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Summary of Merchant of Venice Act 3, Scene 3 ICSE Class 10, 9 English

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Summary Act 3 Scene 3

In Venice, Antonio has been allowed to leave the jail, accompanied by his jailer. He hopes to speak with Shylock and plead for mercy, but Shylock refuses to listen. Five times while Antonio begs Shylock to let him speak, the moneylender repeats emphatically, “I’ll have my bond!” Antonio has publicly called Shylock a “dog”; now Antonio will feel the fangs of that dog. Shylock refuses to be a “soft and dull¬eyed fool” and “rent, sigh, and yield.” He is absolutely certain that the Duke of Venice will see that justice is carried out according to the terms of the bargain.

Salarino tries to comfort Antonio but is unsuccessful. Antonio knows that one of the chief reasons why Shylock hates him so much is that Antonio often saved people who were in debt to Shylock by paying their debts for them. Thus he prevented Shylock from foreclosing and claiming their collateral. He also knows that the Duke of Venice must judge according to the letter of the law. Venice is an international trade center; money lending is a major business and cannot be treated lightly. Antonio must pay his debt according to his contract. He knows that Shylock seeks his life, and the law cannot save him. He is prepared to die if only Bassanio will “come / To see me pay his debt, and then I care not.”

Analysis Act 3 Scene 3

In this short scene, the action of the bond plot quickens toward its climax at the beginning of Act IV. Here, Shylock’s language indicates his obsession with a single idea through the repetition of a single word. The word is “bond,” repeated twice at the opening of his speech, recurring again at lines 12 and 13, and a final time as Shylock makes his exit, deaf to any more pleading: “I will have my bond.”

In stark contrast to Shylock’s fiery outbursts is Antonio’s quiet, almost fatalistic acceptance of his position. He sees that prayers are useless; later, he conceives of himself as being a “tainted wether of the flock.” The phrase “He seeks my life” is delivered with the hopeless finality of one already on the way to execution. Such passive acceptance suggests that he is doomed and increases our dramatic anticipation of what is to come. Furthermore, Antonio himself points out that the Venetian state cannot save him; their commercial existence depends upon the rigorous enforcement of the law. Yet, Shakespeare has embedded in our minds how miserly Shylock is; now he teases us and keeps us in suspense: Will Portia’s money be enough to satisfy Shylock and make him give up his obsession with the “bond” of a pound of flesh ?

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Summary of Merchant of Venice Act 3, Scene 2 ICSE Class 10, 9 English

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Summary Act 3 Scene 2

At Belmont, Portia would like Bassanio to delay before he chooses one of the caskets. Already she has fallen in love with him, and she fears the outcome. She asks him to “tarry,” to “pause a day or two,” to “forbear awhile”; anything, she tells him, to keep him from possibly choosing the wrong casket. Bassanio, however, begs to choose one of them. His anxiety is too great. If he waits, it is as though he “lives on the rack.” Thus Portia acquiesces and tells her servants that this choice is no ordinary choice; therefore, she would like music to be played “while he doth make his choice.”

The song which is sung, beginning “Tell me where is fancy bred,” has ominous lyrics. Bassanio surveys the caskets, reads their inscriptions, and is reminded by the background music that “fancy” is sometimes bred in the heart and is sometimes bred in the head. The words seem to warn him not to judge by external appearance. Consequently, Bassanio rejects the golden casket; it is a symbol for all “outward shows”; likewise, he rejects the silver casket, calling it a “common drudge / ‘Tween man and man.” Instead, he chooses the casket made of “meagre lead,” which is the least attractive of the caskets — if they are judged by appearance alone.

When Bassanio’s choice is made, Portia prays in an aside for help in containing her emotions. She watches rapturously as Bassanio opens the lead casket and finds in it a picture of Portia, which, though beautifully painted, fails to do her justice, in Bassanio’s opinion. Alongside Portia’s portrait, there is a scroll which tells him, “Turn you where your lady is / And claim her with a loving kiss.” Still giddy from his success, Bassanio does so, and Portia, who only a moment before was mistress of herself and of all her possessions, now commits herself and all she owns to her new lord. She also presents him with a ring, a symbol of their union, which he is never to “part from, lose, or give away.” Bassanio promises to wear the ring as long as he lives.

Nerissa and Gratiano congratulate the lovers and announce that they also have made a match and ask . permission to be married at the wedding ceremony of Portia and Bassanio. Portia agrees to the double wedding, and Gratiano boastfully wagers that he and Nerissa produce a boy before they do.

While the lovers are enjoying their happiness, Lorenzo, Jessica, and Salerio arrive. Salerio says that he has come with a letter from Antonio to Bassanio, and that he met Lorenzo and Jessica, whom he persuaded to come with him. As Portia welcomes her fiance’s old friends, Bassanio opens Antonio’s letter. He reads it, and Portia notices that he has turned pale; the letter contains bad news. She begs him to share the cause of his anguish, and he tells her that he has just read “the unpleasant’st words / That ever blotted paper.” He confesses that he is deeply in debt to “a dear friend” who in turn is in debt to a dangerous enemy. Turning to Salerio, Bassanio asks, “But is it true? . . . Hath all his ventures fail’d?” Has not a single one of Antonio’s ships returned safely? Not one, Salerio replies, and besides, even if Antonio now had the money to repay Shylock it would do no good, for Shylock is already boasting of how he will demand “justice” and the payment of the penalty for the forfeited bond. Jessica testifies to her father’s determination to “have Antonio’s flesh” rather than accept “twenty times the value of the sum” that Antonio owes.

