What does 'If you prick me do I not bleed' mean?

Answer 1

One would hope that Shakespere is petitioning for tolerance and equality in anti-semetic Elizabethan England in the play from which this quote is taken: The Merchant of Venice. However, Elizabethan England was not as anti-Semitic as all that, the quotation is wrong, and needs to be read in context. Shylock, in explaining why he is pursuing Antonio, says that Jews are just like Christians: "If you prick us, do we not bleed", he says. He is talking about Jews as a group, not just about himself. But the argument is working toward the statement, "and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?" Far from a plea for tolerance, Shylock is making an argument for intolerance, since he says that if the Venetian Christians are intolerant (as they certainly are) then why shouldn't the Venetian Jews be just as intolerant?

However, we must never imagine that Shakespeare meant a thing just because he has one of his characters say it. In the larger view, while we must condemn Shylock's disproportionate attempt at scapegoating Antonio for all the wrongs which have been done to him, it is easy to see how doing people wrong by persistent persecution could lead to such behaviour. While earlier generations of smug Christians claimed that Shylock showed no mercy while the Christians were merciful, we can readily see that the Christians in the play are far from merciful and give a very poor example for Shylock to follow, as the speech from which this quotation is taken shows.