The context in which William Shakespeare wrote the Merchant of Venice in 1597 was racist and prejudiced against different religions in the society that existed then.
At that time England was a protestant country that had recently been under threat from catholic Spain and before that the Jews had been exiled from the country. Therefore Jews, coloured people and Catholics were generally hated and very rarely seen except in ports around the coast, nevertheless, Shakespeare makes fun of other races and religions in the play.
It can be argued that the Merchant of Venice is a racist play by mo…