When Portia understands that it is Bassanio’s “dear friend that is thus in trouble,” she offers to pay any amount to prevent his suffering “through Bassanio’s fault.” But first, she and Bassanio will be married and then immediately afterwards he must go to Antonio’s aid, “for never shall you lie by Portia’s side / With an unquiet soul.” In Bassanio’s absence, she and Nerissa “will live as maids and widows.” Bassanio then reads to Portia the full contents of Antonio’s letter, Antonio says that he wishes only to see Bassanio before he dies; his plans “have all miscarried,” he says; his “creditors grow cruel”; his “estate is very low”; and his “bond to the Jew is forfeit.” Yet, Antonio says, all debts between him and Bassanio are “cleared,” and he says that he wishes only “that I might but see you at my death.” Portia comprehends the gravity of the situation. Bassanio must leave at once. “O love, dispatch all business, and be gone!” she tells him, as her newly beth-othed lover makes ready to leave for Venice.

Analysis Act 3 Scene 2

This long scene brings the casket story to its climax with Bassanio’s choice. It begins with Portia’s speech begging Bassanio to delay in making his choice of caskets, “for in choosing wrong /1 lose your company.” Essentially, this speech is evidence for us of Portia’s love for Bassanio, and the chann of her speech lies in the fact that Portia cannot openly admit her love. She continues, and her attempts to verbally circumvent stating outright her feelings for Bassanio lead her to utter absolute nonsense. She declares: “One half of me is yours, the other half yours — / Mine own I would say; but if mine, then yours, / And so all yours!” This makes absolutely no sense at all; she is nearly giving in to her urge to tell Bassanio directly of her love for him.

Bassanio is obviously relieved to see that his love is returned. He speaks of feeling as though he were strained tautly on the rack. This admission, in turn, relieves Portia’s anxiety somewhat, and her old spirit of jesting returns and she wittily picks up on Bassanio’s choice of metaphor and teases him. This witty wordplay has the effect of delaying the choice of caskets and further allowing Portia to relax and display her spirit and sense of wit. We are never allowed to forget her intelligence because this element will be the key ingredient in the play’s climactic scene. Bassanio moves to the caskets, and Portia begins a lovely speech, built around the notion of sacrifice. Her phrase “I stand for sacrifice” is particularly apt. Twice, we have watched Portia prepare to become a sort of sacrificial victim, as it were, to unwanted suitors. She has not complained, but we now see that her role in this casket contest contains special intensity. Should Bassanio choose wrongly, she will literally be a sacrifice to a later, unloved husband, as well as being forever a victim of unfulfilled love.

The central idea in the song that is used as background music while Bassanio is making his choice of caskets focuses on the word “fancy.” Fancy, for Elizabethans, carried the meaning of whimsical affection. Bassanio picks up on this idea and elaborates on it when he meditates on the way in which “outward shows” mislead or deceive the observer. He extends this perception to law, religion, military honor, and physical beauty.

We are thus reminded of the way in which the Princes of Morocco and Arragon were taken in by the outer appearance of the gold and silver caskets. Bassanio rejects both of these caskets, and his reasons are significant in the total meaning of the play. He calls gold “hard food for Midas”; Midas imagined that gold itself could be something nutritive or life giving, and he starved to death for his mistake. This causes us to think of the play’s Midas-figure — Shylock, for whom wealth is, in itself, something of final, ultimate value. Bassanio calls silver the “common drudge / ‘Tween man and man.” Although silver is valued as a precious metal, more often than not it is a medium of exchange — money — and again, we think of Shylock’s misplaced values, which make silver an end in itself. And so Bassanio finally comes to choose the least likely looking casket — the leaden one — and, of course, his choice is the right one.

Both Bassanio’s speech and his choice of caskets touch on one of the central themes of the play — the contrast between appearance and reality; what appears to be valuable (gold and silver) turns out to be worthless, and what appears to be worthless (lead) turns out to be valuable. If we ask ourselves why Bassanio is enabled to judge rightly when others fail, the answer is simply that his motive is love, rather than pride or the desire for worldly gain.

Another idea that Shakespeare is developing here is concerned, again, with wealth. Bassanio sees wealth as useful only in securing love and happiness. Bassanio’s conduct suggests that the only use for wealth, for “all that he hath,” is in giving or risking it in the pursuit of happiness, not in hoarding it or worshipping it for its own sake.

The exchange of vows between Portia and Bassanio is conducted at an intense and exalted level. But because the play is a romantic comedy, its tone becomes lighter when Gratiano reveals that now that Bassanio has won Portia, he has won Nerissa, and his wooing is presented in bold contrast to Bassanio. Gratiano has worked at it “until I sweat again,” and he offers to bet that he and Nerissa will be the first of the two couples to produce a child, which rounds off the whole sequence with a typical coarse jest. The Elizabethans would have loved this ribald touch. Portia and Bassanio have presented their idyllic romantic love as something ideal; Gratiano readjusts the balance by the reminder that love is a physical as well as a spiritual union. So far, Venice and Belmont — the world of mercantile ventures and the world of love — have been kept separate. Now, with the arrival of Lorenzo, Jessica, and Salerino from Venice, these two worlds meet, and the evils of wealth, spawned in Venice, disrupt the happy serenity of Belmont. The news of Antonio’s danger puts a fearful obstacle in the way of the fulfillment of the play’s love story, for now Bassanio is torn by an agonizing conflict between his love and loyalty toward his new wife and his love and loyalty to his old friend Antonio.

Indicative of Portia rare character in this scene is her immediate reaction to the crisis at hand. She makes a decision and immediately attempts to put it into effect. Bassanio, she says, must “First go with me to church and call me wife, / And then away to Venice to your friend!” With such decisive ingenuity, it comes as no real surprise to us later when she is able both to conceive and successfully execute the strategy of the lawyer’s disguise and the courtroom victory over Shylock.

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Summary of Merchant of Venice Act 3, Scene 1 ICSE Class 10, 9 English

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Summary Act 3 Scene 1

In Venice, Salanio and Salarino are discussing the latest news on the Rialto, the bridge in Venice where many business offices are located. There is a rumor that a ship of Antonio’s has been wrecked off the southeast coast of England. Salanio despairs twice — once because of Antonio’s bad luck, and second because he sees Shylock approaching. Shylock lashes out at both men, accusing them of being accessories to Jessica’s elopement. They expected as much and mock the moneylender, scoffing at his metaphor when he complains that his “flesh and blood” has rebelled. Jessica, they say, is no more like Shylock than ivory is to jet, or Rhenish wine is to red wine. Shylock then reminds the two that their friend Antonio had best “look to his bond . . . look to his bond.” The implication is clear; Shylock has heard of the shipwreck.

