Changes

==''Merchant of Venice''==

==''Merchant of Venice''==

The reference to Shakespeare's ''The Merchant of Venice'' being blatantly anti-Semitic propaganda is simply not correct.  This has been a subject of debate for quite a long time.  While, in one example, the Nazis broadcast the play shortly after Kristallnacht as anti-Semitic propaganda, and there are other instances in which it has been used as such, there is ongoing debate as to whether that was Shakespeare's intention.  Many of the arguments for a sympathetic reading of the play center around Act III, Scene I, wherein Shylock gives the speech which begins: "Hath not a Jew eyes?" [[User:JBrandonLoberg|JBrandonLoberg]] 18:05, 24 September 2008 (EDT)

The reference to Shakespeare's ''The Merchant of Venice'' being blatantly anti-Semitic propaganda is simply not correct.  This has been a subject of http://conservapedia.com/Conservapedia:Copyrightsdebate for quite a long time.  While, in one example, the Nazis broadcast the play shortly after Kristallnacht as anti-Semitic propaganda, and there are other instances in which it has been used as such, there is ongoing debate as to whether that was Shakespeare's intention.  Many of the arguments for a sympathetic reading of the play center around Act III, Scene I, wherein Shylock gives the speech which begins: "Hath not a Jew eyes?" [[User:JBrandonLoberg|JBrandonLoberg]] 18:05, 24 September 2008 (EDT)

 

Shakespeare's treatment of Shylock was not so much propaganda as a case of making the subject fit an already widespread perception of how a Jewish money-lender would act. Officially, at the time of writing the play, there were no Jews in England except the odd [[Iberian Peninsular|Iberian]] keeping a very low profile, so there was no reason, really, for propaganda. The Bard's treatment of [[Richard III]] is far closer to the mark as propaganda. Indeed, most of his Histories have a decidedly anti-[[Yorkist]]|York]], pro-[[Duchy of Lancaster|Lancaster]] flavour - in keeping with the [[Tudor]] sovereigns who had popped up out of the Lancastrian side of the [[Wars of the Roses]]. [[User:AlanE|AlanE]] 21:09, 6 November 2012 (EST)