Shylocks or Saints?

Was he a villain or a victim?

While a variety of interpretations focus on Shakespeare’s infamous Shylock character in the play, “The Merchant of Venice,” there can be no doubt that the mythical, greedy Jewish moneylender became a classic symbol for damaging depictions of Jews to this very day. Despite the sympathetic interpretations of some commentators, the malicious image of a greedy loan shark extracting his “pound of flesh” became a virulent and regular resource for antisemites over the ages.