Contents

1. Introduction
1.1 William Shakespeare
1.2 His Works
1.3 The Renaissance
1.4 Elizabethan drama
1.5 The Globe
2. The Merchant of Venice — Jay L. Halio from The Greenwood Companion to
Shakespeare Volume 2 The comedies. Ed. Joseph Rosenblum (2007).
2.1 Plot Summary
2.2 Sources for the Play
2.3 Structure and Plotting
2.4 Main Characters
2.5 Imagery
2.6 Themes and Meanings
2.7 Critical Controversies
 Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice.
Note:
For B.A. (Prog) II Yr English Discipline Course, this text is compulsory.
For B.A. (Hons.) Political Science II Yr Course, this text is optional. Students may choose one
from the following:

II. Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

Or

Bertolt Brecht, Mother, Courage

Or

Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights

Or

E.M. Forster. A Passage to India

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Introduction
1.1 William Shakespeare : William Shakespeare was born in the year 1564 at Stratford upon
Avon. In the year 1565, his father John Shakespeare became an Alderman, and this post entitled
his children to a free education. It can be safely assumed that Shakespeare had his initial
education at the Stratford Grammar School. His experiences at this school recur in his plays, The
Merry Wives of Windsor, The Taming of the Shrew and Much Ado about Nothing. Shakespeare
had to curtail his schooling when he was around 15 years, to help his father in the latter’s failing
business. If he received any education thereafter is not known. In the year 1582, he married Anne
Hathway, some eight or nine years senior to him in age.
Sometime in the the late 1580’s or early 1590’s Shakespeare went to London, at the dawn of
the Golden age of English drama. Outside the city limits, along the river Thames, play houses
were being built, notable among these were James Burbage’s Theatre, Curtain, and Henslowe’s
Rose. In the sixteenth century, the livelihood of those involved in the theatre, was most of the
time precarious. The various acting companies needed a lot of plays, at least thirty a season. The
actors had to prepare for roles in different plays and playwrights had to be quick composers.
During his career of two decades Shakespeare wrote thirty seven plays in entirety,at a time when
collaboration was the order of the day, where two or three playwrights would produce a single
play.
Shakespeare died in 1616 and was buried in the Holy Trinity Church.
1.2 His Works :
The History Plays
Henry VI Parts 1, 2 and 3.
Richard III
King John
Richard II
Henry IV Parts 1 and 2.
Henry V
Henry VIII
The Comedies
The Comedy of Errors
The Taming of the Shrew
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Love’s Labour Lost
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The Merchant of Venice
The Merry Wives of Windsor
Much Ado about Nothing
As You Like It
Twelfth Night
Triolus and Cressida
All’s Well that Ends Well
Measure for Measure

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The Tragedies
Titus Andronicus
Romeo and Juliet
Julius Caesar
Hamlet
Othello
King Lear
Macbeth
Antony and Cleopatra
Coriolanus
Timon of Athens
The Romance Plays
Pericles
Cymbeline
The Winter’s Tale
The Tempest
The Two Noble Kinsmen
1.3 The Renaissance : Shakespeare lived and wrote during a highly fertile literary, cultural and
economic period in the history of England. This age is the latter part of Renaissance spanning the
Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. The Renaissance (french - Rebirth) was primarily a revival of
Greek and Latin language and knowledge. This resulted in a fresh input of ideas, discoveries and
literary forms. The Renaissance was a time of transition from ―sacred to the secular, from
communal life to individual life, from the medieval to the modern‖. One of the most important
ideas was the focus on human life and human possibility. This sense of individual and
individuality is best expressed by Shakespeare in Hamlet ―what a piece of work man is, how
noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving, how express and admirable in
action, how like an angel in apprehension, how like a God!‖ This rampant sense of individuality
led to Reformation which struck at the heart of the Roman Catholic Church. The early
Protestantism rejected the Church in favour of a personal, individual communion with God.
Reformation gave rise to protestant religions, hatred of catholics and religious wars. The
invention of the printing press, and establishment of vernacular language along with reformation
gave rise to nationalism and the rise of nation states with political power resting in the hands of
monarchies.
The old Greek idea that the earth is a globe fuelled many voyages and explorations which
lead to the discovery of new lands and commercial routes. The economic exploitation of the new
world brought commercial prosperity to England. The ship building program of the Tudors
(Henry VII, Henry VIII and Elizabeth I) made England a leading sea - going power.
1.4 Elizabethan Drama : English drama of the period between 1560-1642 is often referred to as
Elizabethan drama as the dramatic writing of the period gained momentum under the reign of
queen Elizabeth (1558-1603). Although more than a third of Shakespeare’s writing career lies in
the Jacobean period (1603-1625), he is called an Elizabethan dramatist. This is also because, in
terms of sensibility, Shakespeare is more Elizabethan than Jacobean. Elizabethan drama is
generally characterized as firm and assured. The tragedies were bold portraits of Villains who
were vanquished by the forces of good in the end, the histories usually ended with an affirmation

