The Merchant of Venice was written between 1596 and 1598. Its genre has been criticized because, although it fulfills in a certain sense all the requirements of being a comedy, it is a "problem opera", a which raises more questions than answers (Truxler Coleman, 1992). Some even have difficulty calling it a comedy due to its inherent anti-Semitism. The Merchant of Venice is set in the cultural melting pot of Venice as well as Belmont. The role of Venice as a setting is interesting because it was supposedly a more religiously and racially tolerant place (Chambers, 1970) and Jews were allowed to live in Venice during the Shakespearean period, unlike in England. In 1290, after centuries of persecution of Jews in England, Edward I proclaimed an edict of expulsion, banishing all Jews from England. Jews were completely expelled until 1657 (Shapiro, 1996). This means that, unlike Catholicism in Othello, England's convergence into a Jewish state was not a fear in the eyes of the English. However, since there were no Jews in England, it is unlikely that most people in England around the time Shakespeare wrote The Merchant of Venice would have met a Jewish person, including Shakespeare, so all most knew about Jews it came from the stereotypes of the time. . During this period, the misconception that the Jews killed Christ, the myth of Jewish ritual murder and the blood libel, and other "anti-Semitic nonsense" were circulated, which were called "unfounded rumors" in relation to the Jewish people (Merriam Webster online) . time (Shapiro, 1996). This is evident in the play, as Shylock asks Antonio for a blood libel for his debt. It is especially evil because Shylock evidently doesn't care about getting the money; he just wants to murder in a horrible way... middle of paper... Guide to reading plays. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2002. Print."Moor" Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica. Web."Mortality game" Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica. Web.Orkin, Martin. “Othello and the 'plain face' of racism.” Shakespeare Quarterly Summer 1987: 166-88. Web."Othello" Online Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica. Web.Shakespeare, William, Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor. "The Merchant of Venice." The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998. Print.Shakespeare, William, Stanley Wells, and Gary Taylor. "Othello." The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998. Print.Shapiro, James. Shakespeare and the Jews. New York: Columbia UP, 1996. Print.West, Robert Hunter. Othello's Christianity. Np: Shakespeare Association of America, 1964. Print.