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Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Mgr. Zuzana Biravská The Drama of the Jew in Arnold Wesker’s The Merchant Bachelor‟s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: prof. Mgr. Milada Franková, CSc., M.A. 2015 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author‟s signature Acknowledgement In the first place I would like to thank my supervisor prof. Milada Franková for her kind guidance, her valuable advice and immense motivation. I would also like to thank my family and my friends, who became a great part of this thesis thanks to the hours of the colorful conversations I could spend with them and thus find some conclusions and new points of view on the topic of minorities or about their perception of the character of Shakespeare‟s Shylock. Last but not least I would like to express my gratitude for the opportunity I got to be able to spend a semester in England as an Erasmus student at the University of Bristol and therefore I could use their library and get a new life experience, which formed my opinion about stereotypes. Table of Contents Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 1 1. The Merchant: Wesker‟s Shylock ............................................................................................... 3 1.1. Impulse to Writing The Merchant ..................................................................................... 3 1.2. About .................................................................................................................................. 3 1.3. Shylock‟s Character ........................................................................................................... 7 1.4. Cultural – Social Background ........................................................................................ 11 2. The Merchant (of Venice?): Two Plays about Shylock ............................................................ 18 2.1. The Main Differences .................................................................................................... 18 2.2. Anti-Semitism in The Merchant of Venice ....................................................................... 19 2.3. Stereotyping ..................................................................................................................... 22 3. Shylock, the Jew: Other Examples of Shylock .................................................................... 27 3.1. Shylock by Mark Leiren-Young ...................................................................................... 27 3.2. Yasser by Abdelkader Benali .......................................................................................... 28 3.3. Other references to MV ................................................................................................ 30 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 32 Works Cited and Consulted ........................................................................................................... 35 Summary ........................................................................................................................................... 40 Résumé .............................................................................................................................................. 41 Introduction “The smallest minority on earth is the individual.” Ayn Rand We all are being misunderstood. Every person is an individual. People share similarities but each human being consists of a unique combination of these similarities. Thus, it could be said that each person has experienced feelings of loneliness, rejection or incomprehension at some point in their lives; feelings by which minorities are afflicted the most. We all are being misunderstood, therefore, sometimes, we all are minorities. Arnold Wesker, who is an important British playwright living in Wales, writes also about what it means to be a Jewish minority. He grew up in a Jewish community in the East End of London, which became a crucial inspiration for his writing. The East End for Wesker felt like Shylock‟s Venetian ghetto in its mentality and that is why he always “felt very much in tune with Shylock” (Leeming 5). In 1983 Wesker introduces his response to The Merchant of Venice (MV), a play about Shakespeare‟s notorious Jew Shylock. The reason for feeling the necessity for responding to such a great man like Shakespeare with his own version about Shylock is the fact that after watching Jonathan Miller‟s production he was, “struck by the play‟s irredeemable anti-semitism. It was . the immediate impact I [Wesker] actually experienced. Here was a play which . could emerge as nothing other than a confirmation of the Jew as bloodsucker” (Wesker, The Merchant L). This made him come up with a sympathetic Shylock – someone whose motives for his behaviour would be clear and comprehensible. For the audience it might be crucial to identify with Shylock and to understand him. As mentioned at the very beginning we all are individuals and thus minorities in a way. 1 That is why Shylock‟s character as a minority character and his feelings might remind the audience of some particular moments of their lives and therefore should call for empathy. The aim of the thesis is to discuss the theme of minorities in Wesker‟s The Merchant as well as dealing with minority way of thinking and the degree of anti-Semitism in Shakespeare‟s MV and thus the necessity of Wesker‟s response by writing The Merchant. The thesis is divided into three main chapters. The very first part considers possible answers to questions such as why Wesker needed to write The Merchant and why it is important that Shylock‟s character would be sympathetic. How he succeeded in creating another Shylock and the literary means that Wesker uses to evoke sympathy for Shylock such as using historical facts and emphasizing cultural and social background in which Shylock lived are discussed as well. After getting acquainted with the core play of this thesis, The Merchant, the main differences between Wesker‟s version and Shakespeare‟s one are discussed. Moreover, another question is raised, namely whether Shakespeare‟s Shylock was really no sympathetic character. The answer might be found in the debate about the degree of anti- Semitism and stereotyping in MV, which follows. To take a case in point, other plays depicting the character of Shylock are introduced in the very last part of the thesis to sketch in the literary context of dealing with this topic. 2 1. The Merchant: Wesker‟s Shylock 1.1. Impulse to Writing The Merchant Wesker decided to create his own Shylock after watching Jonathan‟s Miller production of The Merchant of Venice, who in Wesker‟s words introduced a “confirmation of the Jew as the bloodsucker” (Wesker, The Merchant L). That is why Wesker “can‟t [keep quiet] . ., but [is] like Shylock . unforgiving, unforgiving of the play‟s contribution to the world‟s astigmatic view and murderous hatred of the Jew” (Wesker, The Merchant L). As another argument for starting to deal with this subject Wesker asserts that in Shylock he could not recognise a Jew he knew (Wesker, The Merchant L-Li). He is convinced it is necessary to create a play where a shift in Shylock‟s character would be presented and so the new Shylock would not be, like Shakespeare‟s Shylock, a villain not because of “his individual characteristic, as with Molière‟s Harpagon, but simply because he is a Jew” (Wesker, The Merchant xxi). In addition, Wesker realizes three aspects in particular which must be considered while writing about a Jewish character like Shylock. It is the fact of the existence of concentration camps, the state of Israel and last but not least still present prejudice against the Jews (Parlak 126). Wesker is convinced the play must have humanistic principles, “He wrote such a play [The Merchant] to show that the Jews are not as presented in The Merchant of Venice” (Parlak 129). 1.2. About For this reason Arnold Wesker‟s The Merchant could be described as a Jewish play, a historical drama as well as a modernization of Shakespeare (Lindemann 132). It is a Jewish play as in comparison to Shakespeare‟s original the play deals with the Jewish topic quite in detail; a historical drama as the audience gets acquainted with many historical facts due to the conversations among the Jewish characters but also through the encounter with 3 the Christians. And last but not least it definitely is a modernization of Shakespeare even though as discussed later in this chapter Arnold Wesker prefers the term „answer‟ to „adaptation‟ - the term popular with many critics. The main problem which the play deals with is the bond between two very good friends – the Jew Shylock and the Christian Antonio. Antonio asks Shylock to lend him money for his friend but as the Venetian law does not allow any money lending by Jews without a contract, Antonio insists on having one with Shylock – mainly to make sure Shylock will not have any problems with the law: ANTONIO: Shylock! The law says, in these very words, „It is forbidden to enter into dealings with a Jew without sign and sealing of a bond, which bond must name the sums borrowed, specify the collateral, name the day, the hour to be