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of a moral order and a God - ordained hierarchical society and the comedies and romances were
sunny and carefree. The Elizabethan drama is characterized by its faith in vitality, on expansion
and elation of mind which corresponds with the upbeat feeling of a prosperous and expanding
society.
1.5 The Globe : Shakespeare started off as an actor in the early 1590’s but by 1592 he had made
a name for himself as an actor and a playwright. Initially under the Burbages and in 1594 as a
shareholder with the Burbages in Lord Chamberlain’s men, Shakespeare prospered, at The
Theatre, a playhouse of Shoreditch in the suburbs of London built by James Burbage. A dispute
with the landlord drove the Burbages to tear down The Theatre, and using the timbers from The
Theatre, they built The Globe on the bank of Thames near the London bridge in 1599. Other
playhouses such as the Rose, the Fortune and the Swan were also located here. Prostitution
houses, bearbaiting arenas, cockfighting pits existed side by side with the playhouses. Most of
Shakespeare’s plays were enacted at the Globe. The Globe was about 74 feet in diameter and
was a 24 sided polygon and could accommodate 2000-3000 spectators. The stage of the Globe
measured 43 ft. in width and 29 feet in depth. The audience would literally encircle the stage.
The stage offered enough space for procession and battle scenes. The stage had an upper gallery
(used sometimes by musicians), a curtained enclosure behind the stage, two stage doors opening
into the back stage area, a trap door in the stage leading down to hell (place under the stage). The
entire acting area was covered by a roof. On top of the roof was a hut which housed the machine,
used to lower actors from the heavens (the area above the roof of the stage).
Sets were non-existent or minimal and plays were performed during the day. Performances
were continuous on the Elizabethan stage, with no breaks for scene changes (there was no
scenery or curtains). Most of the time actors were required to double with a large number of
characters.
2. The Merchant of Venice — Jay L. Halio
2.1 Plot Summary
1.1. The play opens with Antonio complaining of his depression, for which neither he nor his
friends can find the cause. Bassanio enters and asks Antonio for yet another loan, this time so he
can try to win the hand of the heiress, Portia, who lives in Belmont. Short of ready cash, Antonio
tells Bassanio to borrow the money, using his (Antonio’s) credit as the basis for the loan.
1.2. Portia laments that she is bound under the terms of her dead father’s will concerning
whom she may marry. Only the man who chooses the right casket among the three available may
wed her. Though unhappy about this arrangement, Portia agrees with her waiting maid, Nerissa,
that she must abide by her father’s plan.
1.3. This scene introduces Shylock, the Jewish moneylender whom Bassanio approaches for
a 3,000-ducat loan on Antonio’s credit for three months. Shylock and Antonio have long been
enemies, partly because of religious differences, but more because, Shylock says, Antonio gives
loans out at no interest and thus forces down the rate of interest among professional
moneylenders. When Antonio enters, Shylock acknowledges their enmity but nevertheless agrees
to lend the money to Antonio as a gesture of friendship, charging no interest but demanding a
pound of Antonio’s flesh as forfeiture if he should fail to repay the loan by the date specified.
Over Bassanio’s objection, Antonio agrees to these terms. Antonio is confident that he will easily

