Jessica - Victim or villain?

Jessica can be seen as a victim because it can be argued that Jessica was right to run away with the man she loved; after all, her father treated her badly, he didn’t have much love and concern for her and she was entitled to what she had stolen. In Act 2, scene 3, Jessica describes her (and her father’s) house as ‘hell’. This means that Jessica was leading a miserable life and her treatment was not what she thought she deserved. So, she was right to leave her father, as he never cared for him.

In Act 2, Scene 5, it is evident that Shylock does not treat Jessica well when he yells ‘what Jessica! - What sleep, snore, and red apparel out. Why Jessica, I say!’. Jessica is treated like a possession, a servant to do all Shylock’s bidding. She is restricted in what she can do; we can identify this when Shylock orders Jessica to stay in the house and protect it until Shylock’s return (‘Jessica, my girl, look to my house.’) When Launcelot talks about the masque, Shylock gives more orders to Jessica, but never mentions anything about Jessica’s personal safety. We can see that Shylock treats Jessica as an asset, rather than a daughter or a human being, when we analyse the lines - ‘Clamber not onto the casements then, Nor thrust your head into the public street’. Even though we cannot be certain if Shylock is trying to express his genuine concern and love for his daughter or his worries about his house being corrupted by ‘shallow foppery’, his treatment of Jessica as an asset cannot be justified.

We can find more evidence that supports the statement that Shylock never loved or cared for Jessica when we look at Solanio's account of what Shylock says when he finds out that Jessica ran away. In the account, Shylock is said to have compared Jessica to his ducats - ‘ ‘My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter!’. In modern times, it would be expected that a parent would grieve only for the loss of his/her daughter; however, Shylock grieves for his ducats as much as he grieves for his daughter’s elopement. Moreover, Shylock always refers to Jessica by ‘my daughter’. This again reveals that Jessica is seen as a mere possession by Shylock because he always uses the word ‘my’. Also, this shows that Shylock and Jessica were never close in the first place, so it wasn't selfish of Jessica to run away.

Jessica could also be seen as a victim because of how society perceived her as. As she was a Jew, it was forbidden of her to marry a christian. Jews were a second class citizen in Venice at that time (ironically, Venice was seen to be an extremely liberal city at that time). Shylock would never have approved of Jessica’s and Lorenzo’s relationship; Shylock’s contempt for christians can be evident when he describes them as ‘fools’ and ‘prodigal’.

All the above evidence supports the thesis that Jessica was right to run away as Shylock never cared for her. However, it can also be argued that Jessica was selfish to run away and stealing from his dad; especially after knowing how much value Shylock had for his wealth which he acquired after immense hard work. By stealing money from Shylock, Jessica was villainous because of the impact her actions had over her father. Jessica says that her father has qualities that are repugnant (‘But though I am a daughter to his blood, I am not to his manners’ act 2, scene 4) and she will never have them. But, if she were so good and virtuous, why would she hurt her own father by running away and stealing a significant proportion of his wealth? Jessica’s actions cannot be justified because Shylock had to work really hard to fight the prejudices of Venetian society to earn his wealth, and Jessica was unable to respect that, even though sh Jessica is also said to have sold her mother’s ring for a monkey; this shows her indifference for her father’s sentiments because the ring was the last memory Shylock had of his late wife, Leah. It can be argued that Jessica is cruel and villainous because she leaves Shylock all alone; Launcelot had switched masters and Shylock’s wife is presumably dead, so there is no one to look after Jessica. Furthermore, Jessica is a villain because she exuberantly wasted Shylock’s hard earned money, so her elopement can be seen as selfish because it look as if she eloped to have more fun than actually be with her partner, Lorenzo. It can be doubted how much love Jessica has for Lorenzo in the last act, Jessica and Lorenzo seem to regret their elopement.

Jessica was not only selfish because she betrayed her father, but also because she betrayed her people and religion. As stated before, Jews were suppressed and treated as second class citizens in Venice, so Jessica’s elopement with Lorenzo (who was a christian and possessed prejudices for jews, as evident when he describes Shylock as his ‘father Jew’ in a sarcastic tone) was an act of betrayal for her kind. Jessica herself acknowledges her villainy when she says ‘Alack, what heinous sin it is in me, To be ashamed to be my father’s child!’).

In conclusion, I think Jessica is a villain because she was selfish; she only cared for her needs, but not her father’s, who had looked after her for so long. She took away one of the most things Shylock cared for; his dignity (she ran away with a christian) and his wealth (which he worked so hard to acquire). She proved herself to be a hypocrite by claiming she was better person than her father, but then she afflicted the great misery on Shylock by running away and taking his gold. She proved herself to be prodigal (spendthrift), a characteristic Shylock held contempt for. Jessica never embodied the teachings of her father, so it was not Shylock how wronged, it was Jessica because she was unable to respect her father and his teachings. Just before Jessica’s elopement, Shylock said ‘Fast bind, fast find’ (lock up securely and everything will be safe when you return). When Shylock returns, he is met with disaster. Jessica was selfish to take his possessions when he had just asked her to look after his possessions.