Surely, says Salarino, if Antonio forfeits the bond, “thou wilt not take his flesh.” Shylock assures them that he will, for he is determined to be revenged on Antonio for many grievances, all committed against Shylock for one reason: because Shylock is a Jew. A Jew is a human being the same as a Christian, Shylock continues; like a Christian, a Jew has “eyes . . . hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions . . . [is] hurt . . . subject to the same diseases, [and] healed by the same means.” Like a Christian, a Jew bleeds if pricked, and since a Christian always revenges any wrong received from a Jew, Shylock will follow this example. A servant enters then and informs Salanio and Salarino that Antonio wishes to see them at his house.

As they depart, Shylock’s friend Tubal enters. Tubal has traced Jessica to Genoa, where he has heard news of her but could not find her. Shylock again moans about his losses, especially about his diamonds and ducats; he wishes Jessica were dead. Tubal interrupts and tells Shylock that he picked up additional news in Genoa: Another of Antonio’s ships has been “cast away, coming from Tripolis.” Shylock is elated. But as Tubal returns to the subject of Jessica’s excessive expenditures in Genoa, Shylock groans again. Thus Tubal reminds Shylock of Antonio’s tragic misfortunes, and the moneylender exults once more. One thing is certain, Tubal assures Shylock: “Antonio is certainly undone.” Shylock agrees and instructs Tubal to pay a police sergeant in advance to arrest Antonio if he forfeits the bond.

Analysis Act 3 Scene 1

This act opens with Salanio and Salarino again functioning as a chorus, informing the audience of the development of events against which the action of the scene will take place. The suggestion made earlier that Antonio’s mercantile ventures at sea might founder is now made specific. One of Antonio’s ships lies “wracked on the narrow seas . . . where the car cases of many a tall ship lie buried.” The news of the danger to Antonio also prepares us for the entrance of Shylock, the embodiment of that danger, who has by now discovered Jessica’s elopement.

The moneylender enters, and both we and Salanio know perfectly well what news concerns Shylock; Salanio’s sardonic greeting, with its pretense of wanting to know “the news,” is calculated to infuriate Shylock, for even though we have not seen Shylock since the elopement of his daughter, we know that his anger will have been fueled by the fact that Lorenzo — and, by implication, the whole Christian community — has dealt him a blow. One should be fully aware that Shylock is ever conscious of his Jewishness in a Christian community. Then at the mention of Antonio, Shylock says ominously, “Let him look to his bond.” Without question, the bond is “merry” no longer — but Salanio has not comprehended this yet. His half-serious question “Thou wilt not-take his flesh. What’s that good for?” is answered savagely: “If it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge,” Shylock declares.

The malicious digs of Salanio and Salarino produce one of Shylock’s most dramatic speeches in the play. It is written in prose, but it is a good example of the superb intensity to which Shakespeare can raise mere prose. Shylock’s series of accusing, rhetorical questions which form the central portion of the speech, from “Hath not a Jew eyes?” to “If you poison us, do we not die?” completely silences Shylock’s tormentors. In fact, this speech silences us. We ourselves have to ponder it. It is one of the greatest pleas for human tolerance in the whole of dramatic literature. But it is also something more, and we must not lose sight of its dramatic importance: It is a prelude to Shylock’s final decision concerning how he will deal with Antonio.

Shylock speaks of a Christian’s “humility” with heavy sarcasm; “humility,” he says, is a much-talked- of Christian virtue, but a virtue which is not much in evidence. The “humility” of a Christian, Shylock says, ceases when a Christian is harmed, for then the Christian takes revenge. That is the Christian’s solution, and that will also be Shylock’s course of action, his solution to the wrongs he has suffered: “The villainy you teach me I will execute.” And toward the end of the speech, he repeats, like a refrain, the word “revenge.”

Shylock’s speech on revenge is so powerful and so unanswerable that it is lost on Salanio and Salarino, who are none too bright anyway, but their silence on stage stuns us. Shakespeare has manipulated our sympathy. Then, just when were secure in feeling that Shylock’s reasoning was just, Shakespeare shows us another facet of Shylock, one which we have seen before — his concern with possessions — and thus we must reconsider the whole matter of justice which we thought we had just solved. Shylock’s friend Tubal enters, and in the exchange which follows, we realize that Shylock has become a miser in order to build his own personal defense against the hostile Christian mercantile world of Venice. But his defense has increased to such an extent that he no longer can contain it; it possesses him now. He cannot properly distinguish between the love of riches and his love for his daughter, Jessica. Shylock’s obsession for possessing has blinded him; his anger at the Christian world has corrupted even his love for his daughter: “I would my daughter were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear! Would she were dead at my foot, and the ducats in her coffin!” Thereby, we see the extent of Shylock’s hatred. By the end of the scene, the audience is convinced, if it was not before, that Shylock’s attack on Antonio will be absolutely relentless. If he can, he will literally take his “pound of flesh.”

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Summary of Merchant of Venice Act 2, Scene 9 ICSE Class 10, 9 English

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Summary Act 2 Scene 9

At Belmont, the Prince of Arragon has arrived to try his luck at choosing the correct casket, and before he decides on one, he promises Portia that he will abide by her father’s rules. First, if he fails to choose the casket containing her portrait, he will never reveal which casket he chose; second, he promises never to court another woman; and last, he will leave Belmont immediately.