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repay the loan as soon as one of his several ships comes in with the fortune he expects them to
earn in trading abroad.
2.1. The Prince of Morocco prepares to choose among the three caskets. He asks that Portia
not dislike him for his color, and she reassures him in an ambiguous statement that she thinks as
well of him as of any other suitor—none of whom, however, she likes.
2.2-3. Launcelot Gobbo, who has served Shylock, prepares to leave his old master for the
employ of Bassanio. Launcelot engages in some curious teasing with his nearly blind old father,
telling the old man that Launcelot is dead before revealing his identity. In 2.3 Jessica, Shylock’s
daughter, tells Launcelot that she will miss him.
2.4. A plot is afoot for Jessica to elope with the Christian Lorenzo. Lorenzo, Gratiano,
Salerio, and Solanio discuss their plans.
2.5. Launcelot summons his former master to dine with the Christians, Shylock departs,
urging his daughter to lock up the house after him.
2.6. In Shylock’s absence Jessica elopes with Lorenzo and takes a substantial quantity of her
father’s money and jewellery with her.
2.7. At Belmont, Morocco chooses the gold casket, which does not contain Portia’s picture.
He leaves, much to Portia’s relief.
2.8. Together with his friend Gratiano, Bassanio leaves for Belmont to woo Portia. Salerio
and Solanio discuss rumors of Antonio’s ships being wrecked and talk of Shylock’s anguish at
the loss of his daughter and his money.
2.9. The Prince of Arragon tries his luck with the caskets and chooses the silver container. It,
too, has no picture of Portia within, and he withdraws as Bassanio approaches.
3.1. The act opens with another dialogue between two of Antonio’s friends, Solanio and
Salerio, discussing Antonio’s losses at sea. Shylock enters bemoaning Jessica’s elopement and
the ducats she has stolen. When he hears that Antonio has also suffered losses, he warns that he
will make good on the terms of his loan, for he is sure that all of the Christians have been
involved in his daughter’s elopement with Lorenzo. Another Jew, Tubal, enters to give Shylock
bad news of Jessica in Genoa and to confirm Antonio’s losses. Shylock sends Tubal to arrange to
have Antonio arrested for default of his loan.
3.2. Meanwhile, during Bassanio’s visit to Belmont, he and Portia have fallen in love.
Although Portia wants him to delay making his choice of the caskets, Bassanio is eager to know
his fate. While he is deciding which casket to choose, Portia orders some music and a song to be
sung. Bassanio rightly chooses the lead casket and wins Portia, and Gratiano and Nerissa
announce that they too will get married. But before they have much time to celebrate, Salerio
arrives from Venice along with Lorenzo and Jessica with the news of Antonio’s default and
imprisonment. Portia sends Bassanio back to Venice with Gratiano and with more than enough
money to pay off Antonio’s debt. She stipulates only that they get married first and gives him a
ring. Gratiano and Nerissa follow suit.
3.3. Back in Venice, Shylock remains adamant that he will have his revenge on Antonio and
demand his forfeiture.

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 3.4. On her part, Portia decides to depart from Belmont with Nerissa for Venice, leaving the
estate in the hands of Lorenzo and Jessica. Portia will adopt the disguise of a lawyer, Balthazar,
and Nerissa that of his law clerk, intent on helping Antonio deal with Shylock.
3.5. The act ends with some comic dialogue between Jessica and Launcelot about her
conversion, and between Launcelot and Lorenzo.
4.1. The Duke holds court to hear Shylock’s case against Antonio. He appeals to Shylock to
relent, but in vain; moreover, he realizes that he cannot dismiss Shylock’s claim without
damaging the international reputation of Venice for law and justice, on which the city’s trading
empire depends. Bassanio offers thrice the amount of the loan, but still Shylock insists on his
forfeiture. The Duke then reads a letter from Bellario, a famous jurist, who has sent a colleague,
Balthazar (actually Portia in disguise), along with the clerk (Nerissa, also in disguise) to help
adjudicate the case.
At first, Balthazar agrees that Shylock has a valid contract with Antonio, who must pay the
forfeit. But just as Shylock is about to take his pound of flesh, Balthazar stops him, saying that
the bond allows him only precisely one pound of flesh, not a scruple more or less, and not a
single drop of blood. Foiled, Shylock tries to leave with just his money, but he is refused that as
well. He has insisted on the terms of his bond, and Portia is determined that he shall have only
that. Then she says that the laws of Venice decree that he, as an alien resident in Venice, is
subject to death and confiscation of all his wealth for his attempt upon the life of one of Venice’s
citizens. The Duke allows Shylock to live, but half of his estate will go to Antonio. Shylock can
keep the other half of his property on condition that he convert to Christianity and that he agree
upon his death to let Lorenzo have all his remaining property. Reluctantly, Shylock agrees to
these terms.
In payment for services rendered, Balthazar refuses any money but asks for the ring Bassanio
wears. Since it is the ring Portia gave him, Bassanio demurs, but after Portia leaves, Antonio
persuades him to let it go.
4.2. Gratiano delivers the ring, and Nerissa says she will try to get the ring she gave her
husband as well.
5.1. At Belmont the two women have fun with their husbands, who no longer wear the rings
they swore to keep, until Portia reveals that it was she in disguise who played the role of
Balthasar and Nerissa her clerk. She also hands Antonio a letter showing that his ships have
miraculously returned safely, and Nerissa hands Lorenzo Shylock’s deed of gift. They then all
enter Portia’s house, with renewed promises of fidelity and friendship.
2.2 Sources for the Play
For his plots, Shakespeare drew upon several sources. The flesh-bond story probably derives
from Giovanni Fiorentino’s Il pecorone, in which a young man named Giannetto borrows money
from his adoptive father, Ansaldo. He wants to try to win the hand of an unnamed wealthy
heiress, the lady of Belmonte. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts, Giannetto finally
succeeds, but in so doing he has forced Ansaldo to borrow money from a Jewish moneylender.
Forgetting the due date of the loan, Giannetto allows Ansaldo to default on his bond with the
moneylender, causing him to forfeit a pound of his flesh. When Giannetto belatedly tries to repay
the loan, the moneylender refuses anything but the forfeit. Meanwhile, the lady appears in
disguise to save Ansaldo’s life. While in disguise, she also manages to get Gainnettos’s ring, the

