Shylock is a Jewish moneylender who, depending on one’s perspective, is either the villain or the tragic hero of the play. Having long suffered as a second-class citizen in deeply anti-Semitic 16th-century Venice, Shylock lashes out at his chief tormentor, Antonio, by demanding that the merchant put up a pound of his flesh for collateral on a loan. Few of the characters believe Shylock will really go through with collecting the flesh, yet when Antonio cannot pay, Shylock vows to uphold the terms of the deal.

To Christian outsiders, Shylock’s intransigence is at best confounding and at worst evidence of his innate evil. From Shylock’s perspective, however, his insistence that Antonio follow the terms of the deal is both an act of revenge and an assertion of his personhood. Under law, he is entitled to Antonio’s flesh, and thus he serves as an imperfect plaintiff in a court ruling that will test whether Jews like himself enjoy the same contract protections as Christians.

In the court proceeding Shylock is presented with a choice: mercy or justice. While his ultimate rejection of mercy is framed as a rebuke to Christian ideals, it is overly simplistic to frame this decision as a reflection of a “Jewish wrath versus Christian mercy”

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