Political Correctness

I pretty much agree, and am having to answer the question of whether or not modern adaptations are too sympathetic for a literature course. I don't see how people can honestly say that they can't see how there is a question of this film possibly being guilty of this. I agree that the 'hath not a Jew eyes' does challenge the idea that Shylock is a completely unsympathetic villain, but I think the whole intro about the ghettoiasation of the Jewish populous is very heavy-handed and cheap. By being deliberately reminiscent the situation running up to the extermination of the Jewish in Nazi Europe, it switches the focus and sympathy of the play. In terms of the text, after the weird introduction, it is pretty faithful, but that little segment completely changes the tone of the original, but now stops the rest of the film from really working as the dominant story no longer fits if Shylock the victim. It isn't even a play that I really like, but for a contemporary audience, making Shylock too sympathetic just makes it even more problematic.

I don't get why so many don't understand how the 'Hath not a Jew eyes' speech plays into the anti-semitic tropes of Shakespeare's day and doesn't make Shylock appear very sympathetic.

Shylock is basically reducing his own role as a moral actor in his own deeds. He's excusing his misdeeds by reducing his own agency and all of his faults on Christian society. This is a basically the form of the anti-semitic Polish proverb: "The Jew cries out in pain as he strikes you."

Shylock is asking for sympathy from his accusers while simultaneously shifting blame for his misdeeds on to them. He finishes his speech essentially saying he has no forgiveness or mercy in him, but that this is likewise something inflicted upon him by Christian society rather than either a personal or collective Jewish failing. He's literally begging mercy for his own lack of mercy, and from the very people he claims he learned his mercilessness from. It's a deliberate double-bind, and deliberately insulting.

The 'Hath not a Jew eyes' speech was probably pretty insulting to Shakespeare's intended audience. People get to the 'If you prick us' line and stop thinking about anything after that. Shylock is obviously "guilty", and there is no real claim that he isn't. He's being asked to show contrition which he refuses to do. In courts in the 21st century, at sentencing you certainly still have the opportunity to inform the judge of your recalcitrance so that he may lock you up and throw away the key; which is exactly equivalent to what Shylock does. "Go light on me judge, because whitey had it coming!"

Shylock isn't a complete villain but he's clearly not meant to be a traditional protagonist and the portrayal isn't very sympathetic. Even in his eventual attempt at contrition he is still portrayed as 'jewy'. The best evidence for Shylock being intended as a sympathetic character is his forced conversion to Christianity, which to the audience at the time would have been a happy ending for Shylock (he can possibly go to heaven) as opposed to the happy ending for Venice in which Shylock hangs.

Although you could even spin that ending as a display of Christian 'mercy' in that the rather despicable Shylock gets a chance at redemption despite what would be best and most convenient for Christendom (decreasing the number despicable non-Christians) and is just a pat on the back of the audience despite Shylock not actually displaying any characteristics that warrant such mercy in the first place. It makes the Christians in the play and the audience seem all the more merciful the more despicable Shylock is portrayed (while at least meeting the minimum requirement of bleeding red blood).