Bassanio seeks to woo the young Portia, but lacks the means, so his friend Antonio agrees to put up the collateral on a loan from Shylock, a Jewish moneylender. When Antonio finds himself unable to cover the bond, Shylock is determined to extract compensation in the form of a pound of Antonio’s flesh.
It blurs the lines between hero and villain, demanding that its audience question where their sympathies should, and do, lie. It stands as one of Shakespeare’s most controversial plays, having been both praised for depicting the bigotry faced by Jewish people at the time and decried as anti-Semitic. It has been filmed numerous times, most famously by Michael Radford, with Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons in lead roles.
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