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very one she gave him. At the end of the story, they all return to Belmonte (except, of course, the
moneylender), and the lady reveals her clever deception to Giannetto. Ansaldo marries the
waiting maid who had helped Giannetto learn the secret to winning the lady’s hand.
In Fiorentino’s tale, there are no caskets to choose from. That part of the story derives instead
from Richard Robinson’s translation of the Gesta romanorum in 1595. Nor does the
moneylender have to convert to Christianity at the end. Other differences, such as the doubling
of the marriages and ring plots, suggest that Shakespeare transformed the plot for his own
purposes. Shakespeare borrowed the Jessica-Lorenzo plot from Masuccio Salernitano’s Il
novellino, which depicts a young woman locked up her father until a clever young man finds a
means of elopement for the two of them. Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta, in which the Jew Barabas
has a daughter, Abigail, who loves a Christian, also may have influenced Shakespeare. Other
source may have suggested some details to Shakespeare, who might have known a now-lost play
called The Jew that possibly told a similar story of a vicious moneylender and his daughter.
2.3. Structure and Plotting
Like many of Shakespeare’s comedies, The Merchant of Venice contains several plot lines,
although these must not be confused with its dramatic structure. The several plots that make up
The Merchant of Venice are: the Portia-Bassanio love story, or the casket-choice plot; the
Antonio-Shylock, or the flesh-bond, plot; the Jessica-Lorenzo elopement; and the ring plot. The
dramatic structure of the play emerges from the intersection of these plots with one another,
including events involving the minor character, Launcelot Gobbo. Or, to put it another way, the
dramatic structure of the play consists of its overall design and the way each scene, or elements
of a scene, may relate to the scenes or passages that precede and follow it. For, as always, the
scene is the basic dramatic unit in Elizabethan drama.
Parallels and contrasts are important in the dramatic structure of any Shakespearean play. For
example, the first two scenes of The Merchant of Venice display important parallels. In 1.1,
Antonio complains of depression, and 1.2 Portia similarly, but for understandable reasons, also
feels unhappy. We never learn the reason for Antonio’s depression, nor does he, but Portia’s
despondency is alleviated when in act 3 Bassanio’s, whom she loves, makes the correct choice of
the caskets laid out before him.
Bonds of various kinds also help to define the dramatic as well the thematic structure of the
play. In 1.1 Antonio is clearly bound to his friend Bassanio, as Bassanio is to him. In 1.2 Portia is
bound to her father’s will, and in 1.3 Antonio becomes bound to Shylock by his agreement to the
terms of the loan Shylock proposes. In 2.1 the Prince of Morocco is bound to the terms imposed
on anyone who wishes to choose among the three caskets, as are, in latter scenes, the Prince of
Arragon and Bassanio. In 2.2 Launcelot is bound to Shylock as his servant and debates with
himself whether or not to break that bond with his master. In the scene immediately following,
Jessica also feels bound to Shylock but is ready to sever that bond and marry Lorenzo. Thus all
of the various plots are connected thematically and dramatically, by parallels and contrasts, by
various types of bonds.
Acts 3 through 5 display the consequences of these bonds and introduce, in the ring plot, new
kinds of bonds. Jessica’s elopement precipitates in Shylock his strong feeling for revenge against
Antonio, who has long been his antagonist. But Jessica’s betrayal, with the assistance of the
Christian community (at least as Shylock sees this event), is the last straw. Shylock now sees his

