Merchant Of Venice

Question 1

Why is Antonio sad at the start of the play?

Answer 1

He pretends that he doesn’t know why he’s sad, but in reality he’s just lonely and wants to be with Bassanio. We know this by him constantly reffering to his sadness at ‘it’.

Question 2

Where has all of Antonios money gone?

Answer 2

It is meant to be coming back on ships from where Antonio has been trading.

Question 3

What favour does Bassanio want from Antonio?

Answer 3

Bassanio wants Antonio to lend him some money so he can make the trip to belmont (to see Portia), due to how fond of Bassanio Antonio is, he will do this.

Question 4

Who does Portia choose who marries her?

Answer 4

They have to pick between three boxes, (gold, silver and lead) and whoever picks correctly will end up marrying her.

Question 5

Who is the only person that Portia actually wants to marry?

Answer 5

Bassanio

Question 6

Quotes to show Jessica doesn’t like her father…

Answer 6

“Our house is hell”
“Asham’d to be my fathers child”
“I am daughter to his blood, I am not to his manners”

Question 7

What quote tells us that Antonio is sad at the beggining of the play?

Answer 7

“In sooth, I know why am I not so sad”

Question 8

What quote shows us that Bassanio may not like Antonio as much as Antonio likes him….

Answer 8

Bassanio - ‘To you Antonio, I owe the most in money and in love” - Act 1 Scene 1. The word ‘owe’ shows that Bassanio hasn’t shown as much love Antonio has shown to him. Antonio is losing Bassanio to Portia

Question 9

What quote shows the hatred Antonio shows towards Shylock?

Answer 9

Shylock - “You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog, And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine.” Act 1 Scene 3

Question 10

What does the Prince of Morocco tell us about how someone looks on the outside compared to the inside?

Answer 10

“All that glisters is not gold” - Act 2 Scene 7

Question 11

What quote by Shylock shows us that Jews are no different on the inside to Christians?

Answer 11

“Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?” - Act 3 Scene 1

Question 12

What does Portia say to Bassanio about if he loses/gives away the ring?

Answer 12

“Let it presage the ruin of your love”

Question 13

Metaphor used by Salarino Act 1 Scene 1 about Antonio’s feelings…

Answer 13

“Your mind is tossing on the ocean” - a extended metaphor as his ships are also out on the ocean.
“See the holy edifice of stone” - like sharp rocks in the sea

Question 14

What quote by Antonio shows us that he’s a realist…

Answer 14

“I hold the world but as the world” - Act 1 Scene 1

Question 15

What from Bassanio in Act 1 Scene 1 shows us that he is very compfortable with Antonio

Answer 15

They don’t always speak in Iambic pentameter showing they have a very good friendship.

Question 16

Quote from Antonio Act 1 scene 1 showing he’d do anything for Bassanio….

Answer 16

“My purse, my person, my extremest means lie all unlock’d to your occasions (needs)”

Question 17

What shows us that Portia might be annoyed at her fathers rules for her marriage? Act 1 scene 2

Answer 17

‘So is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father”

Question 18

How can we tell Portia and Nerissa get on well?

Answer 18

Portia talks to her in prose, possibly out of respect so her servant is able to understand. They also gossip together about who Portia may marry.

Question 19

What in the bond shows us Antonio will do absoultely anything for Bassanio?

Answer 19

Antonio makes a bond with his worst enemy Shylock for him.

Question 20

What quote tells us Bassanio isn’t very good with money?

Answer 20

“Be assured you may” - he’s getting excited about the bond before a deal is actually decided

Question 21

Why does Shylock hate Antonio? Act 1 Scene 3….

Answer 21

“I hate him for he is christian”
“He lends out money gratis”
“On me, my bargains, and my well-won thrift which he calls interest” - Antonio runs him down in public saying he charges too much

Question 22

What is ‘cut-throat dog’ an example of?

Answer 22

Zoomorphism, when you give a human non-human entities.

Question 23

What are the two views people have on justice in the merchant of venice?

Answer 23

Christains can’t understand why Shylock doesn’t drop the bond, they believe paying off the debt should be enough.
However Shylock feels he’s suffered for so long the bond is the opportunity to make Antonio suffer in return, “The villainy you teach me, I will execute”.

Question 24

What does Shylock recieve justice in and what doesn’t Shylock recieve justice in?

