Shylock and the Anti-Shylock: Showcasing Antisemitism in the Theatre Sarah E. McCulla UNC - Chapel Hill

Introduction/ Thesis Different appeals to Humanity Shylock and the Anti-Shylock My paper examines Gotthold Lessing’s Enlightenment In each work, both characters appeal Shylock and Nathan are both Jewish play Nathan the Wise (1779) and William Shakespeare’s to universal humanity in specific merchants, powerful in their communities. The Merchant of Venice (1596). Although Lessing scenes: Shylock’s monologue is an Shakespeare wrote his Jew from the eyes of an seeks to preach tolerance through his character appeal to humanity to show the anti-Semite in the Elizabethan Era. Shylock Nathan, casting him as the anti-Shylock, he commonality of man Nathan’s is a negative stereotype: usurus, bitter, ultimately subverts the tolerance he wants to parable echoes the sentiments of and intolerant in business and religion. preach, continuing elements of Shakespeare’s Shylock’s monologue, but in a Lessing wrote Nathan the Wise in the antisemitic precedent. different context,. referring to Production of Nathan the Wise in Durham, NC in 2011. Deep Dish Theatre Company, Chapel Hill, NC Enlightenment Era in proximity to Jewish ideals of the Enlightenment, unlike Pictured: Joseph Henderson, Jason Peck, and Lucas Campbell (photo by Jonathan Young) Shylock’s twisted desire and Emancipation in Europe. Nathan is the entitlement to exact revenge and opposite of the negative Jewish Daddy Issues help Define “Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a cause harm to a fellow man to honor stereotype and is tolerant of others and a Characterization Jew hands, organs, dimensions, a contract. Both men want their sage within his community, the opposite Both characters are widowers senses, affections, passions? fed fellow characters to see of Shylock. with a single daughter. with themselves as man before Shylock’s daughter, Jessica, the same food, hurt with the same Christian or Jewish. These leaves Shylock to convert weapons, subject to the same Conclusions connections show Lessing’s dialogue to Christianity and elope diseases, healed by the same The men’s with Shakespeare’s work. because she’s ashamed of means, warmed and cooled by the interactions with him and his Judaism. Recha same winter and summer, as a other characters, and Nathan have a near Christian is?” namely their opposite relationship; even as Merchant of Venice: Act III; daughters, and the it’s revealed that Recha is Scene I different atmospheres in Engraving, Martin Droeshout, neither Nathan’s daughter, printed 1622 Production of Portrait of Lessing by nor a Jew, she longs to stay The Merchant of Venice in Los which they Anna Rosina with him and remain his Lisiewska (1767/1768) Angeles at were written daughter. Theater Banshee in all serve to 2012, Photo: Daniel show Kaemon, from “What does ‘people’ mean? Are Christians and lft, Time Nathan as Winters, Brett Shylock’s Jews more Christians and Jews than human Maurycy Gottlieb Mack, Barry beings?” Nathan the Wise: Act II; Scene VI Lynch, literary Recha Welcoming Her Father Kirsten Kollender. opposite, Credit: Donald Agnelli. and shows Bibliography: Adelman, Janet. "Strangers Within Christianity." In Blood Relations, 1-37. Chicago, Illinois: U of Chicago, 2008. Goetschel, Willi. "Lessing and the Jews." A Companion to the Works of Gotthold Ephriham Lessing. Ed. Barbara Fischer and Thomas C. Fox. Rochester: Camden House, 2005. 200-04 the dialogue Gross, John. "Shakespeare's Shylock." In Shylock: Four Hundred Years in the Life of a Legend. London: Chatto & Windus, 1992. between the Luther, Martin. The Jews and Their Lies. Jewish Virtual Library, 1543. Mayer, Hans. "The Wise Nathan and the Bandit Spiegelberg: The Antimonies of Jewish Emancipation in Germany." In Outsiders: A Study in Life and Letters. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1982 two plays. Shakespeare, William, and Alan Durband. The Merchant of Venice: Modern Version Side-by-side with Full Original Text. Woodbury, New York: Barron's, 1985. Ernst von Possart as Shylock