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chance to take advantage of the bond he has made with Antonio, and nothing anyone says can
dissuade him from his course of vengeful action.
Once Bassanio has chosen the right casket, he becomes bound in matrimony to Portia, as the
ring she gives him symbolizes. But, as Portia realizes, that bond does not nullify his bond of
friendship to Antonio, and she acts to assist him in saving his friend. In act 4, appearing in
disguise, she saves Antonio’s life by illuminating aspects of the flesh bond that Shylock failed to
consider. She goes further and reveals laws that bind Shylock as an alien to a severe sentence:
death and confiscation of all his worldly goods. The Duke and Antonio, however, choose to be
merciful and let Shylock live and retain at least a portion of his wealth. In return Shylock must
abandon his former religion and bind himself to Christianity.
In 4.2 Portia and Nerissa manage to get Bassanio and Gratiano to relinquish the rings they
gave their husbands in 3.2. This episode provides the structure for act 5 and its relation to the
foregoing acts; otherwise, act 5 might seem as a mere appendage to the rest of the play. When
everyone returns to Belmont, the women ―discover‖ that their husbands no longer have the rings
they gave them, symbols of their bond of fidelity. The conflict is resolved in comic fashion when
the women reveal how they obtained the rings and once again bestow them on their husbands,
having now taught them an important lesson in loyalty and the priority of obligations. For no
matter how dear Antonio is to Bassanio, Portia must now and forever remain her husband’s first
and most important love.
2.4 Main Characters
Shylock
Although Shylock appears in only five scenes, in many ways he seems to dominate the action
of The Merchant of Venice. He is certainly a very powerful figure as well as a very complex one.
When first seen, he is extremely resentful of Antonio and the way Antonio has treated him;
hence, he senses an opportunity for revenge when Bassanio comes to borrow money from him in
Antonio’s name. When Antonio enters the scene, however, Shylock also sees an opportunity to
resolve their old enmity. As a moneylender he therefore makes an extraordinary gesture in
offering Antonio the loan at no interest. As security for the loan, Shylock laughingly offers to
take a ―merry bond‖ of pound of flesh (1.3.173), which he says would be useless if Antonio
should default (1.3.163–167).
Antonio agrees. But when Jessica elopes with Antonio’s friend Lorenzo, Shylock becomes
enraged. At the same time, he hears of Antonio’s losses at sea and perceives his advantage
(3.1.44–50). He makes an oath to take his forfeiture of the bond of flesh if Antonio should
default. Accordingly, when Antonio cannot repay the loan on the due date, Shylock demands his
pound of flesh. Portia, disguised as the lawyer Balthazar, tries to persuade Shylock to show
mercy, but instead he demands ―justice‖. As he is about thrust his knife into Antonio’s body,
Portia stops him. Since the bond stipulates only flesh and no blood, Shylock is foiled. He tries to
leave with only his principal, but since he has insisted on the strict terms of the bond, Portia
holds him to them.
When Portia then levels the charge against him for plotting against the life of a Venetian
citizen, Shylock is in danger of losing his life as well as his worldly goods. Showing mercy on
his part, the Duke spares Shylock’s life, and Antonio agrees to let him keep half his possessions
provided that he convert to Christianity and at his death bequeath everything he has to Lorenzo

