The Vengeful and the Virtuous in ShakespeareWhether you hate your king, your Christian rival, or a near enemy, if you are in a play of Shakespeare then you will be punished. In the first act of each play Shakespeare shows a conflict between two groups of people, one is vindictive and the other is virtuous. After the conflict is introduced, the malicious characters have important parts of their lives taken away, and the ultimate punishments are ultimately inflicted on each. All the antagonists are left desolate at the end of the plays due to lost fortunes or their lives. Shakespeare takes great care to give the protagonists of the plays many rewards for being on the right side of the spectrum. As the characters' hatred increases over the course of the play, they begin to lose what is precious to them, at first in small amounts, but eventually they are stripped of everything they love and appreciate. The basis of hatred is introduced to the public very early on. in all three plays. The Capulets and Montagues were feuding neighboring families. Shakespeare never states the reason for the dispute between the two but clearly shows the hatred from the beginning. "Two families, both similar in dignity, in beautiful Verona, where we set our scene, from the ancient breaking of rancor to the new mutiny, where civil blood makes civil hands impure" (I i 1-4). These first lines of the work clearly describe the hatred between the two families and at the same time foreshadow an unpleasant end. In "The Merchant of Venice", Shylock states more boldly: "I hate him because he is a Christian" (I iii 39). This cry of hatred is also present at the beginning of the play, which clearly helps show the reader that he is the antagonist of the play. In "Henry IV" it is revealed in the first scene that a young Hotspur has been keeping the prisoners of war away from the king. He calls King Bolingbroke behind his back for disrespect. "All studies here I solemnly challenge, except how to annoy and pinch this Bolingbroke. And that same sword and shield Prince of Wales (I iii 227-229). In Shakespearean plays, a character who hates or plots against the king is automatically the villain of the opera. The first act of all three plays revealed the characters the audience could root against throughout the opera.