We see that Shylock is a moneylender and seems to be a wicked old man who is Jewish; The Jews are those who crucified Christ and are considered the enemies of Christians. Looking more closely at his character, it may seem that he is an evil and ruthless character, consumed by extreme hatred towards most others, especially Christians. Then there's Antonio who seems like a naive, essentially good, Christian guy. Because Antonio is a Christian, he must defend himself against the Shylocks. But why does Shylock seem so evil? there must be a cause for this something from his past. Shylock was first wronged; that doesn't give him the right to be mean to others but he uses that as an excuse. Because of his work and his religion, Shylock faced discrimination from the start. When the discrimination began, Shylock came to hate all Christians; he saw himself as an outsider, alienated by the society around him. Because of the wrongs that have already been done to Shylock; he changed and then committed many wrongs against others. One of the gr...