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and Jessica. Crushed, Shylock agrees. Here as earlier, when he refused to show mercy and
determined to murder Antonio, Shylock reveals that, his protestations notwithstanding, he is not
only a bad person, but a bad Jew; for he has violated some of the most serious tenets of his
religion, and he is even willing to become an apostate.
Shylock’s famous speech that begins ―Hath not a Jew eyes‖ (3.1.59ff) is often taken as
demonstrating his humanity, although in context it is used to justify his revenge. Showing many
of the faults other human beings are prone to have, Shylock is thoroughly human and not the
Elizabethan stereotype of a Jew. His relationship with Jessica is, at the very least, problematic.
She hates living with him, not because he mistreats her—there is no warrant in the text for that
interpretation—but because, as she says, ―Our house is hell‖ (2.3.2). That description probably
refers to Shylock’s austere way of life. He dislikes music and any display of merriment, such as
masques (see 2.5.28–36). When she leaves, taking with her his ducats and jewels, Shylock is
nearly heartbroken. He is also furious with her. But when he learns that she has exchanged for a
monkey the ring that his dead wife, Leah, had given him, he shows a tender side of his character,
too (3.1.118–123), declaring, ―I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys‖ (3.1.122–
123).
Antonio
Antonio is the ―merchant‖ of the play’s title. He is a magnifico, that is, a wealthy man well
regarded in Venetian society. His wealth derives from his import/export trade. He is devoted to
his young friend, Bassanio, to whom he has lent money several times in the past; though lacking
ready cash, he is willing to borrow for Bassanio’s benefit. Here he may be generous to a fault.
Antonio’s relationship with Bassanio in the view of some stage directors as well as critics
may be homoerotic, at least latently. That may help to explain Antonio’s depressed feelings at
the beginning of the play, if he suspects that Bassanio is coming to say that he wants to woo
someone for his wife. Salerio eloquently describes Antonio’s devotion to his young friend at
2.8.35–49, and Solanio agrees that ―he only loves the world for him‖ (2.8.50). When Antonio
defaults on his bond with Shylock, he stoically faces his death. He is an avowed anti-Semite (see
1.3.130–137) and realizes that nothing he can say will deter Shylock from his revenge (4.1.70–
83). When it is his turn to show mercy to Shylock, he insists on two conditions that Shylock
convert to Christianity and that Shylock bequeath everything to Lorenzo at his death. For many
modern critics this is hardly mercy, though in Shakespeare’s time it might have been perceived
as such.
When Portia in disguise as Balthazar saves Antonio’s life, she asks only for the ring on
Bassanio’s finger as reward. Bassanio naturally demurs, but Antonio insists that he give the ring;
so he does. At the end of the play, when Portia reveals her disguise and shows Bassanio the ring,
she gives it to Antonio to give back to Bassanio, thus underlining for her husband that henceforth
she, not Antonio, is the primary person in his life.
Bassanio
Bassanio at first appears as a rather cavalier young man, something of a ne’er-do-well and
certainly a spendthrift, though handsome and accomplished. A young lord, he is typical of the
people of his social standing in Shakespeare’s time. But he has other qualities, too, that make
Porita as well as Antonio love him. For example, he does not want Antonio to take Shylock’s
money under the terms of the bond offered (1.3.154–155). He shows good insight when he

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chooses the right casket, proclaiming ―So may the outward shows be least themselves‖ (3.2.73).
When he gets the news of Antonio’s default, he is distraught, and only when Portia sends him
back to Venice with more than enough money to redeem his friend does he recover a little.
In the court scene, Bassanio does his best to fend off Shylock, offering him not only more
than the original amount of the loan, but his own body as well (4.1.209–214). He offers even to
sacrifice his beloved wife to save Antonio (4.1.282–287), not realizing that Portia is right there in
disguise as Balthasar. Reluctant though he is to surrender the ring that Portia gave him, he
nevertheless lets Antonio persuade him to do so, erring yet again. He thus stands in need of
instruction, which his wife provides at the end of the play. He accepts that instruction with a
good grace and a little humor, showing his true mettle once again.
Portia
Portia is the heroine of the play. A very clever woman, she shows very human qualities, as
when she laments being compelled to obey the dictates of her father’s will, and even more when
she confesses how much she loves Bassanio and does not want him to rush into making his
choice of the caskets (3.1.2–24). She can also be somewhat arrogant, as evidenced by her attitude
toward her other suitors in 1.2 and later toward Morocco and Arragon. She may also be bit of a
racist (2.7.78–79), though she does not exhibit any overt anti-Semitism.
Portia’s big moment comes in the trial scene, where she appears in disguise as Bellario’s
colleague, Balthazar. Her appeal to Shylock to show mercy is an extremely eloquent statement
on the nature of this virtue (4.1.184–205), possibly intended not only for Shylock but also for the
others present, as subsequent events reveal. That her speech fails to move Shylock says more
about him and his determination to commit murder than it does about her ability to persuade.
When she shows that she, too, can be adamant in insisting that he get no more than the justice he
has been demanding, that is, the specific terms of the bond.
Portia’s appeal to mercy has its consequent effect on the Duke and on Antonio, as they spare
Shylock’s life and half his fortune. Throughout the court scene, Portia shows her poise and
ability to deal with men of different types. She also shows her sense of humor when she
comments on Bassanio’s lines about sacrificing his wife (4.1.283–289) and later back in Belmont
when she teases Bassanio about giving up the ring he swore to keep. She teaches him a good
lesson, and while she is about it, bestows gifts upon both Lorenzo and Antonio, bringing the play
to a happy conslusion, at least as far as the Christians are concerned.
Nerissa
Nerissa is Portia’s lady-in-waiting and confidante. Like her mistress, she has a keen wit and
ability to handle difficult situations. When Portia complains about feeling low, Nerissa reminds
her lady how well off she really is. Nerissa later explains the wisdom that Portia’s father showed
in providing the way to find a husband who truly loved her (1.2.27–33). In the same scene she
teases her mistress about her undesirable suitors and only afterward tells her that they have all
decided to leave with-out choosing any of the caskets.
Nerissa does not have a major role, but she doubles the audience’s pleasure when she and
Gratiano announce they have decide to get married, too, and again later when she gets her
husband’s ring off his finger. She is a sprightly woman, as she shows in her argument with
Gratiano in 5.1, which leads directly to the unraveling of the ring plot that Portia has devised to
teach these husbands a necessary lesson.

