Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?
Doesn't a Jew have eyes? doesn't a Jew have hands, organs, senses, feelings, passions?
Shylock · Act 3, Scene 1
Shylock delivers this speech after learning his daughter has eloped and his money is gone, turning the conversation from commerce to existential equality. The line matters because it is one of Shakespeare's most powerful arguments for shared humanity across religious and cultural boundaries. It forces the audience to see Shylock not as a villain but as a man defending his right to feel and act as any Christian would.
To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what’s his reason? 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. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villany you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.
To use it as bait for fish: if it doesn’t serve any other purpose, it will serve my revenge. He has disgraced me, and cost me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my people, ruined my deals, cooled my friends, heated my enemies; and why? Because I’m a Jew. Doesn’t a Jew have eyes? doesn’t a Jew have hands, organs, senses, feelings, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, affected by the same diseases, healed by the same remedies, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, just like a Christian? 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 seek revenge? If we are like you in other ways, we will be like you in that too. If a Jew wrongs a Christian, what does he do? He seeks revenge. If a Christian wrongs a Jew, what is he expected to do, according to Christian rules? Revenge. The evil you teach me, I will carry out, and it won’t be hard for me to do it even better than you taught me.
Shylock · Act 3, Scene 1
Shylock explains that Antonio's flesh will serve as bait or, failing that, feed his desire for revenge, then pivots to one of literature's most powerful speeches about shared humanity. The passage endures because Shylock makes an irrefutable argument—if Jews are human, they will seek revenge just as Christians do—then uses that logic to justify the very cruelty he's accused of. He teaches the Christians their own lesson about equal treatment by demanding equal right to vengeance.
