Beginning of Essay
In 1594 the Earl of Essex, an English Nobleman who lived during the Elizabethan period in England, was actively involved in the persecution and trials of Roderigo Lopez. Lopez was a Jew of Portuguese descent, who was wrongly accused of attempting to poison the Q ....

Middle of Essay
.... Lopez' incident occurred in 1594, The Merchant of Venice was written only two years later. Anti-Semitism was prevalent during Shakespeares' time, and therefore we must understand that it was as easy for him to make a Jewish man the villain as it would be for us to make a Nazi the villain. According to Sylvan Barnet "The Merchant of Venice [shows] the broad outline of a comedy (not merely a play with jests, but a play that ends happily). . . the villain in the comedy must be entirely villainous, or, rather, comically villainous; he cannot for a moment gain the audience's sympathy" (1). Shylock has often been portrayed as the villain in The Mer ....