The Merchant of Venice: Shylock's Speech

"On page 49 (Act 3, Scene 1) Shylock gives his speech that seems to be sympathetic to the plight of Jews ("I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes?..."). Considering the rampant anti-Semitism in the play, why do you think Shakespeare would have included this speech? How does it change what we think of Shylock? “

In this scene, Shylock’s character gives a speech essentially explaining that all people are human. He explains that a Jew “is fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, and warmed and cooled in the same winter and summer as a Christian…” This is a very powerful speech and the message of the speech itself goes against the anti-semitism which was prevalent at the time. This speech seems to allow the audience to sympathize with Shylock, even though he is using this message as reasoning for revenge. I think today’s audience might sympathize with him, but I don’t think that was the goal when Shakespeare wrote the play. Shylock is still depicted as the stereotypical greedy Jew throughout the play, and this small speech may have seemed like a positive message, but when reading the play in its entirety it doesn't seem like a positive message about Jews was the goal. For me, this speech from Shylock helped me understand what I consider as Shylock’s true character, not just a fictitious character who’s acts and words only support the writers intended message. While these are my beliefs, we still don’t know what Shakespeare’s true intentions were. Shakespeare could have truly been against anti-semitism, or he could have written it like this to allow for many different interpretations from different audiences.