Merchant of Venice Flashcards
Quotes showing Antonio will do anything for Bassanio
Antonio, after Bassanio asks him for more money to attract Portia-“And out of doubt
you do me now more wrong In making question of my uttermost”
Antonio - “Shylock, albeit I neither lend nor borrow By taking nor by giving of excess, Yet to supply the ripe wants of my friend I’ll break a custom.”
Antonio - “That shall be rack’d, even to the uttermost, To furnish thee to Belmont, to fair Portia.”
Antonio to Bassanio - “Grieve not that I am fall’n to this for you”
Antonio-“Neither have I money nor commodity To raise a present sum: therefore go forth; Try what my credit can in Venice do.”
Superficial love in play
Bassanio doesn’t just want to marry Portia for love, he wants to marry
her for money(“In Belmont is a lady richly left, and she is fair”- Mentions wealth before appearance)
Jessica-“O Lorenzo If thou keep promise, I shall end this strife”
When Salarino and Gratiano are waiting outside Shylock’s house to help Lorenzo rescue Jessica, Salarino says,”Here comes Lorenzo.”
Salarino-“Lorenzo’s hour is almost past”
Lorenzo - “Fair Jessica shall be my torchbearer”
Portia’s loyalty towards father
Portia - “If I live to be as old as Sibylla, I will die as chaste as Diana”: Diana is the classical goddess of chastity
Happy marriage - she “never” wants Bassanio to be sad(cares for him)
Jessica’s disloyalty towards her father
Ignores father’s instruction to not “gaze on Christian fools”
Lorenzo claims - “Troilus, methinks, mounted the Trojan walls And sighed his soul toward the Grecian tents where Cressid lay that night”: “Troilus” and “Cressid” are used by Lorenzo to refer to how in the Troian War, Troilus was separated from Cressida when she was taken to the Greek camp
Shylock needs bond to have power/revenge over Antonio
Shylock - “If you repay me not on such a day, in such a place, such sums or sums as are Express’d in the condition, let the forfeit Be nominated for an equal pound Of your fair flesh, to be cut off and taken.”
Shylock claims through bond he’ll show “kindness”- yet this is dramatic irony as the audience know from earlier in the play Shylock actually wants revenge over Antonio
Shylock - “I will have my bond” to threaten Antonio when he’s arrested
Why Shylock hates Antonio
In front of the jailer, Shylock refers to him as “the fool that lent out money gratis”
Shylock claims -“ I hate him for he is a Christian”
Shylock describes Antonio as having “mocked at my gains”
Shylock describes Antonio as having to “spit upon my Jewish gaberdine.”
Antonio doesn’t understand why Shylock hates him:”He seeks my life, his reason well I know:I oft deliver’d from his forfeitures Many that have at times made moan to me;Therefore he hates me.”(“Deliver’d” is a metaphor for how Antonio’s bailed out Shylock’s debtors by giving them the money they owe Shylock)
Bond more important to Shylock than anything else
Shylock - “If every ducat in six thousand ducats Were in six parts, and every part a ducat, I would not draw them. I would have my bond.”
Shylock - “No, not for Venice!”(even if Shylock was the Duke of Venice, he wouldn’t take the money he’s given)
Portia ensures Antonio’s unscathed by bond X importance of women
Despite being disguised as Balthazar(a lawyer), she manages to save Antonio-“This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood”, without female identity being proven(dramatic irony)
Shylock loves money so much, he doesn’t seem more concerned about losing Jessica than about losing his money
Shylock(when finding money and daughter is lost)-“And jewels, two stones, two rich and precipus stones, Stolen by my daughter!”
Shylock - “Find the girl; she hath the stones upon her, and the ducats.”
Bassanio realising dangerous desires
Bassanio realises when choosing correct casket to marry Portia “what plea so tainted and corrupt, But, being seasoned with a gracious voice, Obscures the show of evil?”- dramatic irony as Bassanio doesn’t understand full extent to which Shylock seeks revenge on Antonio(seen by audience earlier in the play)
Bassanio - “The seeming truth which cunning times put on To entrap the wisest”- Irony, because audience know Bassanio gets Antonio to borrow money from Shylock to present him as a wealthy suitor to Portia
Dramatic irony for audience - even if Bassanio succeeds in casket test, Bassanio will still be despondent when he hears of Antonio’s ship losses(which audience hear about earlier in the plau)
Bassanio maturing after casking test - puts aside dangerous desires and loves Portia
After events of casket test and hearing Antonio’s troubles, Bassanio claims,”Dear lady, Rating myself at nothing, you shall see how much I was a braggart.”
Human instincts and emotions, including hidden dangerous desires, have same impact no matter what setting
Venice - bustling, tense city, street scenes
Belmont - more domestic, peaceful setting
Bassanio, despite being in Belmont, feels unbearable, helpless anguish at Shylock wanting to take a pound of Antonio’s flesh:
Portia claims Bassanio’s reaction to letter informing him of Antonio’s troibles as getting “worse and worse.”
Bassanio finds lack of mercy unbearable - “But none can drive him from the envious plea Of forfeiture, of justice, and his bond.”
Shylock abused throughout
Lancelot, Shylock’s servant, justifies why he wants to leave Shylock by saying,”I am a Jew, if I serve the Jew.”
Solanio refers to Shylock’s confusion at losing daughter as “the dog Jew did utter in the streets”- dramatic irony, because when Shylock enters Solanio’s sight, Shylock claims,”How now, Shylock, what news among the merchants?”
Gratiano describes Shylock as “wolfish, bloody, starved and ravenous”: shows Shylock’s greedy, dog-like nature, one reason Jews were hated was because of their perceived biblical role in Jesus’s crucifixion and could show trope all Iews were after Christian blood
Heroes in Merchant of Venice not exempt from prejudiced feelings
Portia will not marry French Lord - “for if he love me to madness, I shall never requite him” because “he is every man in no man”(dramatic irony, because Bassanio asks Antonio take Shylock’s money to copy other attractive suitors for Portia)
Portia would rather a black person the priest in charge of marriage than marrying her, claiming if one of her suitors has “the condition of a saint, and the complexion of a devil, I had rather she should shrive than wive me.”
Shylock revenge on Christians
Shylock claims that Jews, compared to Christians, they are “fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is!”
Shylock claims to Christians “the villainy you teach me I will execute.”