Reviewing the inscriptions, he rejects the lead casket immediately because he thinks that it is not beautiful enough to give and risk all his possessions for. He also rejects the gold casket because “what many men desire” may place him on the same level with “the barbarous multitudes.” He thus chooses the silver casket, which bears the inscription, “Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.” Arragon reviews his worth and decides that he “will assume desert” — that is, he feels that he rightfully deserves Portia. When.he opens the silver casket, he finds within “the portrait of a blinking idiot” — a picture of a fool’s head. He protests the contents; he chose according to what he felt that he deserved: “Did I deserve no more than a fool’s head?” Portia reminds him that no man is permitted to judge his own cause. The scroll in the silver casket reads, “There be fools alive, I wis [know], / Silver’d o’er; and so was this.” Arragon departs then with his followers, promising to keep his oath.

Portia is dearly relieved and sums up the reason for the prince’s failure: “O, these deliberate fools! When they do choose, / They have their wisdom by their wit to lose.” In other words, even fools choose deliberately and believe that they are wise to deliberate; in fact, it is their excessive deliberation which ultimately defeats them.

A servant announces the arrival of a Venetian ambassador from another suitor and adds that he brings gifts; in fact, in the messenger’s estimation, the man who accompanies this latest suitor is “so likely an ambassador of love” that “a day in April never came so sweet.” Portia is neither impressed nor optimistic, yet she urges Nerissa to bring the man to her so that she can .see for herself this “quick Cupid’s post [messenger] that comes so mannerly.” Nerissa sighs; “Lord Love,” she prays, “if thy will it be,” let this suitor be Bassanio!

Analysis Act 2 Scene 9

This scene focuses on the Prince of Arragon’s choice of the three caskets. The Prince of Morocco’s choice was straightforward and simple. He chose the gold casket; it seemed to be the most obvious, most desirable choice. In contrast, the Prince.of Arragon’s choice is done with more prudence. The prince is a proud man; he seems older than Morocco and almost bloodless, compared to Morocco’s fiery charismatic bearing. Often, Shakespeare makes his characters’ names suggest their primary qualities; here, “Arragon” was probably chosen for its resemblance to “arrogant.” At any rate, Arragon is arrogant, a temperament befitting a Spanish grandee of noble blood, a familiar and conventional figure on the Elizabethan stage.

Once again, we hear the ambiguous inscriptions read for us, and we ourselves puzzle over the enigma of the metals and their relationship to the inscriptions. Arragon considers the caskets, but he does not make Morocco’s obvious choice. If gold represents “what many men desire,” then Arragon’s powerful belief in his own superiority to ’’the fool multitude that choose by show” makes him reject it. We can agree with that logic, but we have to reject his reasoning ultimately because it is based on his absolute assumption of his own superiority to the multitude.

The silver inscription, “Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves,” has an immediate appeal for Arragon. It prompts his observations on “merit” in which he laments the fact that there is so much “undeserved dignity” in the world ; he means those who are given honor without coming by it legitimately, through the “true seed” of noble inheritance. The man is a snob; he has absolutely no doubts about what he deserves, and since his nobility is inherited nobility, he can safely (he thinks) choose the silver casket and “assume desert.”

A factor that we should be aware of in this entire scene is an absence of any evidence that Arragon has any love, or even any affection, for Portia. Portia is “deserved.” Nowhere can we discern even an inkling of any craving for her. As was noted, the prince is rather bloodless.

In the suitors’ choice of the caskets, we have yet another variation of the illusion-reality theme: Gold and silver appear to be the obvious choices to the first two suitors, whose motives for choosing are in some way flawed; neither of them is truly in love with Portia, for example. Yet Bassanio, who does love Portia, will choose the casket which appears to be the least valuable; in reality, it will turn out to be the most valuable. Thus the ability to choose and to distinguish between what appears to be valuable and what really is valuable depends not so much on intelligence — Shylock is far more intelligent than Antonio or Bassanio — but on something deeper and more intangible. In this play, that certain intangible something is love; it is not glory (Morocco), nor nobility of social position (Arragon), nor wealth (Shylock), but love for another human being, which Bassanio and Portia clearly offer to one another. At this point, the love plot in the play becomes very much like a fairy tale — the beautiful princess is won by love, not by wealth or rank or by calculation; we are reminded of Nerissa’s comment in Act I, Scene 2: The proper casket will never be chosen by any rightly but one who you shall rightly love.” We now know which casket is the right one, and thus we can relax and enjoy the drama of Bassanio’s momentous choice. His approach (preceded by “an ambassador of love”) is now announced by a messenger, and the fulfillment of the play’s love story is clearly anticipated in Nerissa’s comment: “A day in April never came so sweet / To show how costly summer-was at hand.”

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Summary of Merchant of Venice Act 2, Scene 8 ICSE Class 10, 9 English

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Summary Act 2 Scene 8

Salarino and Salanio discuss developments in Venice. When Shylock discovered that Jessica was gone, he demanded that the Duke of Venice have Bassanio’s ship searched; this proved to be impossible because Bassanio had already sailed. Antonio, however, assured the duke that Lorenzo and Jessica were not on board Bassanio’s ship. Salanio then describes how Shylock raved in the streets, crying, “My daughter! O my ducats! 0 my daughter! / Fled with a Christian,” while “all the boys in Venice” followed him, mocking him, his daughter, and his ducats.

Salanio worries about what will happen to Antonio: He knows Shylock’s temper. Jessica’s elopement and Antonio’s swearing that Bassanio had no part in her escape “bade no good” for Antonio. He knows that Antonio must ’’keep his day” (repay his debt when it comes due) or else “he shall pay for this.” Salanio is likewise worried about Antonio’s future. Only yesterday, a Frenchman told him about an Italian ship that had sunk in the English Channel. He immediately thought of Antonio, hoping that the ship was not one of his. The news about the shipwreck must be broken gently to Antonio because Antonio is a sensitive man. Realizing that Antonio may need cheering up, Salanio and Salarino decide to pay him a visit.

