Topic V: Religion: Jews vs. Christians

i. What was the dominant religion in England and Venice in the 15th and 16th century?

Roman Catholicism was the dominant religion in England and Venice in the 15th and 16th century?
ii. Why was there such animosity between Jews and Christians?

There are various causes for such animosity between Jews and Christians. Some early Gentiles converted to Christianity. Since they were not well acquainted with the Jewish community during the time of Jesus, they wrongly interpreted the texts in the New Testament as condemnations of the Jews rather than very common internal quarrels.

Another factor for this sour relationship was the competition for converts towards the end of the first century although Jews and Christians continued to interact. Some of such evidence is how some Christians joined in Sabbath worship, and even went beyond that in some areas. Such conflicts had a negative impact on writers who wrote certain parts of the New Testament, especially the writer of John. The book John associated the Jews with darkness and the devil. This is believed to have laid the foundations for stereotypes of Jews as agents of the devil, leading to Christians having conflicts with Jews.

From the second century onwards, many Fathers of churches began to depict Jews as “rejected people” who deserve to live a life of marginality and misery. They claimed that Jews were supposed to wander this world as “despised people”. This image persisted during preaching, art and popular teaching for the following centuries. This led to civil and political discrimination against the Jews and even physical attacks on Jews which resulted in death in certain countries. Although some Popes, bishops and Christian princes stood up for the Jews, they were only the minority. It was only until the mid-twentieth century did the Catholic Church and various Protestant denominations decided to remove anti-Judaic theology and start to construct Christian-Jewish interaction.

iii. In what ways did Christians discriminate against Jews in 15th and 16th century Europe?

There were many acts of discrimination against the Jews. One of the most commonly spotted act was the accusation of deicide, which the killing of God. They were held responsible for killing Jesus and this made Christians fall to anti-Semitism. Such an accusation lasted for a long time until it was finally repudiated in 1964.

The Jews were also restricted to certain occupations, which were tax collecting and money lending. Catholic beliefs of the era stated that lending money for interest was a sin, and thus was given for the Jews to do, in order to keep Christians out of this business. Jews dominated the money lending business, practicing usury and charging high interests. This made the Jews’ image become even worse, which was that they were greedy and insolent, and also worsened stereotypes of the Jews. There were always tensions between creditors, usually Jews, and debtors, usually Christians, resulting in worse relationships between Jews and Christians.

Moreover, the Jews were subject to a wide range of legal disabilities and restrictions. Other than being banned from many trades, the Jews were also made to live in concentrated ghettoes and were not allowed to own their own land. In addition, Jews were made to wear a yellow badge and many other different clothing which varied from place to place to signal that they were Jews. Furthermore, Jews were expelled from England, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and some other countries.

Martin Luther, who inspired the Reformation, painted the Jews in a bad light in his book On the Jews and their lies, which describes the Jews in extremely harsh terms. Such descriptions can go as far as “we are at fault in not slaying them”, with “them” referring to the Jews. Since he was anti-Semitic and he had a great influence at that time, many people continued their anti-Semitic ways.

References:
http://www.ushmm.org/research/center/church/persecution/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_in_Europe_(Middle_Ages)/

More questions to consider:
a. What were the religious prejudices held by people in Shakespeare’s times?

As mentioned, the Jews were seen as inferior to Christians during the Shakespeare’s times. The acts of discrimination the Christians did against the Jews were already mentioned above, and I would not repeat them again.

b. How are Antonio and Shylock stereotypical of Christians and Jews of those times respectively?

Antonio is stereotypical of Christians of those times because he displayed very extreme anti-Semitic views in how he treated Shylock. He spat on Shylock, kicked Shylock and called Shylock names in public. Such acts are not very unusual as the Jews were indeed discriminated against in the Elizabethan era. Therefore, Antonio can be seen as a stereotype since most, if not all, Christians would be doing similar acts. In addition, Antonio is a stereotype since he is portrayed to be the typical Venetian merchant who is just waiting for his ships to return. As seen, Antonio does share very similar characteristics of a typical Christian merchant of Shakespeare’s time.

Shylock is also a very typical example of a Jew. He is a moneylender in Venice, which is one of the two occupations the Jews are limited to, the other being tax-collecting. In addition, Shylock is just like any Jew as he is discriminated against by the Christian characters. Another characteristic is that he is very calculative, as seen by how even his revenge has to be quantified by a pound of flesh from Antonio. Also, he ran on the streets grieving on his loss of his ducats, showing his love for money. Moreover, Shylock is the antagonist of the play, depicting how they were seen to be villains in real life. Therefore, he is indeed stereotypical of Jews in the Elizabethan era.

c. Are there ways in which Antonio and Shylock are atypical of Christian and Jewish stereotypes of those times? If yes, discuss them.

Antonio does not seem very different from the stereotypes of Christian merchants.

However, Shylock is not entirely a Jewish stereotype. In The Merchant of Venice, a more human side of him is shown as well. His hatred for Antonio is all justified by how Antonio treated him in the past, and thus wants revenge by getting the pound of flesh from Antonio. This is unlike Barabas in The Jew of Malta by Shakespeare’s counterpart Christopher Marlowe. Barabas is painted as a totally villainous and malevolent character, totally devoid of feelings. However, Shylock does show feeling when his hatred for Antonio is shown, and his grief when Jessica left him and even sold Leah’s ring.

d. Do you think that Shakespeare racist?

I feel that Shakespeare was not racist. In my opinion, he painted Shylock to be the villain as that was the societal norm at that time. If he made Shylock the protagonist, this may make the public displeased with his play and stop supporting him.

In addition, he made Shylock lose everything after he lost at the court scene not because of racism, but rather for comedic effect. Since The Merchant of Venice was meant to be a comedy, the audience had to laugh, and one good way was to make the villain land into a terrible state.

Moreover, if Shakespeare was really racist, he would not have brought out the human side of Shylock, that all his hatred for Antonio was justified by how Antonio treated him in the past.

Some may bring up the examples of how Portia despised her suitors. However, again I believe that was purely for comedic effect and for the audience to have a good laugh, and not that Shakespeare really was racist.