Answer 24

By the law, Shylock does end up recieving justice. However he doesn’t get the justice he feels that he deserves.

Question 25

What Irony is there when Shylock asks the Christians to show mercy?

Answer 25

The Christians ask Shylock to be merciful towards Antonio (audience would agree with this, in Elizathethan England revenge was against Christian morals).
However, the Christians didn’t always show merch themselves, the Christians purchased slaves and made them work like ‘asses’ and ‘dogs’ (use of zoomorphism). Grantiano (a christian) also says about Shylock ‘he must be hanged’.

Question 26

How would a modern audience feel about how Shylock was treated in court by the Christians?

Answer 26

Horrified, they would see it as completelt unacceptable to see someone forced to leave their religion to join another.

Question 27

What quote by Portia shows that she cannot make Shylock show mercy, he has to want to show it?

Answer 27

“The quality of mercy is not strained”.

Question 28

What love do we see in The Merchant of Venice?

Answer 28

Romantic love
Religious love
Family love
Friendship love

Question 29

Marriage in the 16th century?

Answer 29

Men would often have aurthority over their wives and women has little control of what they could actually do. Men would get a dowry (money) from the brides family when they marry. As Bassanio says Portia is “a lady richly left”. Those who didn’t marry were seen as outsiders, which could be a reason for Nerrisa and Gratianos sudden marriage.

Question 30

Who is one person who cares about his love for their partner?

Answer 30

Lorenzo - “Breshew me but I love her heartily”. The stative verb ‘love’ shows that he loves Jessica dearly and doesn’t care of the consequenses that could come with it.

Question 31

What technique does Shakespeare use when Bassanio talks to Portia in a loving way?

Answer 31

Hyperbole, Bassanio often over exaggerates making his love seem less genuine, such as “Here are sever’d lips, parted with sugar breath; so sweet a bar”. He compared waiting to pick a casket to torture through the metaphor, “For as I am, I live upon the rack”.

Question 32

What extended metaphor of money can be used to show Portia displace Antonio?

Answer 32

Antonio was very close to Bassanio, and Ant was keeping him going by providing money when it was needed, however now he has Portia’s money and doesn’t need to be reliant on Antonio, the money represents the shift Bassanio has made in who he’s most fond of.

Question 33

How does appearende differ from reality in the MoV?

Answer 33

The caskets do not appear as they should, even though the gold one looks most appealing ‘all the glitters is not gold’. The outward sign may not be what’s on the inside.
Portia claims she isn’t ‘solely led’ by someones appearence, but when she’s talking to Nerissa she says the German is “little better than a beast” when he’s drunk. This use of anthropomorphism suggests he almost isn’t even human when he’s drunk.

Question 34

What was the irony in female characters being discuised as men in Shakespeare?

Answer 34

All actors would have been men in Elizabethan times, so this would be a man dressed as a women dressed as a man.
Also women had very little authority, so there’s a great deal of irony used when Portia is suddenly greatly respected by the courtroom simply dressed as a man.

Question 35

How do disguises help to highlight characters floors?

Answer 35

Bassanio swears to keep the ring saying, ‘when this ring parts from this finger, then life parts from hence. However in reality Bassanio is persuaded incredibly easily to hand over the ring.

Question 36

How is money/wealth a central theme to the plot?

Answer 36

Not only is the whole bond for money, but Shylock also hates Antonio because he ‘lends money gratis’, equally however Antonio talks badly on Shylock publically saying that he charges too much interest on his bonds.

Question 37

Where is money at the front of characters minds?

Answer 37

Bassanio tells Antonio that Portia is ‘richly left’ straight away when describing her, she can help him pay off his debts.
Shylock says ‘A theif gone with so much’ when Jessica leaves him, this suggests to the audience Shylock’s more concerned of all Jessica has taken, rather than that fact his own daughter is gone.

Question 38

How was religious prejustice common in MoV?

Answer 38

In the time of Shakespeares audience, Jews were banned from England so they’d have very little or no contact with Jews, their oppinions of them are purely based on what they’ve been told. Shylock has a hostile attitude towards Christains, and he refuses to pray or drink with them, this shows he dislikes christians on a whole, before actually getting to know them.

Question 39

How is hatred deep-rooted in the play? (Prejudice theme)

Answer 39

Shylock says ‘I hate him for he’s a Christain’, his loathing for Antonio drives his desire for revenge in the play.
Antonio says he would ‘spit on thee (shylock) again’, Shylock has ‘no firm reason’ other than ‘hate’ to take Antonios flesh.
There’s no seeable end to the hatred, despite all the problems that it causes.

