ABSTRACT
Jessica is the daughter of Shylock, the Jewish money-lender, and beloved of Lorenzo, a Christian. She is an apparently straight-forward and lively young woman, but she abandons her father and her religion when she elopes with Lorenzo, and she also steals Shylock’s money. In Shakespeare’s time her actions would have been largely justified in the prevailing anti-Semitic climate. Money-lending was strictly against the Christian ethic, so the job fell to the Jewish ‘outcasts’, which consequently served to make them hated. However, Shylock does generate some sympathy. In playing Jessica now, I think it is important to take on board (at least to some extent) the enormity of what she is actually doing – it can’t entirely be a completely spontaneous decision.
