i think the play is anti Semitic, anti Semitic is when there is discrimination towards Jews for example in the play when Shylock looses his daughter, he starts morning about his money, so Shakespeare is trying to say that Jews are not nice people, also Shakespeare tries to make the play as a comedy but we see it as a tragedy and in the play Shakespeare always makes the Jews look like the untreated ones, Antonio (Christian) spits on Shylock (Jew) so it shows that in the play there was no respect  towards the Jews. Antonio asks Shylock for three thousand ducats, Shylock is convinced he shouldn’t give Antonio the money because, Antonio is treating Shylock with no respect, for example Antonio calls Shylock a dog and Antonio blanks Shylock when Shylock is trying to talk to Antonio. Also in the play in the play Jessica (Shylock’s daughter) is getting asked by Lorenzo to get married with him but, Jessica doesn’t know that Lorenzo is trying to take Jessica for granted because she has a lot of money also if she does get married she would have to change from a Jew to a Christian and as Jessica is Shylock’s only daughter he would feel betrayed as he feels Christians don’t treat Jew’s with as much respect as they should do. As Shylock feels like Christians don’t treat jews with respect, Shylock says to Antonio why everyone should be treated the same, Shylock says, “if you tickle us do we not laugh?”, “if you poison us do we not die?”, so Shylock is saying that just because your a Christian and i’m a Jew we should mistreat each other, he is saying we are all the same in what is happening to us, whatever happens to you has the same effect on what Shylock has. Rhetorical questions are also in the merchant of Venice, when Antonio asks for the money Shylock says “you call misbeliever, cut throat dog, and spat upon my Jewish gabardine, and for use of that which is mine , now it appears you need my help” , Shylock is handing out reasons not to give Antonio any money, Shakespeare in the play wants to express that Christians have power and show victory over the Jews, I know this because as Shakespeare was the writer of this book and Shakespeare was a christian himself, throughout the play he wants everyone to feel the emotion of a Jew and he wants everyone to know that Christians are in control, but their could be a reason why Shakespeare was doing this, there were roomers that Jews were responsible for poisoning wells, killing christian children, spreading the plague disease and moloposhing finance, this could be true but Jews shouldn’t be treated how Shylock is because it wasn’t every Jew it was only the horrible ones. Christians would also be horrible to, as nobody is perfect they also made mistakes, Christians would expel Jews from where they are comfortable and where they live and are settled down. Jews also suffered from some nasty things such as forced conversations, book burning property and being burnt alive. During the play Jessica says she would never marry the prince if morocco even if the guy was a saint because she knows that he has a dark complexion like the devil, so the message getting put across here is that Jessica knows that he looks all nice from the outside but deep down she knows that he is as nasty as a devil. The prince of morocco is black and he think it is bad to be black because he describes himself as a black uniform and its like carrying around a shadow. People in Shakespeare day would have accepted anti semetic comments and stuff because it was part of an everyday life, as there weren’t many Jew’s around in Shakespeare’s time. Also in  the second act Launcelot is considering serving someone else, he is Shylock’s server Launcelot says that Shylock is a devil incranation, when Antonio asks for the money many people suggest that he might be bloodthirsty as Shylock says I give you the money you can give me a pound of your flesh. this is because it is heared that Jews used to eat Human Flesh. During the Shylock’s heart is broken by Jessica because she goes to marry Lorenzo and helps herself to her dads Ducats (Shylock) and steals some of the family jewels. In the second act Lorenzo insults Shylock by saying to Jessica if your dad makes it to heaven it is because Jessica transferred from a Jew to a christian this suggests the fact that if you were in Venice at that time you had to be a Christian to go to heaven, also this play is anti semetic because in Shakespeares times anti semitism was funny for the audience wheare as know everyone would see this play as racist and not funny. So this is shown as anti semitism because Shakespeare suggests that we are meant to laugh at the Jews.