taken into consideration:
Jewish law includes within it a blueprint for a just and ethical society, where no one takes from another or harms another or takes advantage of another, but everyone gives to one another and helps one another and protects one another … We are commanded not to leave a condition that may cause harm, to construct our homes in ways that will prevent people from being harmed, and to help a person whose life is in danger. These commandments regarding the preservation of life are so important in Judaism that they override all of the ritual observances that people think are the most important part of Judaism. 23
The difficulty for any actor playing Shylock today therefore resides in the portrayal of the character’s Jewishness:
A photograph in
The Observer
shows that Eric Porter’s Shylock [1965] was given bags under the eyes and a long hooked nose, while Emrys James [1971] depended for his repulsiveness less upon make-up than saliva. Described by one critic as “… barefoot, robed in old curtains, with a mouthful of spittle …,” James was “a medieval Jewish stereotype in a large, baggy kaftan, with grey ringlets spilling from beneath his skull cap.” The same reviewer went on:
This is a Jew straight out of the Penny Dreadful magazines, literally salivating at the thought of his pound of Christian flesh. 24
His individuality, his isolation from other Jewish characters in the play has also been emphasized to indicate that he is not the embodiment of a race but an individual aberration. In 1978 Patrick Stewart portrayed him as “a sour, loveless man, corroded by avarice, mutilated by money. Even his friend Tubal finds him faintly appalling.” 25
David Calder, in David Thacker’s 1993 modern dress production, had played Shylock as a fully assimilated Jew, indistinguishable from the Christians by his mode of dress. He wore a business suit right up to the crucial scene where he discovered Jessica’s elopement:
Wishing Jessica, “hearsed at my foot and the ducats in her coffin” [3.1.86], Shylock tore open his shirt to reveal the Star of David underneath (as Antonio’s open shirt in the trial scene revealed a crucifix). By the trial scene, Shylock had turned himself into the image of a religious Jew, with skullcap and gabardine and with the Star of David now worn outside his collarless shirt. His use of the symbols of religion was now demonstrably an abuse of religion and race, becoming a Jew only because it focused his traumatised existence. It was Shylock himself who now appeared the anti-Semite … When Shylock announced “I will have the heart of him if he forfeit” [3.1.122–3], he put his hand firmly on an open book, a prayer book I presume, on his desk and Tubal registered horror at this abuse of religion. 26
Some critics worried that overt Jewishness was being once again linked with villainy, but the majority of them believed that Shylock’s change of costume signaled not only the character’s anger at, but acceptance of, his alienation, his exclusion from a culture which had only been tolerating and patronizing him. Calder stated: “He believes that any attempt to alleviate racial intolerance is actually a mockery and what he must do is to become more Jewish and assert himself in that clear way.” 27
Part of the attraction of Shylock as a character is the fact that he is an “outsider.” Like Othello, the question of whether he is a Jew or has black skin is important to a modern audience only in as much as it exposes the society from which he is estranged:
Racism is as much part of our world as it was [Shakespeare’s]. The goal is not to sanitise or rehabilitate Shylock, but to see him as part of a society whose workings lead to cruel and outrageous acts. 28
In 1978 Patrick Stewart made a conscious decision to tone down Shylock’s Jewishness:
Apart from the yarmulke, the only other distinctive garment was a yellow sash, twisted round the waist and only just
Jewish law includes within it a blueprint for a just and ethical society, where no one takes from another or harms another or takes advantage of another, but everyone gives to one another and helps one another and protects one another … We are commanded not to leave a condition that may cause harm, to construct our homes in ways that will prevent people from being harmed, and to help a person whose life is in danger. These commandments regarding the preservation of life are so important in Judaism that they override all of the ritual observances that people think are the most important part of Judaism. 23
The difficulty for any actor playing Shylock today therefore resides in the portrayal of the character’s Jewishness:
A photograph in
The Observer
shows that Eric Porter’s Shylock [1965] was given bags under the eyes and a long hooked nose, while Emrys James [1971] depended for his repulsiveness less upon make-up than saliva. Described by one critic as “… barefoot, robed in old curtains, with a mouthful of spittle …,” James was “a medieval Jewish stereotype in a large, baggy kaftan, with grey ringlets spilling from beneath his skull cap.” The same reviewer went on:
This is a Jew straight out of the Penny Dreadful magazines, literally salivating at the thought of his pound of Christian flesh. 24
His individuality, his isolation from other Jewish characters in the play has also been emphasized to indicate that he is not the embodiment of a race but an individual aberration. In 1978 Patrick Stewart portrayed him as “a sour, loveless man, corroded by avarice, mutilated by money. Even his friend Tubal finds him faintly appalling.” 25
David Calder, in David Thacker’s 1993 modern dress production, had played Shylock as a fully assimilated Jew, indistinguishable from the Christians by his mode of dress. He wore a business suit right up to the crucial scene where he discovered Jessica’s elopement:
Wishing Jessica, “hearsed at my foot and the ducats in her coffin” [3.1.86], Shylock tore open his shirt to reveal the Star of David underneath (as Antonio’s open shirt in the trial scene revealed a crucifix). By the trial scene, Shylock had turned himself into the image of a religious Jew, with skullcap and gabardine and with the Star of David now worn outside his collarless shirt. His use of the symbols of religion was now demonstrably an abuse of religion and race, becoming a Jew only because it focused his traumatised existence. It was Shylock himself who now appeared the anti-Semite … When Shylock announced “I will have the heart of him if he forfeit” [3.1.122–3], he put his hand firmly on an open book, a prayer book I presume, on his desk and Tubal registered horror at this abuse of religion. 26
Some critics worried that overt Jewishness was being once again linked with villainy, but the majority of them believed that Shylock’s change of costume signaled not only the character’s anger at, but acceptance of, his alienation, his exclusion from a culture which had only been tolerating and patronizing him. Calder stated: “He believes that any attempt to alleviate racial intolerance is actually a mockery and what he must do is to become more Jewish and assert himself in that clear way.” 27
Part of the attraction of Shylock as a character is the fact that he is an “outsider.” Like Othello, the question of whether he is a Jew or has black skin is important to a modern audience only in as much as it exposes the society from which he is estranged:
Racism is as much part of our world as it was [Shakespeare’s]. The goal is not to sanitise or rehabilitate Shylock, but to see him as part of a society whose workings lead to cruel and outrageous acts. 28
In 1978 Patrick Stewart made a conscious decision to tone down Shylock’s Jewishness:
Apart from the yarmulke, the only other distinctive garment was a yellow sash, twisted round the waist and only just
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