• say what you are going to be talking about
  • define anti-semitism
  • talk about examples of anti-semitism in Venice in 1596
  • talk about examples of anti semitism in the pla

 

in this essay I’m going write about how Shakespeare play the merchant of Venice is anti Semitic. Anti semitism is racism to the Jews. The term was first used in 1860. They are many examples of anti semitism in Venice at the time that the play was published. One such example is how the Jews were money lenders. Christians didn’t want the Jews to take their jobs so they gave them the jobs they couldn’t have which was money lending.  The chistand wasn’t  allowed be money loner because they thought it was sinful to lone money. Another example of anti semitism is that the Jews lived in the poor parts of the city.

Although we think of the play as racist, in Shakespear’s time it was considered funny to laugh at the Jews. This can be seen by the fact the play is classified as a comedy. An example of it in the play in where Shylock gets spat in the face by a Cristian and the audience is supposed to laugh. There anther example in the play wich I talk about in rest of essay.