Analysis Act 2 Scene 8

Salarino’s and Salanio’s opening lines are hurried and excited. Here and elsewhere in the play, notably in Act I, Scene 1, these two act more or less like a chorus; that is to say, they discuss developments of the plot not shown on the stage so that the audience will be aware of them and also of their importance. Here, they are concerned about Antonio’s fate, since Shylock is in a terrible temper, and the once “merry bond” is no longer “merry.”

Salanio’s speech, beginning at line 12, is introduced here for two reasons: First, Shylock’s rage must be described before it is shown so that we can anticipate his state of mind at his next entrance. Second, Shylock’s loss of both his daughter and much of his money are important for our understanding the extent of Shylock’s desire for revenge. At the beginning of the play, he has only two real reasons for hating Antonio — a commercial hatred and a religious hatred. To these is now added a shattering personal loss — he has lost his daughter, his only child, to a Christian, a friend of Antonio — making plausible his implacable desire for revenge against all Venetian Christians in the person of a man whom he has legally cornered: Antonio. In a very real sense, our sympathy goes out to Shylock, yet Shakespeare keeps us from pitying the man by having Salanio enact a sort of exaggerated parody of Shylock’s . greedy, histrionic behavior as he tells his friend Salarino how Shylock was chased in the streets by young boys, howling after him. Shylock’s repetitions of “O my ducats! O my daughter! … my ducats and my daughter” indicate that Jessica is simply, at this point, another possession, like his coins. Thus we are prevented from being too over sympathetic to an obsession which has blinded the old moneylender to the true difference between monetary and human values.

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Summary of Merchant of Venice Act 2, Scene 7 ICSE Class 10, 9 English

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Summary Act 2 Scene 7

At Belmont, in a room in Portia’s house, the Prince of Morocco surveys the three caskets — one of gold, one of silver, and one of lead. He must choose one, and if he chooses the correct one, his reward will be the “fair Portia.” As he reads the words engraved on the top of each casket, he ponders each of the cryptic inscriptions. On the leaden casket, he reads, “Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath”; on the silver casket, he reads, “Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves”; and on the golden casket, he reads, “Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.” Portia informs him that the correct casket contains her picture.

Morocco reviews the inscriptions again and rejects the lead casket as being not worth the high stakes for which he gambles. He ponders a long time over the silver casket. The words “get as much as he deserves” intrigue him. He is quite sure that he deserves Portia; he deserves her “in birth,” “in fortune,” “in grace,” “in qualities of breeding,” and most of all, “in love.” Yet, ultimately, he rejects the silver casket because he refuses to believe that Portia’s father would “immure” a portrait of his treasured daughter in a metal “ten times undervalued [as] tried gold.” The prince reasons that a portrait of Portia — a “mortal, breathing saint,” a woman whom “all the world desires” — could be only within the golden casket. He chooses, therefore, the golden casket, hoping to find “an angel in a golden bed.”

When he unlocks the casket and looks inside, he discovers only a skull (“carrion Death”) and a scroll rolled up and inserted within the skull’s “empty eye.” He takes it out and reads the message: “All that glisters is not gold; . . . Gilded tombs do worms in fold.” Defeated and grieving, he makes a hasty exit with his entourage. “A gentle riddance,” comments Portia.

Analysis Summary Act 2 Scene 7

In contrast to the scene preceding this one, now we have another colorful and theatrical spectacle of yet another rich suitor who has come to try and outwit fortune and claim Portia for his bride.

As Morocco inspects the caskets, Shakespeare is able to inform the audience more fully of the details of the casket competition for Portia’s hand. The casket that will win her contains a miniature portrait of her, and all of the caskets have inscriptions upon them, which Morocco reads for us. These inscriptions are important; each succeeding suitor will reflect upon them, and as he does so, he will reveal the truth about his own character. The inscriptions are, of course, intentionally ambiguous; they can be interpreted in more than one way. Remembering that this is a romantic comedy, we expect that Morocco will misinterpret them, as will Arragon later, and that finally Bassanio will read the inscriptions and interpret them correctly.

We should remember as we read this scene that Portia herself, at this point, does not know which of the caskets will win her. As Morocco moves from one to the next, Portia will be reacting on stage, silently revealing her thoughts, for she cannot guide Morocco, and we have some evidence for believing that Portia is not usually a quiet woman.

Morocco’s long speech, beginning at line 13, was no doubt inserted by Shakespeare to allow the actor plenty of time to move back and forth with much hesitation between the caskets. Talking to himself, he says, “Pause there, Morocco. . . . What if I strayed no further, but chose here?” He is postponing the moment of choice and prolonging the suspense of this dramatic moment. We have already seen Morocco and know that he is a proud and powerful prince, rich in his dress and in his language, and therefore it is no surprise to watch him move from the least beautiful and outwardly appealing of the caskets to the most beautiful; he has, he says, “a golden mind.” Thus he makes the most straightforward and obvious choice —- for him; the golden casket, for “Never so rich a gem / Was set in worse than gold.”’ When he opens it and finds the skull and the scroll, Shakespeare’s moral is clear — that is, wealth and sensory beauty, symbolized here by gold, are merely transitory: “Many a man his life hath sold / But my outside to behold.” We shall see later that the test of the caskets contains a theme that occurs elsewhere in the play: the difference between what merely seems and what really is — that is, the difference between appearance and reality. The caskets also suggest another element in the play — namely, the illusion that material wealth (gold and silver) is of value, when, in reality, it is of ultimately little value. Yet material wealth is Shylock’s obsession; gold is his real god, and therein is his tragic flaw.

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Summary of Merchant of Venice Act 2, Scene 6 ICSE Class 10, 9 English

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Summary Act 2 Scene 6

Gratiano and Salarino, masked and costumed for Bassanio’s party, wait for Lorenzo under the overhanging roof (the “penthouse”) of Shylock’s house. Gratiano is puzzled that Lorenzo is late for his rendezvous with Jessica; he knows that lovers usually “run before the dock.” Lorenzo’s delay is certainly uncharacteristic of most young lovers.