Question 40

How can we see Bassanio isn’t very responsible with money?

Answer 40

‘Shoot another arrow that self way Which you did shoot the first’ - If he loses something, he will do the exact same thing again in a bid to find it.

Question 41

What metaphor does Portia use when describing the three chests that her father has set up?

Answer 41

A lottery

Question 42

What does Portia say, showing she knows the way that she describes some of these men are wrong?

Answer 42

‘I know it is a sin to be a mocker, but he!

Question 43

When is the one time that Shylock will talk to christians?

Answer 43

When he can take their money, ‘I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you.’

Question 44

What metaphor does Antonio use when describing Shylock?

Answer 44

‘A goodly apple rotten at the heart’ - saying that at heart he’s a bad person.

Question 45

What irony does Shylock use when agreeing the bond with Antonio?

Answer 45

“Hath a dog money” - Antonio repeatedley calls Shylock a dog but now Shylock plays his own tricks on him.

Question 46

What in Lancelots opening speech tells us that he dislikes Shylock?

Answer 46

“A kind of devil”

Question 47

What happens between Lancelot and his father in Act 2 Scene 2?

Answer 47

Lancelot pretends that he isn’t who he is on his father Gobbo, who is blind. Lancelot is seen as being the clown in this play.

Question 48

What technique is often used when Gobbo and Lancelot are speaking?

Answer 48

Malapromism, when they use the incorrect word which sounds similar to the word that they meant to say.

Question 49

What quote shows that Portia would rather a life of isolation than to disobey her father?

Answer 49

“I will die as chaste as Diana, unless I be obtained by the manner of my fathers will”

Question 50

How is Jessica isolated?

Answer 50

She doesn’t fit in well with her father, but she also isn’t christian.

Question 51

How can we see Shylocks prejudice veiws based on money?

Answer 51

He calls Antonio a ‘good man’, but this isn’t done off morals, he’s judging them based on if they’re good to lend money to.

Question 52

What quote shows us Antonio is unable to believe Shylock is simple being kind?

Answer 52

“The Hebrew will turn Christian, he grows kind”.

Question 53

How can we see Lorenzo has an anti semetic prejudice?

Answer 53

“That she is issue to a faithless Jew” - Lorenzo knows that she will never fully lose her Jewishness and sees this as an issue.

Question 54

What technique is Shylock’s repition of “I’ll have my bond” at the beginning of the phrase.

Answer 54

A anaphora.

Question 55

What does Shylock say showing the he is worthy of an apology, or at least recognition of the injustice.

Answer 55

“Hath a dog money”
“You call’d me dog”
“Spit upon my Jewish gaberdine”
“Call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog”

Question 56

Why does Shylock want Antonio’s flesh so badly?

Answer 56

We aren’t fully aware and it’s very suspicious that he has it just waiting on his tongue like that.

Question 57

What was Shylocks great emotional shock?

Answer 57

“My daughter, O my ducats… fled with a Christian” - (by Solanio quoting Shylock), Shylock has lost all that he has in life, and justice is all that’s left.

Question 58

What significance does Solanio saying “Let good Antonio keep his day, Or he shall pay for this” mean?

Answer 58

Antonio is the one person that Shylock has control over by law, and therefore Shylock will take out all he can on Antonio for his rage over all of Christianity.

Question 59

What does Shylock saying, “Thief gone with so much, and so much to find the theif; and no satisfaction, no revenge” show?

Answer 59

The fact that Shylock can’t even get any justice for what has gone against him is just as upsetting as the fact that his daughter and his money is gone.

Question 60

What quote by Portia shows that marriage is more important than friendship?

Answer 60

“First go with me to church and call me wife” - Although Portia also wants Antonio to be saved, she’s aware that marriage is most important and therefore should come first.

Question 61

What is the significance of Bassanio saying Portia is ‘Fairer than the word’.

Answer 61

She is so pretty that even the superlative of the word wouldn’t suit her well enough. This was however only after Bassanio says she’s ‘richly left’.

Question 62

Shylock says, “Jessica my girl, look to my house”

Answer 62

Familarial love, Shylock feels calling him ‘my girl’ is enough to make sure she looks after his money and house.