Shylock Speech: Rhetorical Analysis
- Melchior Antoine
- Jan 22
- 9 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
The Merchant of Venice is one of the more morally ambiguous comedies of Shakespeare, and the famous Shylock monologue in Act 3, Scene 1 further emphasizes that aspect of the play. The play is a comedy, and by comedy, we mean the fact that it ends happily for the main characters, namely, Bassanio and Antonio. To put it frankly, Shylock is treated mostly as an antisemitic trope , and by the play's end, we are confused. Shylock has clearly been mistreated, but the play ends with him the loser and those who mistreat him the winners.
From the point of view of Shylock, the play is a tragedy. Shylock is portrayed mostly as a greedy and stereotypical Jewish moneylender, who traps the noble and generous Christian Antonio into a deal where he has to give up a pound of his flesh after Antonio defaults on a loan, where the pound of his “fair flesh” is the collateral.
Despite Shylock being portrayed as the evil antagonist to a noble Christian who rejects usury and who borrows money unselfishly on behalf of his friend Antonio, there are several speeches by Shylock that betray him as much more complex than a racist stereotype. We learn that he has suffered abuse, mockery, and humiliation by Antonio simply because he is Jewish and lends out money at interest. His plight reminds us of Othello, another non-White Venetian, who was the victim of prejudice.
His speech has famous lines such as “hath not a Jew eyes” and is a powerful assertion of his humanity in the face of this abuse, and serves as his justification to get back at Antonio. In his mind, he is treating Antonio in the same way that any Christian would treat a Jew if that Jew has wronged him, as Antonio has.
The speech relies heavily on rhetorical devices such as erotema and hypophora. Furthermore, it also does a good job of using juxtaposition to contrast Christian values of fairness and justice with their ill treatment of him and Jews in general. In this article, we look at why the speech was effective and how it makes the play by Shakespeare morally ambiguous and even problematic.
Full speech (Act 3, Scene 1) and its context
The speech by Shylock is written in prose as opposed to the iambic pentameter that is characteristic of Shakespearean plays. It is spoken in response to one of the characters, called Salarino, asking Shylock if he really means to take Antonio’s flesh if he forfeits: “Why, I am sure if he forfeit, thou wilt not take his flesh! What’s that good for?”(Act 3, Scene 1). Shylock answers as follows:
To bait fish withal. If it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies, and what’s his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.
The speech relies heavily on repetition, parallel structure, erotema, and hypophora. It does a good job of revealing Shylock’s motivations, and more than that, it goes a long way in lifting Shylock above the antisemitic trope, which he mostly fulfils in the play.
The speech is impassioned and emotional, and this is emphasized by the frequent simple repetition and the use of asyndeton (that is, leaving out conjunctions). Now, we’ll take a look at the various devices used in the play.
The background of Shylock’s speech
Let’s go over the plot of the play briefly to understand the context of Shylock’s speech. Bassanio is a young man of Venice who comes up with the reckless idea of wooing the wealthy heiress Portia to “come up” economically and socially and to pay off his substantial debts. In the process, he borrows money from the wealthy Jewish moneylender Shylock.
Shylock only agrees to lend him the money interest-free only after his best friend, Antonio, a wealthy Venetian merchant, decides to put up a pound of his flesh as collateral in case the debt is forfeit. This needs to be explained. There is a kind of deadly and paradoxical rivalry mixed with mischief between Shylock and Antonio. They are both wealthy merchants of Venice. However, Antonio, who is a Christian, despises Shylock — a Jew — for his practice of charging interest for the money that he lends out.
The two agree to the deal in a kind of deadly jest or, as Shylock says, “in a merry sport” (Act 1, Scene 3). Shylock sees it as a chance to get payback for a rival who mocks him and the way he does business, whereas Antonio does it to demonstrate his absolute confidence in his business prowess and wealth, which, in his mind, makes him untouchable by Shylock.
But things go wrong for Antonio when there is news that his merchant ships have been wrecked and the trade that he was counting on is lost. In short, he can’t pay back Shylock. The famous speech by Shylock occurs in Act 3, Scene 1, after a series of events. Shylock discovers that his daughter, Jessica, has eloped with Lorenzo, a Christian, who is also a friend of Antonio and Bassanio. She has left and taken away with her huge sums of money, which Shylock learns that she is spending frivolously. Shylock in the midst of this crisis, learns that Antonio has lost his ships in a storm at sea and is excited at the opportunity to get back at Antonio.
Rhetorical devices used by Shylock
Shylock makes heavy use of traditional rhetorical devices in his speech. In particular, he uses erotema or rhetorical questions, as well as asyndeton (i.e., leaving out conjunctions). The entire speech is framed in a kind of juxtaposition that seeks to expose the hypocrisy of Venetian Christians who are unwilling to apply ideas of fairness, justice, and reciprocity that they practice with each other to Jews like Shylock.
