This key facts covers Prejudice in Numbers within Theme: Prejudice & The Outsider for GCSE English Literature. Revise Theme: Prejudice & The Outsider in The Merchant of Venice for GCSE English Literature with 12 exam-style questions and 15 flashcards. This topic shows up very often in GCSE exams, so students should be able to explain it clearly, not just recognise the term. It is section 12 of 17 in this topic. Use this key facts to connect the idea to the wider topic before moving on to questions and flashcards.

📋 Prejudice in Numbers

The word "Jew" appears 50+ times in the play — used as noun, adjective, and, in contemporary slang, as a verb meaning to cheat
Jews were expelled from England in 1290 — most of Shakespeare's audience had never met a Jewish person
Marlowe's The Jew of Malta was revived in 1594, the year of the Lopez trial — directly preceding Shakespeare's play
Morocco's speech ("Mislike me not for my complexion") is the play's only extended defence of racial difference — and he fails the casket test
Shylock exits with four words — "I am not well" — after commanding some of the play's most powerful rhetoric
The word "Jew" is never spoken in Act 5 — Shylock's erasure from the comedy is total
Shakespeare creates at least three distinct outsiders: Shylock (religious/ethnic), Morocco (racial), Jessica (gender + conversion)

Practice questions for Theme: Prejudice & The Outsider

In what year were Jews expelled from England, giving Elizabethan audiences almost no direct knowledge of Jewish people?

A. 1066
B. 1290
C. 1492
D. 1603

1 markfoundation

How does Shakespeare use the technique of rhetorical questions in 'Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?' to construct an argument? Explain the technique and its effect. (2 marks)

2 marksstandard

Quick recall flashcards

What mnemonic captures the three stages of the Prejudice / Outsider theme?

EXPOSED → HUMANISED → ERASED EXPOSED: Acts 1-2 — prejudice as Venice's structural practice. 'Cut-throat dog' (1.3). Morocco's apology (2.1). Portia's racism (2.7). The outsider's presence makes the insider's assumptions visible. HUMANISED: Act 3 — 'Hath not a Jew eyes?' (3.1). Shakespeare gives the outsider the play's most powerful rhetoric at the moment of greatest injustice. Prejudice teaches revenge. ERASED: Acts 4-5 — forced conversion, 'I am not well' (4.1), Act 5 silence. The comedy is purchased through the outsider's dispossession. Remember: the arc tracks what prejudice DOES to society — not what Shylock feels.

What is a gaberdine and why does it matter analytically in Act 1 Scene 3?

A gaberdine is the traditional outer garment worn by Jewish men in Elizabethan Europe — a long, loose cloak associated with Jewish identity in the period. Analytically: when Antonio 'spits upon my Jewish gaberdine' (1.3), the prejudice becomes physical — it targets the visible marker of difference, not the abstract category. Shakespeare writes the body into the insult. The word 'Jewish' modifying 'gaberdine' insists that religious identity is written on the surface of the person; the spitting is an attack on visible Jewishness. This makes the gaberdine a key image for AO2 analysis of prejudice as embodied and habitual.

The Vocabulary for Outsider Analysis

Three Deadly Mistakes on Prejudice and the Outsider

Prejudice in Numbers