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Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 6:16 pm
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Way back in English 11, we each had to memorize and recite a monologue from Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice". Most chose Portia's "The Quality of Mercy" speech, but I liked Shylock:
I am a Jew. 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 prick 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.
My main reason for choosing this one was so I couldn't be compared to anyone else, but the more I recited it, the more I felt drawn to it. I know there are several undercurrents in the speech - relations between Christians and Jews weren't the best at that time - but as a teenager it made me think about how under the skin, we're more alike than we realize. Children are ego-centric, and most of us outgrow that. Some, however, never do, or they choose to return to that blissful time in childhood where everything revolved around their needs and of course their actions had no effect on anyone around them.
Strength is an illusion.
We all bleed when we're pricked, whether you can see it or not.
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Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 3:34 am
Nice insight. 
_________________
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