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—Shylock
I will torment him as he has tormented me. I will make him feel as he has made me feel. I will
teach him something he will not soon forget. Perhaps he will have reason to pause next time he
thinks to spit on me +I who held his life in my hands,. They have pleaded with me. They have
asked me to alter my course. It is now I who cannot hear them. I turn a deaf ear to all their
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pleas. Antonio, the Duke, and all the magnificoes have pleaded with me, yet I will not hear
them. I need not hear them.

—Tubal
Your deeds will handicap the freedom that every Jew affords in Venice. Methinks you carry this
too far.

—Shylock
No, no, not far enough. I’ll make him suffer. I’ll hold him in my grip till the last moment—and
when I see the desperate fear in his eyes, a man made to feel utterly powerless—then I will let
him go and take thrice the principle. ‘Tis my right. ‘Tis a right I have dearly bought—and not
with ducats but with the years I have suffered under his hand. ‘Tis my right. I’ll have my day.
9 10
I’ll have Antonio suffer. I’ll have my ducats three times over.

Exeunt

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8. Optional lines which include a reference to Antonio, could be added: +And I will not allow Antonio to speak.
And how will that make a man feel?,
9. The last sentence could be deleted if the intent is to make Shylock’s motivation purely righteous, with no financial
scheming, though the financial intent—coming as an afterthought, and keeping Shylock in the character of a
business—does not undermine his so-called ‘righteous’ intention.
10. This addition of dialogue reveals Shylock’s true motivation: which is to revel in his new position of power, to
psychologically ‘torture’ Antonio (leading Antonio to believe, until the last moment, that he is going to die), to get
back three times what he is owed, and then to let Antonio go free. Without Shylock revealing his exact motivation,
one could surmise one of the following: One: Shylock, deranged by hatred—and the sadness of his daughter’s
betrayal—fully intends to take his revenge upon Antonio and kill him, without moral ambivalence, as is allowed by
the bond (even thought Antonio had nothing to do with Jessica’s flight). Here Shylock is psychopathically certain
about his rights, which he mistakenly views as being lawful and defensible. (As the play now stands, this is the
hateful and depraved course of action which the audience believes Shylock intends to take. With his loathsome and
indefensible intention so apparent, Shylock’s character cannot be redeemed. Despite the numerous and well-
intentioned attempts, made in various productions, to place Shylock in the role of ‘victim,’ such a depraved intention
insures that Shylock remains a heartless villain, beyond the reach of redemption or pity. Two: Shylock is conflicted
and is unsure about what he is going to do, but he is siding with the intention to kill Antonio. One part of him wants
to kill Antonio (‘the fiend at his elbow’) and the other part knows that such an action—though legally within his
rights—is wrong (his conscience). He is enmeshed in a conflict similar to the one played out by his servant
Launcelet in 2.2. In the context of this conflict—where Shylock knows that his conscience may eventually win out
over his fiend—he ‘ups the ante’ and ‘goes past the point of return’ by making a vow his holy Saboath (God of
Hosts) that (his ‘fiend’ will prevail) and that he will kill Antonio. Thus, he enters the court conflicted but with the
irreversible intention (and added motivation, imparted by his vow) to kill Antonio. He might have also needed the
added strength imparted by his vow to overshadow his own conscience when faced with the brutal reality of the
actual deed. Three: Shylock intends to carrying out this ‘strange course of action,’ to the last minute, to teach
Antonio a ‘hard’ lesson—and, as surmised by the Duke—to then let Antonio go.