Journal 2/24

In the time where this play takes place it was an acceptable and common thing to be anti-semitic. Most of the audience and actors and probably even William Shakespeare himself were all anti-semitic or non pro-judaism. Shakespeare had one pro-judaism speech in his entire play "the merchant of venice" and the rest made the main jewish character look like a selfish, harsh, and an all around horrid person to be acquainted with. Today we would see this as a not ok thing to do but then it was generous of him to give him that one speech of pity. Today we are expected to be "acceptant" towards all other religions and races while they were expected to be holy and to punish those who weren't. The persecution of the jewish community in Europe went on all the way to the 1940's while in america most people were acceptant. All in all we just have to take into consideration the conditions of the time and location where the literature was written before judging it based on our current beliefs.