Stereotypes are saying bad things about someone because they belong in a certain group or race Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird both are based on the theme of stereotypes. In the next 3 paragraphs I will talk about stereotypes in To Kill a Mockingbird, The Merchant of Venice, and finally compare the stereotypes in both. There are many stereotypes and these 2 stories contain many that are alike.

One big theme in To Kill a Mockingbird is stereotypes. First of all there is a stereotype that scout should wear a dress and act more like a girl because she is a tomboy. Aunt Alexandra says this. “Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire. I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches”(81). This shows that Aunt Alexandra wants Scout to be more like a lady. Secondly there’s Tom Robinson who is black and wrongly accused. Tom was accused of raping Mayella Ewell and in the end the jury voted him guilty even though Atticus explains the evidence is in Tom’s favor “To begin with, this case should have never come to trial”(203). This quote shows that Atticus’s evidence is perfectly clear and Tom isn’t guilty but in the end because Tom is black the jury assumes he is bad and votes him guilty. Finally black people don’t have the same rights as white people. For example Calpurnia brings Scout and Jem to church and a lady gets mad and asked Calpurnia why she brought white kids to the black church day. “I wants to know why you bringin’ white chillum to nigger church”(119).Lula says this and it shows black people don’t have the same church time as white people and they treat each other as if the other wasn’t human. These are some examples of stereotypes in To Kill a Mockingbird.
There is also a lot of Stereotypes in The Merchant of Venice. Firstly Antonio is a rich Christian merchant who stereotypes Jews and doesn’t