Suddenly, Lorenzo rushes onstage, apologizes for his lateness, and calls to Jessica. She appears above, dressed as a boy, and tosses down a casket of money and jewels to Lorenzo. Shyly, she says that she is ashamed to be eloping with her beloved while she is so unbecomingly dressed as a boy. “Cupid – himself,” she tells Lorenzo, “would blush.” Lorenzo tells her that she must play her part well; not only must she successfully be convincing as a boy, but she must also be his torchbearer at Bassanio’s party — a fact that unnerves her. The idea of “hold[ing] a candle to [her] shames” is frightening. She is certain that what Lorenzo is asking of her will lead to discovery, and she feels that she “should be obscured.” Lorenzo is finally able to reassure her, however, and Jessica turns back to do two last things before they elope. She wants to “make fast the doors” (as her father instructed her to do), and she wants to get “some more ducats.”

Gratiano praises her, and Lorenzo reaffirms that he will love her in his “constant soul,” for she is “wise, fair, and true.” Jessica then enters below, and the lovers and Salarino exit.

Antonio enters and, finding Gratiano, tells him that there will be “no masque tonight.” The wind has changed, and Bassanio and his men must sail for Belmont. Gratiano admits that he is relieved that there will be no feasting and no masque. He is anxious to be “under sail and gone tonight.”

Analysis Act 2 Scene 6

There is no real break between this scene and the preceding one. As Shylock exits, and Jessica exits only moments later, Gratiano and Salarino enter, costumed for the masque and carrying torches, Gratiano, as we might expect, does most of the talking as the two chaps wait beneath the overhanging roof of Shylock’s house.

When Lorenzo arrives onstage and Jessica appears above him, a modem audience would almost certainly think of the lovers Romeo and Juliet. Thus the romantic mood is immediately set — except that this romantic heroine is dressed in “the lovely garnish of a boy.” This was a popular and recurrent Elizabethan stage convention, and a very convenient one, since all the girls’ roles were played by boys. Shakespeare uses this disguise convention later in this same play with Portia and Nerissa disguised as a lawyer and his clerk.

At this point, since Jessica is both deserting her father’s house and robbing it, it is almost too easy, in one sense, to disapprove of her ; Shylock hasn’t really shown us a truly villainous side. One doesn’t take the “pound of flesh” bond literally — yet.

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Summary of Merchant of Venice Act 2, Scene 5 ICSE Class 10, 9 English

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Summary Act 2 Scene 5

Preparing to leave for Bassanio’s dinner party, to which he has accepted an invitation after all, Shylock encounters Launcelot, who has come to deliver Lorenzo’s reply to Jessica. Shylock chides his former servant and says that in Launcelot’s new capacity as Bassanio’s attendant, Launcelot will no longer be able to “gormandize” and “sleep and snore” as he was (theoretically) able to do with Shylock. All the while that Shylock is expostulating to Launcelot, his speeches are broken with repeated calls for Jessica. When she finally appears, he gives her the keys to the house and tells her that he is going to attend Bassanio’s dinner party. Grumbling, he confesses that he accepted the invitation “in hate, to feed upon / The prodigal Christian.” He elaborates further and says that he is “right loath to go”; he has a foreboding that “some ill [is] a – brewing.”

Launcelot urges his former master to go; he too has a premonition. He has a “feeling” (because his “nose fell a-bleeding on Black Monday last at six o’clock in the morning. . .”) that Bassanio is preparing an elaborate masque as part of the evening’s entertainment. Shylock is horrified at the suggestion that he may have to endure the bawdy, showy heresies of a Christian masque. He insists that if Jessica hears any sounds of the masque, she is to “stop up [his] house’s ears,” and she herself is to keep inside and not “gaze on Christian fools with varnished faces [painted masks]”; he vows that no “sound of shallow foppery” will enter his “sober house.” Despite grave misgivings, Shylock finally decides to set out for Bassanio’s dinner party — but not before repeating one final command for Jessica to stay inside: “Fast bind, fast find — / A proverb never stale in thrifty mind.” Shylock exits then, not realizing that Launcelot was able to whisper a quick word of advice to Jessica before he left: She is to be on watch for “a Christian” who will be “worth a Jewess’ eye” — Lorenzo.

Alone on the stage, Jessica anticipates her impending elopement and utters a prophetic couplet that closes the scene :
Farewell; and if my fortune be not crossed,
i have a father, you a daughter, lost.

Analysis Act 2 Scene 5

This scene elaborates on and gives additional dimension to the’character of Shylock. We know of Jessica’s intended elopement, and thus we understand Shylock’s sense of foreboding when he speaks of “some ill a-brewing.” Indeed, ill is brewing for him, and much of the drama in this scene is derived from the fact that both Jessica and Launcelot are anxious to get Shylock on his way so that they can make final arrangements for the elopement. Their suspense at his indecision as to whether to go or stay is the key to the drama here; Shylock says, “I am bid forth . . . But wherefore should I go? . . . But yet I’ll go … I am right loath to go.” Launcelot, in his excitement and anxiety, almost gives the elopement, plans away. He lets slip the phrase “They have conspired together” (22), but he immediately covers his mistake with some confused nonsense about his own prophetic dream; he predicts that there will be a masque at the party because his “nose fell a-bleeding on Black Monday.” This is not only a comic parallel of Shylock’s superstition concerning dreams, but also diverts the old moneylender from the suggestion that his daughter might be planning to elope.

Also central to this scene is Shylock’s concern with his possessions; note, for example, his obsession with locking and guarding the house, which he entrusts to Jessica. He calls her to him and gives her his keys, then almost takes them back again: “I am loath to go,” he says. The emphasis is on the protection of his wealth, and this emphasis appears again when he says, “Hear you me, Jessica: / Lock up my doors,” and it occurs again in “stop my house’s ears — I mean my casements”; even the idea of music entering his house is repellent to Shylock. He warns Jessica that perhaps he “will return immediately,” thus producing new anxiety in her — and in the emotions of the audience. Shylock’s last words — “shut doors after you. / Fast bind, fast find” — illustrate his inability to leave his possessions. Yet, even so, Shakespeare manages to suggest in his portrayal of Shylock’s miserliness a kind of unspoken, _ grudging affection for his daughter and, in this scene, for Launcelot ; he calls Jessica, affectionately, “Jessica my girl,” and of Launcelot he says, “the patch [a kindly nickname for a clown] is kind enough.” Still, though, both phrases are immediately followed by a return to his central fixation — his possessions. The great irony of the scene, of course, lies in our knowledge that while Shylock is concerned with his valuables, it is his daughter that he is about to lose, and it is to her that he entrusts his possessions. This is classic dramatic irony.

