How far is Shylock's Jewishness shown by Shakespeare to be responsible for his actions and attitudes
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... , this time to his face. They have no sympathy for Shylock's daughter's desertion and theft of his wealth and admit to knowing of her planned escape. These characters are included to incite the audience, particularly the groundlings, to laugh at Shylock. They are also there however, to promote sympathy for Shylock. None more so than in this scene which includes Shylock's most famous speech as he preaches a common humanity asking 'hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?' The sympathy never lasts long though, as Shylock then goes on to reassert his desire for revenge and later to wish his own daughter dead. No matter how angry he may be with her, no good father can choose simple jewels over his daughter. Then we are encouraged to sympathise again with him as we learn that Jessica exchanged a ring given to Shylock by his late wife for a monkey. This is the only scene where we can truly see that Shylock did once have love for someone and his torment is evident as Tubal, his apparent friend, taunts him with good news then bad and good again. By the end of the scene, Shylock is suffering considerable distress as he repeats Tubal's name three times in one sentence.
It is thus that the audience is toyed with first to hate Shylock, then ...
