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I. Elizabethan ideas about circumcision

In the twentieth century circumcision has often been described as a symbolic form of castration or emasculation. This association has undoubtedly been influenced by the theories of Sigmund Freud, who, in an argument that bears a striking resemblance to Maria Edgeworth's ideas about childhood trauma and the wellsprings of anti-Jewish feelings, writes in Little Hans that the "castration complex is the deepest unconscious root of anti-semitism; for even in the nursery little boys hear that a Jew has something cut off his penis—a piece of his penis, they think—and this gives them a right to despise Jews. And there is no stronger unconscious root for the sensse of superiority over women."¹ For Frued, the symbolic act of circumcision proves a vital source of both misogyny and antisemitism.² The notion that circumcision could easily slide into the more definitive cut of castration did not originate...

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1. Introduction
2. I. Elizabethan ideas about circumcision
3. II. Romans and the theological meanings of circumcision
4. II Circumcision in the sources of The Merchant
5. III. The circumcision of the heart
6. IV. Uncircumcision
7. Copyright