warning signs?  The Royal Shakespeare Company saw this and realized it onstage during a performance in February of 2000 in London.  USA TODAY reports:  Shylock, an isolated Jew in this panorama of Christian Venice, displays pathological protectiveness of his daughter, almost as though he envisions what’s ahead,” (Sterns 6).  Does Shakespeare actually give us the idea that Shylock knows what is coming?  A proper response is 'How would a man be so distraught, so devastated, if, in fact, he knew that the day would come when this action would occur?' While this is an interpretation of what could be, it is not what Shakespeare laid down in the actual text.  Shylock remains taken emotionally hostage until his daughter breaks the bonds between her and her father.

    Between the loss of a daughter, the loss of his money, and the constant torment endured, Shakespeare gives us Shylock.  As a man who is broken by the world, Shylock is someone who becomes an emotional time bomb simply waiting for a catalyst.  Upon realizing that even his daughter is against him, he displays several frailties – grief, anger, confusion, bitterness and rage – that lead to the crumbling of his universe as often moments of extreme emotional distress do.

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