31 Why is the Jew called a devil's incarnation in merchant of venice

It is an early monologue in the second act of The Merchant of Venice that reveals the deepest insight into the psychological and functional motivation of antisemitism. As in most Shakespeare plays, this profound speech is delivered by a clown, in this case, Launcelot Gobbo, Shylock’s servant. Too often left out of productions, the speech gives us the inner workings of the antisemite.

Launcelot tells us that he thinks he could do better working for a Christian. He also fears that if he continues working for a Jew, he will become a Jew. Yet, as a servant, his main duty is loyalty to his master. The result is that his internal argument about whether to continue working for Shylock does not take place between “devil” and “angel” (as Renaissance allegory would lead us to expect), but between “fiend” and “devil.” Launcelot’s “Fiend” is that part of himself that wants him to leave Shylock—a desire that his class conscience tells him is disloyal and wrong. This “fiend” should be opposed by the angelic voice in favor of his employer, but Launcelot is too much the antisemite for that. Instead, he decides that “the Jew is the very devil incarnate,” and thus his employer is much worse than Launcelot’s (his own) inner “fiend” ever was. He is thus free to follow his most selfish, “fiendish” desires, leave Shylock, and take a better job:

Certainly the Jew is the very devil incarnate; and, in my conscience, my conscience is but a kind of hard conscience, to offer to counsel me to stay with the Jew. The fiend gives the more friendly counsel: I will run, fiend; my heels are at your command; I will run. (Merchant of Venice Act 2, Scene 2).