Shylock’s Speech in The Merchant of Venice: Critical Discourse Analysis

This paper aims to examine, reveal and analyse Shylock's speech in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, by connecting his words to the power, identity, and ideology in the play. The purposes of this study are to examine the effects of linguistic manipulation on power, to link language with the structure of a society, and to find the impact of a combination of different ideologies on each other. Hence, this descriptive qualitative study explores the literature to answer the aforementioned questions. What is found in this paper is that Shylock, the Jew, lacks power, Jewish ideology and Jewish identity, but when he tries to find these aspects, he fails to gain any of them. The reasons behind Shylock's failure in obtaining "the self" can be attributed to his brutal character. His insistence on the literal implementation of the bond leads to his destruction. He neglects the fact that those charged with power are able to edit the language of "his bond" the way they like. To conclude, language is one of the most influencing factors aiding in imposing power, destroying "unwanted" identities, and appropriating others' ideology by the "upper hands" in any society.