Persuasive Essay on Merchant of Venice Shylock, in the book “Merchant of Venice” is amongst the wealthier people of Jewish descent involved in the business of moneylending in Venice (Belliotti, 2012). He enters into a contract with Bassanio with Antonio as the collateral. In the three thousand ducat loan agreement, Shylock is positioned as the villain based on the things he does. However, despite the fact that Shylock is just but one amongst many people in “Merchant of Venice” who have committed many wrong things, the book portrays him as the most sinful individual in Venice (Belliotti, 2012). This essay explores shylock’s deadly sins of avarice, envy, and wrath makes him guilty in the narrative given in “Merchant of Venice.” There are many reasons to support the perception that Shylock is guilty of avarice. First, his guiltiness is related to the fact that greed is the basis of Shylock. That is evident when Jessica, his daughter runs away taking with her Shylock’s jewels and money. Surprisingly, instead of Shylock getting angry for losing all his possessions, the only concern for him is the loss of money as opposed to his daughter, Jessica. Moreover, rather than work for wealth, Shylock loans out his money to people who are financially desperate at a very high rate of interest (Vaught, 2016). Consequently, he makes supernormal gains from the loan at the expense of borrowers. This is a wrong way of making money. Furthermore, as though that is not enough for him, in Shylock’s loan agreement to Antonio, he includes a condition that makes him guilty of avarice. In the contract, Shylock makes a condition to Antonio that if he does not get back his loan, the punishment or cost of not paying the loan is a flesh of his pound (Vaught, 2016). The guilty of envy linked to Shylock is evident in his positive reaction in court proceedings. That Shylock was guilty of envy is true because following Portia false promise to him by a commitment that indeed he was going to make a pound of flesh from his borrower, Antonio made him very happy with a hope that Antonio will get hurt thereby giving Shylock a reason to celebrate for getting even (Vaught, 2016). The guilty of envy was further manifested when Shylock’s business consistently performs poorly because of lending money at a very high rate of interest compared to his counterpart, Antonio whose business is performing better for offering borrowers loans at close to no rate of interest. Thus, these are the primary acts that make Shylock guilty of envy in “Merchant of Venice” (Belliotti, 2012). Shylock is guilty of wrath in the sense that he has a great disregard for people of Christian faith because he is a Jew. That is evident in his plan to loan money to Antonio as a means of making a Christian pay his loan above the market rates of interest as punishment for the alleged mistreatment he received from them. Shylock’s wrath is also demonstrated when he became angry when the court proceedings were not in his favor. The third reason making Shylock guilty of wrath relates to the fact that he became enraged when his daughter ran away with his jewels and money and instead of him establishing the reason behind his daughter to run away with Shylock’s valuables, he is only bothered about getting back his money. Such decision makes him guilty of wrath because of worshiping material possessions (Vaught, 2016). Therefore, there are many ways through which we can prove that Shylock was indeed a bad person in the book Merchant of Venice (Belliotti, 2012). Shylock remains guilty whether he tries to justify his action for getting revenge or was just full of greed. Nonetheless, despite the fact that Shylock was not the only person perceived to be in the wrong in Merchant of Venice, the guilty of deadly sins of avarice, envy, and wrath remains to haunt him (Belliotti, 2012). References Belliotti, R. A. (2012). Shakespeare and philosophy: lust, love, and law (Vol. 256). Rodopi. Vaught, J. C. (2016). Carnival and Literature in Early Modern England. Routledge. Running head: PERSUASIVE ESSAY 1 PERSUASIVE ESSAY 3