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Gratiano
Bassanio’s friend Gratiano is a rather wild individual, as Bassanio notes when cautioning him
to behave if he goes to Belmont (2.2.180–189). He is also the play’s most outspoken and virulent
anti-Semite, as his speeches against Shylock in 4.1 indicate (see, for example, 128–138). He
provides a good deal of humor, nevertheless, in his relationship with Nerissa, and Shakespeare
gives him the last lines in the play, with an appropriate sexual pun on ―ring‖.
Jessica
Shylock’s daughter at first appears as a troubled young woman determined to escape from an
existence she finds too restrictive. To accomplish her goal, she is even willing to abandon not
only her home but even her religion to marry a Christian. Some stage directors think that by the
play’s end she may have second thoughts about her behavior and show some regret, especially if
her husband Lorenzo is played as a scamp or, worse, a gold digger.
Launcelot Gobbo
Launcelot is the clown, providing some funny wordplay as well as low comedy in The
Merchant of Venice. He and Jessica have a friendly relationship (see 2.3.1–4), though he teases
her rather harshly about her conversion to Christianity in 3.5. His role is often out in
productions, despite his famous line (―it is a wise father that knows his own child‖, 2.2.76–77) in
a scene with his father, Old Gobbo, that helps to develop the theme of bonds between parents
and children.
2.5 Imagery
The Merchant of Venice is a play rich in imagery. Not surprisingly, some of the most notable
image patterns involve not only romantic expressions of love but also metaphors relating to the
world of commerce. Salerio attributes Antonio’s depression, or sadness, o his worry over his
ships: his mind is ―tossing on the ocean‖, he says, adding: ―There where your argosies with
portly sail / Like signiors and rich burghers on the flood, / ... / Do overpeer th petty traffickers‖
(1.1.8–12). Salerio continues in this vein for several more lines, until Antonio’s demurrer,
whereupon Solanio suggests that Antonio is in love. Antonio at once rejects that thought, and
love imagery is reserved for Portia’s and Jessica’s suitors and for the women.
Jessica uses a standard reference to Cupid when she greets her lover, Lorenzo, as they are
about to elope. Commenting on her disguise as a boy, she, says: ―But love is blind, and lovers
cannot see / The pretty follies that themselves commit‖ (2.6.36–37). Portia is mor voluble and
much more deeply in love, as her speeches indicate in 3.2. She can scarcely maintain her maiden
reserve, as she tries to get Bassanio to delay longer before his choice of a casket; her convoluted
utterance conveys something of her confusion about being in love:
Beshrew your eyes,
They have o’erlook’d me and divided me:
One half of me is yours, the other half yours—
Mine own, I would say, but if mine, then yours,
And so all yours. (3.2.14–18)

