On Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:08:56 +0100, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:

>
>Spakespeare seems to have deliberately written Shylock so it's ambiguous 
>exactly who he is. [Presumably this is why the bigwigs love Shakespeare 
>so much...]

Yes, it is open to interpretation and that is how literary types spend
their time :)
He is not (IMO) just a pantomime villain but a man driven to
distraction by the prejudice against his religion. (Jews gave Jesus up
for crucifixion, all of them are to blame) And later with his daughter
eloping with a gentile.

Now the Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe, was written about the
same time and does not suffer from the same claims of anti-Semitism.
Maybe because it is less well known or maybe because Barabas is just
an evil man who is also a Jew.
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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