Merchant of Venice Act 5 Flashcards
Portia’s Garden, Lorenzo & Jessica lounge in the moonlight. Trying to outdo each other, they flirt, comparing themselves to famous lovers of classical legends: Troilus & Cressida, Pyramus & Thisbe, Dido & Aeneas, & Medea & Jason.
- “In such a night // Did Thisbe fearfully o’ertrip the dew”
- “In such a night // Stood Dido with a willow in her hand”
Literary Devices?
- Allusions
- Satire
- Shared lines, balanced phrases = harmony in love
- While the setting seems idyllic & full of love, the reference to classical lovers actually suggest the perils of love as things end badly for each of the couples named.
- Jessica’s and Lorenzo’s relationship is built on betrayal & conflict, suggesting uncertainty in their relationship & foreshadows later problems for the couple.
Deception:
“She doth stray about // By holy crosses…”
- “…where she kneels and prays // For happy wedlock hours”
- This is where people in Belmont think Jessica is.
- Audience onstage is still being deceived.
Music & Love:
Lorenzo: “let the sounds of music //”
- “…creep in our ears; soft stillness and the night // Become touches of sweet harmony”
- Interconnectivity of music and love
- Lorenzo’s lines 54 - 68 describe ‘the music of the spheres’: the ancient belief that moving stars & planets revolved on crystal spheres & made heavenly music as they orbited.
Music & Love:
“With sweetest touches pierce your mistress’ ear…”
”// And draw her home with music.”
Jessica’s Quote: Shakespeare’s reminder to the audience of Shylock who is not present.
- Jessica: “I am never merry when I hear sweet music.”
Portia referring to her good deed
“That light […] that little candle […] So shines a good deed in a naughty world.”
Portia: “He knows me as the blind man knows the cuckoo // By the bad voice.”
- Duality
- Portia is humble with Lorenzo & boasts of her good deed with Nerissa.
“How many things by season seasoned are // To their right praise & true perfection.”
So many things are made perfect and as they should be by good timing
Antonio’s and Bassanio’s bond of friendship + financial bond
“This is the man, this is Antonio,
// To whom I am so infinitely bound.”
“About a hoop of gold, a paltry ring // That she did give me, whose poesy was // For all the world like cutler’s poetry // Upon a knife: ‘Love me, and leave me not.’”
- Gratiano to Nerissa
- Their relationship
- Gratiano undermines the worth of the ring, calling small & meagre.
- He does not value their relationship as much as Nerissa does.
- Link to patriarchy in marriages of the time
Nerissa’s line, “The clerk will ne’er wear hair on’s face that had it” is an example of what technique?
- Dramatic irony
- Deception as Nerissa was in disguise
Marriage (the bond between husband and wife):
Portia’s expectations in a marriage
“A thing stuck on with oaths upon your finger // And so riveted with faith unto your flesh.”
“Watch me like Argus. // If you do not, if I be left alone, // Now by mine honour which is yet mine own, // I’ll have that doctor for my bedfellow.”
- Dramatic irony & veiled threat from Portia
Portia to Bassanio:
“Swear by your double self”
- Irony & hypocrisy as Portia was the one with a double identity.
- Followed by Bassanio’s imploring tone “Nay, but hear me.”
Literary devices in:
“Whether till the next night she had rather stay, // Or go to bed now, being two hours to day. // But were the day come, I should wish it dark, // Till I were couching with the doctor’s clerk. // Well, while I live I’ll fear no other thing // So sore as keeping safe Nerissa’s ring.”
- Rhyming couplets - reiterates idea of love
- Double entendre
