By:
William Shakespeare
Grade Level:
“He’s a Shylock,” I would hear now and then when I was a child, but I didn’t realize the implications of the charge until I was much older. Like such words as ” Judas,” “Jezebel,” “Mccarthy,” “Quisling,” and “Benedict Arnold,” “Shylock” is today a commonplace pejorative term, and, sad to say, equated with “Jew.” Who’s to blame? For many parents and teachers, the culprit is Shakespeare and the source of poison The Merchant of Venice.