Katherine E. Maus,Norton Shakespeare
Is the play anti-semitic?
Does it criticize anti-semitism?
Does it neither condemn nor endorse anti-semitism?
Are the Christians right to call Shylock a “devil” and a “dog”?
Is Shylock simply a victim of bigotry?
What was WS own attitudes about Jews?
He probably never encountered a Jew in is lifetime.
Joseph Rosenblum,Reader’s Guide
Shylock “is not wholly a comic character, for despite often appearing ridiculous, he poses too much of a threat to be dismissed lightly. Yet he is too ineffectual and grotesque to be a villain as cold and terrifying as Iago or Edmund, or one as engaging as Richard III. He is a malevolentforce.”