He is also regard as an outsider who is not privy to the rights accorded to the citizens of Venice. His loathing of Antonio ,he then explains simply :"How like a fawning publican he looks! I hate him for he is a Christian"(I.iii.38-39). Antonio holds Shylock in the same contempt,trading barbs with him and spitting at him. He is also a defensive character because society is constantly reminding him is different in religion , looks, and motivation.

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In The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare articulates the frustrations of the oppressed masses for all time with the words of Shylock. “Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions — fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you pfick at us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge! If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge! The villainy you teach me I will execute” (II.i.55-69). Quite simply, society teaches by example.

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Source:https://schoolworkhelper.net/prejudice-in-the-merchant-of-venice/