To Laugh at a Stock Character

When I lingered behind to here a little of the discussion at the end of Merchant of Venice, the actors started explaining something that I had not considered. They said that many assume that Shakespeare was writing a "stock character" in to this play as Shylock. This means that he was writing a well-known and accepted stereotypical person that everyone would be able to laugh at (like the French in Henry V). By the time this show was in production, there were no Jews in England. So, if the person you are making fun of isn't there you can point fingers and laugh all you want. (Is that really alright though? And if you say no, how many times do you find yourself talking about someone behind their back? This whole play now makes me think of gossiping. I say don't do it, and don't be a hypocrite about it either!) It is possible that this fed into the comic ideas of this show originally, but it is the complete opposite now. We have already discussed how this play makes us think of racism and bullying. Interesting what time and history will do to shift people's perspective so that the same words make us think so differently.