Since we're limited to answering one question at a time,
I'll address your question about Shylock's "I Am a Jew" speech. While in the play and in
Al Pacino's film version, Shylock is talking to Salerio and Salanio, his speech is
really a lesson from Shakespeare to his Elizabethan audience and, more specifically, is
an expression of Shylock's desperate desire to be taken seriously by Venetian
society.
When Salerio and Salanio approach Shylock, he is
already agitated and most likely has a poor history with Antonio's friends. So, while
they do not necessarily cause him to voice his frustration about how he is treated,
running into them is rather like the last straw for Shylock. He is at his breaking
point. His daughter has absconded with a Christian and with his jewels, and he is
anxiously excited about the possibility of revenge upon his rival Antonio. Thus, when
Salerio and Salanio approach him, all of those emotions poor forth in his speech. Of
course, Shylock's eloquent outburst does not win him sympathy or fans. Those who hear
his speech mock him and feel that his behavior gives credence to their pre-existing
disdain for him.
In regards to the versions portraying him
bloodied and beaten, I personally don't care for them because they provide immediate
motivation for Shylock's speech. However, Shakespeare develops early on in the play a
history of constant verbal abuse directed toward Shylock. I think that a more accurate
portrayal of Shylock's volatile state is Al Pacino's version.
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