Does Shakespeare present anti-Semitism in the play, The Merchant Of Venice? At the time when Shakespeare wrote the play, The Merchant Of Venice, people’s feelings and views towards other races and societies would have been very different to the views in the world we live in today. People would not have been politically correct and they would not have been ashamed of the fact that they were prejudice. A good example of this is …showed first 75 words of 1418 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1418 total…the bad guy of the play a Jew for dramatic intent, he would want to make the ‘baddy’ hated by the audience and as the audience he was writing for hated the Jewish race it would have been a good choice to choose a Jew. Overall I think that Shakespeare does display anti-Semitism in the play but it is all for dramatic intent and he is not writing like this because he is prejudice himself.