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Summary of Merchant of Venice Act 2, Scene 4 ICSE Class 10, 9 English

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Summary Act 2 Scene 4

Gratiano, Lorenzo, Salarino, and Salanio discuss their plans for Bassanio’s dinner party and masque ,, that night. All of the preparations have not been made; for example, one of the things which they have neglected to do, and which must be done is to hire young boys to act as torchbearers for the evening so that the gala party will be brightly lighted. This is to be a special evening, and all details must be considered.

While they are talking, Launcelot enters, on his way to invite Shylock to the party, and he delivers Jessica’s letter to Lorenzo. Lorenzo reads it and sends Jessica a reply: “Tell gentle Jessica /i will not fail her; speak it privately.” Lorenzo then tells his friends that he has found a torchbearer, and he confides to Gratiano that Jessica is going to disguise herself as a page tonight and elope with him; furthermore, she will escape with enough gold and jewels for a proper dowry. Lorenzo feels sure that Jessica, in a page’s attire, can successfully disguise herself as a torchbearer for Bassanio’s party and not be recognized.

Analysis Act 2 Scene 4

The masque, which the characters discuss never occurs; perhaps the play has been cut, or perhaps Shakespeare felt that there was simply not enough time for a masque. In any event, however, the anticipation of the masque causes the audience to envision it, and thus it suggests a youthful and romantic background to the Jessica-Lorenzo development (“Fair Jessica shall be my torchbearer”), a mood which is clearly antithetical to the self-denying and puritanical life of Shylock’s household.

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Summary of Merchant of Venice Act 2, Scene 3 ICSE Class 10, 9 English

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Summary Act 2 Scene 3

In this scene, set in Shylock’s house, we are introduced to Jessica, Shylock’s daughter. She is speaking with Launcelot, and she expresses her sorrow that he decided to leave his position as her father’s servant. Our house is hell,” she says, “and thou a merry devil / Didst rob it of some taste of tediousness.” She then gives him a letter to deliver secretly to her lover Lorenzo “who is thy new master’s [Bassanio’s] guest.” After Launcelot leaves, we discover that Jessica is planning to elope with Lorenzo; in addition, she is planning to renounce her father’s faith and become a Christian.

Analysis Act II Scene 3

This brief scene in Act 2 provides the final piece of plot exposition. Here, we are introduced to Shylock’s daughter, Jessica, and in her first words, we have a clear idea about her relationship with her father, and we receive some justification for her plan to leave the old moneylender’s house; she says, “Our house is hell.”

Her love letter, to be given to Lorenzo, will figure in the second of the play’s love affairs (Gratiano and Nerissa will prove a third in this play). It is important that the audience in this scene and in the next scene be aware of Jessica’s elopement with Lorenzo, since it adds very heavy irony to Shylock’s multiple warnings to his daughter in Scene 5 to guard his house well.

In this scene, Shylock is cast in the elicited role of the villain, primarily because of Jessica’s remarks, but one should remember that in a romantic comedy, one of the fathers would have to be a villain of sorts; here, it is Shylock. Interestingly, even though Jessica’s intention to leave her father’s household and rush into her lover’s arms seems natural enough, Jessica is aware of her “sin,” being her father’s child. Finally, though, as part of the romantic plot, all will be well with Jessica, and she will be a part of the general happiness at the play’s end.

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Summary of Merchant of Venice Act 2, Scene 2 ICSE Class 10, 9 English

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Summary Act 2 Scene 2

After the last, rather serious scene in Belmont, we return to Venice, and the initial emphasis here is on ‘ Launcelot Gobbo, Shylock’s servant, an “unthrifty knight.” Launcelot is debating with himself as to whether or not he should remain in Shylock’s service; he is tempted to leave and find employment elsewhere, but he is unable to make up his mind. The decision is difficult, he says, for he feels the i height of his “conscience hanging about the neck of his heart.”

The comedy builds when Launcelot’s father, Old Gobbo, comes onstage. Old Gobbo is “more than sand blind” and does not recognize his son. He sees before him only the dim image of a man who he hopes can direct him to Shylock’s house. Launcelot is delighted to encounter his father, whom he has not seen for a long time, and so he conceals his true identity and playfully confuses the old man with much clowning and double-talk, before revealing who he really is and kneeling to receive his father’s blessing.

Bassanio now enters, along with Leonardo and other followers, and he is enthusiastically talking of preparations for a dinner tonight, complete with a masque, to which he has invited his friends to celebrate his departure for Belmont, where he will begin his courtship of Portia. Launcelot is quick to note Bassanio’s good mood, and he immediately speaks to him about Bassanio’s hiring him as a servant. Bassanio agrees and orders a new set of livery for his new servant.

Gratiano enters, looking for Bassanio, and tells him, “I must go with you to Belmont.” Bassanio is hesitant, but he finally consents, urging Gratiano to modify his “wild behaviour,” which Gratiano agrees to do. But he will do that tomorrow. Tonight, he says, shall be a night of merriment, a gala inaugurating his setting out for Belmont.

Analysis Act 2 Scene 2

This scene, like Scene 1 and most of the rest of the nine scenes in Act II, deals with minor diversions and developments in the plot — the elopement of Lorenzo and Jessica, and Launcelot Gobbo’s transfer of his sendees from Shylock to Bassanio.

