Why does Shylock insist on getting his pound of flesh? He stands for law, for justice, and as a Jew his justice is the lex talionis , eye for eye. He wants flesh because flesh has been taken from him.
When? ”My daughter is my flesh and blood” he laments when she escapes his house (3.1). Salarino is incredulous: “There is more difference between thy flesh and hers than between jet and ivory; more between your bloods than there is between red wine and rhenish.”
Jessica, Shylock’s flesh, is taken long after her father has made his “merry bond” with Antonio. That doesn’t damage the thesis. Shylock’s becomes imperious about his bond when his house is plundered. He wants his pound of flesh because he has been robbed, not so much of his ducats as of his daughter.
Salerio says that Shylock has lost stones, ducats, and daughter, no doubt using a crude pun: He’s been unmanned by Lorenzo. That’s the extremity of Judaism to which Paul urged the Judaizers: “Cut it all off.” And in revenge for this hyper-circumcision of his flesh, Shylock intends to perform a Christian “heart circumcision” on Antonio.
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