Shylock is appealing for fairness and balance, and rhetorical devices like the isocolon he frequently uses effectively get that across. The table below gives a summary with examples of the rhetorical devices used in the speech:
Rhetorical Device | Definition | Example |
Repetition at the start | Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? | |
Repetition at the end | If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. | |
Repetition at the beginning and end, with a small change in the middle | If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? | |
Words, phrases, or sentences arranged in parallel structure | If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? I | |
Leaving out conjunctions | Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? | |
Rhetorical questions | Most of the speech by Shylock is erotema. For example: “If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?” | |
Asking questions and answering them | He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies, and what’s his reason? I am a Jew. |
Shylock also makes use of metaphorical language, especially in the beginning of the speech. There, he claims that Antonio’s flesh could serve either as bait for fish or feed his revenge. In short, he portrays his revenge as an animal that will devour Antonio’s flesh.
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Character analysis: What does Shylock’s speech say about him?
The scene where Shylock gives the speech is interesting to say the least. He makes a compelling argument that justifies his revenge. However, even as he does so, we see the Christian friends of Antonio making childish antisemitic jokes at his expense. For example, Solanio, upon seeing Shylock, says “the devil . . . comes in the likeness of a jew.”
We get a good idea of the ill treatment and racist abuse that Shylock suffers in Act 1, Scene 3, when he discusses loaning 3000 ducats to Bassanio in the name of Antonio. Here is the speech in full:
Signior Antonio, many a time and oft
In the Rialto you have rated me
About my moneys and my usances.
Still have I borne it with a patient shrug
(For suff’rance is the badge of all our tribe).
You call me misbeliever, cutthroat dog,
And spet upon my Jewish gaberdine,
And all for use of that which is mine own.
Well then, it now appears you need my help.
Go to, then. You come to me and you say
“Shylock, we would have moneys”—you say so,
You, that did void your rheum upon my beard,
And foot me as you spurn a stranger cur
Over your threshold. Moneys is your suit.
What should I say to you? Should I not say
“Hath a dog money? Is it possible
A cur can lend three thousand ducats?” Or
Shall I bend low, and in a bondman’s key,
With bated breath and whisp’ring humbleness,
Say this: “Fair sir, you spet on me on Wednesday last;
You spurned me such a day; another time
You called me ‘dog’; and for these courtesies
I’ll lend you thus much moneys”? (Act 3, Scene 1)
This is a telling speech. We learn that Antonio is abusive to Shylock to the point that he even spits (spelt as "spet" in the play) on Shylock’s coat and beard, calls him a dog (or cur), and even kicks (or spurns) him. Shylock is fully justified in asking his mocking question:
What should I say to you? Should I not say
“Hath a dog money? Is it possible
A cur can lend three thousand ducats?
Antonio’s reaction to this is even more telling. He denies none of it, and he even boasts angrily that he is likely to continue abusing Shylock:
I am as like to call thee so again,
To spet on thee again, to spurn thee, too. (Act 1, Scene 3)
Antonio has such deep prejudice and lack of respect for Shylock that he doesn’t even deign to be polite while asking Shylock to borrow him money. Shylock remains calm in the face of it and uses it as an opportunity to gain leverage over his obvious enemy.
He agrees to lend the money with no interest to be paid back in three months, but Antonio has to agree to give up a pound of his “fair flesh” if he forfeits on the bond or doesn’t pay on time. Antonio, partly because of his arrogance, emotional temperament, and sense of superiority over a Jew, agrees to the deal. Shylock, in this scene, comes across as the better man in terms of how he keeps his composure. His claim that "suff’rance is the badge of all our tribe" is not simply a slogan but something that he sincerely believes and practices.
He remains courteous in the face of an enemy who spits insults into his face, literally and figuratively. The Jew recognizes the weaknesses of the Christian. Antonio is emotional and haughty by nature and has an irrational hatred that drives him to reason poorly and act disgracefully against the object of his hate. And Shylock takes full advantage of this by binding Antonio to a contract where Shylock has all the advantage. Antonio is a wealthy and successful merchant and can likely pay back the debt on time. However, fortunes in commerce can be fickle, and Shylock is now in a position to have Antonio at his mercy in case his business ventures fail.
In this scene, Shylock proves himself to be composed, calculating, and shrewd. The same cannot be said in the “Hath not a jews eyes” scene. Here, Shylock is out of sorts and for good reason. His daughter Jessica has eloped with Lorenzo, the Christian friend of Antonio. She has also taken with her substantial sums of money and is spending it profligately.
In Act 1, Scene 3, Antonio is the one who is rude, angry, and lacking in composure. In this scene, Shylock, except for his noble speech, is reduced to an antisemitic stereotype, clamoring for human flesh and wishing his daughter dead, as he says: “I would my daughter were dead at my foot and the jewels in her ear.”
It’s hard to believe that a shrewd merchant or businessman, such as Shylock, had the original intention of choosing a pound of Antonio’s flesh over the more profitable leverage of negotiating with his friends to pay back the money owed. Instead, we can see the elopement of Jessica, his daughter, with a Christian as the last straw that drove him to irrationally pursue revenge at the expense of Antonio.
Cite this EminentEdit article |
Antoine, (2026, January 22). Shylock Speech: Rhetorical Analysis. EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/shylock-speech-rhetorical-analysis |
