Shylock

Shylock
The Merchant of Venice character
Shylock portrayed by the actor Ernst von Possart, c. 1904
First appearance
  • The Merchant of Venice
  • c. 1596–98
Created byWilliam Shakespeare
Based onBarabas, from The Jew of Malta
Portrayed by
  • Richard Burbage
  • Edmund Kean
  • Edwin Booth
  • Junius Brutus Booth
  • Henry Irving
  • Al Pacino
  • Phillips Smalley
  • Matheson Lang
  • Werner Krauss
  • Serukalathur Sama
  • Michel Simon
  • Owen Weingott
  • Orson Welles
  • Warren Mitchell
  • David Serero
  • F. Murray Abraham
  • Charles Macklin
  • William Charles Macready
  • John Gielgud
  • Henry Irving
  • George Arliss
In-universe information
OccupationMoneylender
FamilyJessica (daughter)
SpouseLeah (deceased)
ReligionJudaism
NationalityVenetian

Shylock (/ˈʃaɪlɒk/ SHY-lok) is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice (c. 1600). A Venetian Jewish moneylender, Shylock is the play's principal villain. His defeat and forced conversion to Christianity form the climax of the story.

Shylock's characterisation is composed of stereotypes, for instance greediness and vengefulness, although there were no legally practising Jews who lived in England during Shakespeare's time. Jews were expelled from the country in 1290 by Edward I in the Edict of Expulsion; this was not reversed until the mid-17th century (the Cromwell Era).

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