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
Lorenzo: “The man that hath no music in himself, // Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, // Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils”
Lorenzo’s commentary on the stars and the music of the spheres indicates that be believes that the universe is beautiful and ordered by a divine law, and suggests that the dark forces of anger and brutality, which Shylock represents, have been tamed.
Symbolism of the rings.
The women’s lies that they slept with the judge and law clerk to regain the rings makes the sexual connotations about rings (as symbols of female genitalia) more explicit.
Significance of the Christian characters’ delight after plundering the ruined Shylock?
- Modern audiences may find it distasteful in this otherwise happy scene.
- Reflects how strongly their prejudices persist.
Significance of Act 5.
The play hits a comic final note but also calls into question how admirable the “good” characters in this play really are. How is their glee at destroying Shylock and their crude sexual jokes any better than Shylock’s love of money and thirst for revenge?
