The character of Shylock in The Merchant of VeniceFew characters created by Shakespeare embody pure evil like the character of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. Shylock is a loan shark and an evil, bloodthirsty old man, consumed by plotting the downfall of his enemies. He is a malignant, vindictive character, consumed by a poisonous malice1; an image of insensitive, absolute evil, deaf to every appeal of humanity2. Shylock is the antagonist opposite to the naive, essentially good Antonio, the protagonist; who must defend himself from the "devil" Shylock. The evil he represents is one of the reasons Shakespeare chose to characterize Shylock as a Jew, as the Jews of his time were seen as the children of the Devil, the crucifiers of Christ, and willful rejecters of the wisdom of God and Christianity. However, when Shakespeare created Shylock, he did not cast him as a purely flat character, consumed only by the wickedness of his plot. One of the great talents Shakespeare possessed, notes Shakespeare analyst Harrold R. Walley, was his ability to make each key character behave like a real, rational person. Walley said of all Shakespeare's characters, heroes or villains, that "their conduct is always presented as logical and justifiable from their point of view." To maintain the literary integrity of the play, "Shakespeare finds himself in need of clarifying why a man like Shylock should be driven to such a level of vengeful hatred as to contemplate murder4." His evil must have a deep motivation, and that motivation is the evil that was done to him. Shylock is not an ogre, who lets himself suffer harm and disaster for no reason. He was wronged first; the fact that his vengeance far outweighs the initial evil is what makes him a villain. Behind Shylock's wickedness, the concept of evil for evil is a significant theme throughout the play. To understand the concept of evil for evil, it is necessary to examine the initial evil, aimed at Shylock, through Shylock's eyes. Some may consider the discrimination directed at Shylock to be justified, as a malicious moneylender; the Venetians certainly thought so. However, the discrimination had a negative impact on Shylock, until he began to hate all Christians. Shylock saw himself as an outsider, alienated from his society. The harm done to him took three main forms: hatred on the part of Antonio, discrimination on the part of the Christian Venetians, and the marriage of his daughter Jessica to a Christian..