Kayley Nguyen
Mrs. Harrison
ELA
February 6, 2017

1. On page 49 (Act 3, Scene 1) Shylock gives his speech that seems to be sympathetic to the plight of Jews ("I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes?..."). Considering the rampant anti-Semitism in the play, why do you think Shakespeare would have included this speech? How does it change what we think of Shylock?

    I think that the speech that Shylock was saying was interesting. This made me think about those kind of days and how it was normal for people to treat Jews like this and how this kind of stuff was funny to people during that time. Personally I think that Shakespeare was adding this to show readers that even if they were good people then, time and history changes things. This quote made me think and visualize how people were treated then. I also think that now that the readers, being our class have seen history, have seen how people treat each other, we have a better understanding of how that was cruel. I also think that Shakespeare added this because it was normal back then for people to talk to each other like this so it wasn't a big deal for them.