The Merchant of Venice is a play written by William Shakespeare in 1600. The Merchant of Venice is a play focusing on love and revenge in a world of religious intolerance among the Christian and Jewish population of Venice. The Merchant of Venice contains some of Shakespeare's most memorable and complex characters. The main characters of this comedy are: Antonio, a merchant from Venice. Bassanio, a young gentleman from Venice who is a friend of Antonio, Portia, the rich heiress of Belmont looking for a husband, and Shylock, a Jewish moneylender in Venice. Set in Venice and Portia's home in Belmont, the play shifts from a charged mix of cosmopolitan hustle and casual anti-Semitism to a fairy-tale land of puzzles, music and poetry. Shakespeare uses a wide range of literary devices to emphasize the key theme, Justice and Mercy. This CIO will cover one of the most famous speeches in the play, Shylock's monologue. In this speech, Shylock, a Jewish merchant, is talking to two Christian men named Salerio and Solanio. They tease him because his beloved daughter Jessica ran away from home with a Christian man. Solerio and Solanio are friends of Antonio who borrowed money from Shylock. Shylock made Antonio sign a contract stating that if he cannot repay the loan he will instead repay Shylock with a pound of his own flesh. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Shylock's monologue confuses the audience as he could be portrayed as a good Jew or a merchant hungry for money and flesh. For Shylock, a pound of Antonio's flesh is not only a way of revenge for Antonio, but also a bait to take revenge on the Christian society of Venice. That's why Shylock said "To bait even fish." Revenge is to destroy the racism of Christians towards Jews. Since this monologue is from the first person point of view, it will be more convincing to the audience why Antonio and Shylock despise each other, as they have differences in religion and nationality. As Shylock delivers his monologue we get the idea that the Christians have treated him disrespectfully before, as he is the only Jew in the play, but treated worse by Antonio. During the speech, Shylock makes it clear that his hatred arises from what he sees as Antonio's domineering behavior. Shylock goes on to point out that Christians and Jews are united by their common humanity, despite their different religions. Shylock's concern is with the body, not the soul; Christians and Jews both have flesh, eyes, etc., and both will die if poisoned, but the distinguishing characteristics between them are religion, where this is a Jew and that is a Christian. However, Shylock's greed and lust for money parallel his cruelty as he seeks mercy from Christians, but at the same time seeks revenge. Shylock effectively uses ethos, pathos, and logos in the speech with structures of parallelism and rhetorical questions. . The Greek philosopher Aristotle divided the means of persuasion, appeals, into three categories: Ethos, Pathos, Logos. Ethos is an appeal to the authority or honesty of the presenter, pathos is an appeal to the emotions of the audience, and logos is a logical appeal or its simulation, and the term logic comes from it. Shylock speaks in prose and uses many literary devices for example; starting from line 43 to line 55, rhetorical questions are used. The words disgraced, laughed at, derided, despised, thwarted, cooled and heated make it seem like Shylock is attacking and addressing the audience directly as it seems like he is playing on emotions, which will evoke pathos,.