Merchant of Venice Rough Draft

Bad deeds will always get bad karma in the end. If you do something bad, it will boomerang back to you double or even maybe triple the amount of damage that was originally dealt. The book “The Merchant of Venice” (by Shakespeare) is about the friendship and how far someone will go for it. It also shows what I think the moral of the story is, that bad deeds will always get bad karma in the end, which is portrayed by the character Shylock. He shows the moral at its finest, by doing bad and getting bad returned to him in the end and my opinion of him went from bad to worse as the story progressed.

Shylock character development changed through-out the story pretty horribly if I do say so myself, because since I thought he was kind of mean in the beginning, he ended up being a villain in the end and got what he deserved. In the beginning of the story, Shylock was first introduced having to lend three thousand ducats to Bassanio so that he could woo the princess and get her heart. “Shylock, albeit I neither lend or borrow/ By taking nor by giving of excess,/ Yet to supply the ripe wants of my friend/ I’ll break a custom” (Act 1, Scene 3, Lines 57-60). Shylock had charged interest for the, and since Antonio was also there as his guarantor, he didn’t like it and thought it was unrighteous (Antonio loans money without interest). I thought Antonio just didn’t like the fact that Bassanio, his best friend, had to borrow money from Shylock because he didn’t like him or something. “Go with me to a notary, seal me there/ Your single bond, and, in a merry sport,/ If you repay me not on such a day,/ In such a place, such sum or sums as are/ Expressed in the condition, let the forfeit/ Be nominated for an equal pound/ Of your fair flesh, to be cut off and taken/ In what part of your body pleaseth me.” (Act 1, Scene 3, Lines 141-148) Shylock said that if he didn’t get his money back within the time allotted, that he could cut a chunk of Antonio’s flesh wherever he pleases. Although I don’t find it wrong to lend money with interest, I don’t think you have the right to place a wager that hurts others for your own enjoyment. Shylock doesn’t like Antonio and grabs the chance to be immature and inflict damage on him in any way possible, which I find plain stupid and unreasonable.  

In the middle of the story Shylock gets even worse with his antics and makes me upset to an even higher degree. His character development changes once again as his servant Lancelot is introduced and shows his opinion about his master that he loves oh so much (inserts sarcasm). “’Fiend,’ say I, ‘you counsel well.’ To be ruled by my/ conscience, I should stay with the Jew my master, who, God/ bless the mark, is a kind of devil; and to run away from the/ Jew, I should be ruled by the fiend, who, saving your/ reverence, is the devil himself. Certainly the Jew is the very/ devil incarnation – and, in my conscience, my conscience is/ but a kind of hard conscience, to offer to counsel me to stay/ with the Jew. The fiend fives the more friendly counsel, I will/ run, fiend. My heels are at your command: I will run.” (Act 2, Scene 2, Lines 18-26). Shylock, being the fiend he is, makes even his servants want to run far away from him in hopes of never having to see his crude face again. Lancelot even has an inner debate with himself, whether or not he should run away and free himself or not and just stay the way he is now. “The old proverb is very well parted between my/ master Shylock and you, sir. You have the grace of God, sir,/ and he hath enough.” (Act two, Scene two, Lines 133-135). Lancelot expresses his great gratitude that Bassanio has taken him under his wing and he no longer has to work for Shylock. Lancelot doesn’t like Shylock and chooses to part ways with his old master in hopes of a happier life as Bassanio’s servant.

Towards the ending of the story Shylock goes from bad to worse as he loses pretty much everything he has, including his pride. “You knew, none so well none so well as you, of my/ daughter’s flight.” (Act 3, Scene 1, Lines 20-21). Shylock’s own daughter, his flesh and blood, detested him and ran away to get married and become a Christian. She really didn’t like her father and how corrupted he was, so she just left. “So please my lord the duke and all the court/ To quit the fine for one half of his goods,/ I am content; so he will let me have/ The other half in use, to render it/ Upon his death unto the gentlemen/ That lately stole his daughter;/ Two things provided more, that, for this favour,/ He presently become a Christian;/ The other, that he do record a gift,/ Here in the court, of all he dies possessed,/ Unto his son Lorenzo and his daughter.” (Act 4, Scene 1, Lines 376-386). Right at the moment that Shylock was either going to be killed or taken for everything he had, Antonio, being the saint he is, drops all the charges and fines in exchange for Shylock becoming a Christian and the blessing of his daughter to marry Lorenzo, whom she loves dearly. Shylock would have lost everything, but Antonio saved him, proving my point of how bad things deserve bad karma and how good things deserve good karma (for Antonio at least).

These main points show why I thought Shylock was the antagonist in the story and it also shows all of the bad karma he got from all of the bad deeds he did. He made a lousy bet from a loan that almost killed someone, lost his daughter, his religion and even the majority of his pride. HE was the one that chose this karma since he had done so much wrong and look what it did to him in the process. Not even his servant wanted to serve him anymore from his vile personality and wicked ways. The moral of this story was that bad deeds give bad karma and in this case it matched up with Shylock’s part of the story 100%.