The Jews and their Place in English Literature up to the Victorian Age with Reference to William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens (An analytical Study)

Abstract

This paper concentrates on the position and the images of the Jews throughout English literature for a considerable period of time, showing their social value among the civilized Europeans and in particular among the English. This could not be done without hinting to them historically and, of course, by diverting to the Biblical images and portraits of the Jews, in which the researcher proves their negative effects on the societies they lived among. Literary, a remarkable concentration is placed on the prominent playwright William Shakespeare in his masterpiece The Merchant of Venice where Shylock, the Jew, is its protagonist in the Italian society, down to include variety of writers through those few hundred years up to the Victorian novelists and poets, with little hint to the Russian writers of the Romantic and Victorian periods. Another important concentration is focused on the great Victorian novelist Charles Dickens in his masterpiece Oliver Twist, where Fagin, the Jew, too, is not less negative in the London society than Shylock and Barabas of Christopher Marlowe.