Reply To: Shakespeare

I tend to agree with the many critics who contend that “sympathetic” readings of Shylock are a post-Holocaust invention. There is a bit or irony in contemporary audiences who only read Shylock sympathetically because reading him any other way, in light of the horrors of the Shoah, would reflect poorly on the reader. Defenders of Merchant usually offer two compelling arguments: Shakespeare’s somewhat sympathetic treatment of Shylock, and his mockery of the Christian characters. I just don’t buy either argument as credible, then or now.