The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 12.0755  Wednesday, 4 April 2001

[1]     From:   Carol Barton <
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        Date:   Friday, 30 Mar 2001 15:30:33 -0500
        Subj:   SHK 12.0748 Re: Tragic Hero

[2]     From:   Clifford Stetner <
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        Date:   Friday, 30 Mar 2001 20:29:39 -0500
        Subj:   Re: SHK 12.0748 Re: Tragic Hero

[3]     From:   Ros King <
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        Date:   Sunday, 1 Apr 2001 15:54:28 EDT
        Subj:   Re: SHK 12.0748 Re: Tragic Hero


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Carol Barton <
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Date:           Friday, 30 Mar 2001 15:30:33 -0500
Subject: Re: Tragic Hero
Comment:        SHK 12.0748 Re: Tragic Hero

Don Bloom writes:

> My concern is with the danger of misunderstanding the play. Shakespeare
> clearly intended Shylock to be a villain -- greedy, malicious, and
> vengeful. In his time, nobody expected Jews to be anything else, so that
> they deserved any punishments they received. To the author, what Lorenzo
> does is part of the general comic mood of the play -- the lovers are
> united against the wicked father's wishes, and the vicious miser gets
> his comeuppance -- and is parallel to the main plot action which has the
> same results worked out with more complexity.

With all due respect, my concern is with the naivet