Almost all of this scene is taken up with the antics of Launcelot Gobbo, and it may be useful here to consider for a moment the clowns and comedy of the Elizabethan stage. Two of the most important members of any Elizabethan theatrical company were the actor who played the tragic hero and the actor who played the clown. It is obvious why the actor who played the great tragic roles was important, but it is perhaps not so easy for us to see, from the standpoint of the modem theater, why the role of a clown took on so much importance. The clowns, though, were great favorites with the Elizabethan audiences. Their parts involved a great deal of comic stage business — improvised actions, gestures, and expressions — and they had their own special routines. Launcelot, for example, would be given a great deal of leeway in using his own special comic devices. Much here depends on the actor’s “business” — mime, expressions of horror or stupid self-satisfaction, burlesque or parody movements around the stage, and so forth. This sort of scene is not written for verbal comedy (as Portia’s scenes are); rather, Shakespeare wrote them to give his actors as much scope as was necessary for visual antics. Today we call these gimmicks “sight gags” or “slapstick.” The dialogue itself is not particularly witty because the comedy was meant to be mostly physical. Launcelot’s opening speech takes the form of a debate between “the fiend” and his own “conscience.” The comedy here lies in the fact that the jester- clown Launcelot should regard himself as the hero of a religious drama, but this gives him the opportunity to mimic two separate parts, jumping back and forth on the stage and addressing himself: “Well, my conscience says, ‘Launcelot, budge not.’ ‘Budge,’ says the fiend. ‘Budge not,’ says my conscience” (18-20). Visually, this makes for good comedy; while reading this play aloud, one can enhance this brief scene by imagining that the voice of the conscience is delivered in high, falsetto, flute-like tones; the voice of the fiend, in contrast, is delivered in low, evil-sounding growl’s.

In addition to this clowning business, verbal confusion was also a favorite device in this sort of scene, and it occurs throughout the play. Notice, for example, the directions for finding Shylock’s house which Launcelot gives to his father: “Turn up on your right hand at the next turning, but at the next turning of all, on your left; marry, at the very next turning of no hand, but turn down indirectly.” Small wonder that Old Gobbo exclaims, “‘twill be a hard way to hit!”

There is more visual comedy when the two Gobbos confront Bassanio at line 120. Here, it is suggested by the lines that Launcelot bends down behind his father, popping up to interrupt him at every other line and finishing his sentences for him. This kind of comedy depends on visual and verbal confusion, especially mistaking obvious words and phrases. Particularly-characteristic of this clowning is the confusion of word meanings. Here, Launcelot speaks of his “true-begotten father,” and he uses “infection” for affection, “frutify” for certify, “defect” for effect, and so on.

Toward the close of the scene, two more details of the central plot are developed. First, Launcelot leaves Shylock’s household for that of Bassanio; this prepares us for a similar, if a much greater defection from Shylock by his daughter, Jessica, in the following scene. It also makes it possible for Launcelot to appear at Belmont in the final act, where a little of his clowning adds to the general good humor. Second, Gratiano announces his intention of going to Belmont with Bassanio; he must be there’ to marry Nerissa and take part in the comedy of the “ring story,” which ends the play with lighthearted teasing wit.

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Summary of Merchant of Venice Act 2, Scene 1 ICSE Class 10, 9 English

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Summary Act 2 Scene 1

There is a flourish of trumpets, and the Prince of Morocco enters. Portia, along with her confidante, Nerissa, and several ladies-in-waiting are present, and the prince, knowing that he is only one of many suitors who seek Portia’s hand in marriage, begins his courtship straightforwardly — that is, he initiates the subject of the color of his skin. Being from Morocco, he comes “in the shadowed livery of the burnished sun.” He has a very dark complexion, and he begs Portia to “mislike [him] not for [his] complexion.” Despite the color of his skin, however, his blood is as red as any of Portia’s other suitors, and he is as brave as any of them.

Portia tells him that he is “as fair” as any of the men who have come to seek her “affection.” Furthermore, were she not bound by the terms of her father’s will, he would stand as good a-chance as any other i suitor, According to her father’s will, however, if the prince wishes to try for her hand, he must take his chances like all the others. If he chooses wrongly, he must remain a bachelor forever; he is “never to speak to lady afterward / In way of marriage.”

The prince is not easily deterred; he is ready for the test. All in good time, says Portia; first, they shall have dinner together. Then his “hazard shall be made.” There is a flourish of trumpets, and the two exit.

Analysis Act 2 Scene 1

In contrast to the businesslike mood of Act I, this act begins with much visual and verbal pomp. Visually, the Prince of Morocco and Portia enter from opposite sides of the stage to a “flourish of . comets,” each followed by a train of attendants. Morocco then opens the dialogue with a proud reference to his dark skin, and the rich, regular, sonorous poetry which Shakespeare gives him to speak suggests that the prince possesses a large, imposing physical presence. Because we have already listened to Portia blithely dismiss the other suitors who have already appeared at Belmont so far, here, her greeting has both courtesy and respect — “Yourself, renowned Prince, then stood as fair / As any comer I have – looked on yet / For my affection.”

Since there are three caskets for Portia’s suitors to choose from, there will therefore be three occasions in which suitors will attempt the test of the caskets to win Portia in marriage. Thus the three contestants are subtly contrasted. The first, Morocco, is intensely physical; he is a warrior. He speaks of his red blood, the power of his scimitar, and of the courage that can “mock the lion when ‘a roars for prey.” Morocco is a straightforward soldier-prince; he is rightly self-assured and is contrasted to the Prince of Arragon (in Scene 9 of this act), whose excessive pride is concerned with lineage and position. Both of these suitors will fail, and although the audience knows, or suspects this (since the play is a romantic comedy, it must end happily, with Bassanio making the right choice and winning Portia), this knowledge does not interfere with the thrill of dramatic anticipation as Morocco, first, and, later, Arragon make their choices. Rationally, we may know how a story ends, but this does not prevent our imaginative excitement in watching the unfolding of events.

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