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 The metaphor of division suggests a business transaction, which her next words confess:
O these naughty times
Puts bars between the owners and their rights!
And so thought yours, not yours. Prove it so.... (3.2.18–20)
The use of commercial metaphor in a love situation may strike the reader as odd, except that
the play is much about transactions of this sort, not only the literal business transaction
undertaken between Shylock and Antonio. Portia is very mindful of the kind of transaction that
marriage to Bassanio will entail, as she says after he chooses the right casket:
You see me, Lord Bassanio, where I stand,
Such as I am. Though for myself alone
I would not be ambitions in my wish
To wish myself much better, yet for you,
I would be trebled twenty times myself,
A thousand times more fair, ten thousand times more rich,
That only to stand high in your account,
I might in virtues, beauties, livings, friends,
Exceed account. (3.2.149–157)
By contrast, Bassanio is the more typical romantic lover, as his words and images express his
feelings after he has made his choice and found Portia’s portrait in the lead casket:
Fair Portia’s counterfeit! What demigod
Hath come so near creation? Move these eyes?
Or whether, riding on the balls of mine,
Seem they in motion? Here are sever’d lips,
Parted with sugar breath; so sweet a bar
Should sunder such sweet friends. Here in her hairs
The painter plays the spider, and hath woven
A golden mesh t’ entrap the hearts of men
Faster than gnats in cobwebs. (3.2.115–123)
The ―sugar breath,‖ the ―golden mesh‖ of hair—to ―entrap the hearts of men‖— are
approximate clichés of the Elizabethan sonneteer describing his mistress, although here they
describe merely her picture.
Caroline Spurgeon remarks in Shakespeare’s Imagery (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1935),
that music suffuses important moments in the play (269–271). In 3.2, for example, when Portia
orders the song to be sung as Bassanio contemplates the caskets, she says:
Let music sound while he doth make his choice;

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 Then if he lose makes a swan-like end,
Fading in music. (3.2.43–45)
But if he wins,
Then music is
Even as the flourish when true subjects bow
To a new-crowned monarch; such it is
As are those dulcet sounds in break of day
That creep into the dreaming bridegroom’s ear,
And summon him to marriage. (3.2.48–53)
In another scene at the end of the play, music also plays an important role, both in actual
sound as well as imagery, when Lorenzo summons the musicians to play for Jessica and himself:
How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears. Soft stillness and the night
Become the touches of sweet harmony. (5.1.54–57)
When Jessica complains that she is ―never merry‖ when she hears sweet music, Lorenzo
launches into a long speech explaining that her spirits are too ―attentive‖ (5.1.70); he contrasts
her experience with that of wild animals struck spellbound by music, and with Orpheus’s effect
on even inanimate objects, such as stones and trees.
Other images abound, such as the ones Portia uses to describe the quality of mercy (4.1.184–
202). There she compares unforced mercy to the gentle rain that drops from heaven above, and to
the power of a monarch, which mercy exceeds. The image she builds is of Mercy as an
enthroned deity. The beauty of this imagery contrasts with the sordid imagery Shylock uses to
explain his feelings against Antonio, who, he says, has spit upon his ―Jewish gabardine‖
(1.3.122) and called him ―cut-throat dog‖ (1.3.111). He dwells on this image of the ―stranger
cur‖ (1.3.118) in this first scene between them and again later after the bond is forfeit, when
Shylock says, ―Thou call’dst me dog before thou hadst a cause, / But since I am a dog, beware
my fangs‖ (3.3.6–7). Gratiano picks up the image in the court scene, calling Shylock an
―inexecrable dog‖ and referring to his ―currish spirit‖ (4.1.128, 133). Indeed, for Gratiano, and
by extension others present there, Shylock’s desires ―Are wolvish, bloody, starv’d, and
ravenous‖ (4.1.138).
2.6 Themes and Meanings
Bonds
Much has already been said about the importance of bonds in The Merchant of Venice:
between parent and child, master and servant, creditor and borrower. Perhaps a little more needs
to be said about the bonds between human beings in general. Antonio’s antipathy toward
Shylock, which he confesses in 1.3, suggests that he hardly considers the Jew to be human. In his
treatment of Shylock, he violates the common bond of decency that should obtain between all
human beings. The anti-Semitism that he represents along with Gratiano and others is

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everywhere apparent in the play and everywhere deplorable. Shylock’s revenge against his
persecutors is thus understandable, though hardly excusable. When he seeks to exact his pound
of flesh nearest Antonio’s heart, he not only violates the commandment against murder, he
violates the bond between beings, all of whom should hold life precious. In preventing Shylock
from carrying out his crime, Portia saves both Antonio and Shylock—the latter from committing
a terrible act against another human being.
Friendship
The bond of friendship is another important theme in The Merchant of Venice. Most obvious
is the bond between Antonio and Bassanio; it also appears in the friendship between Bassanio
and Gratiano, whom Bassanio, against his better judgment, is willing to take with him to
Belmont. Lorenzo also figures into the friendship of these men, who assist in his elopement with
Jessica. Because of Bassanio’s friendship with Lorenzo, Portia is willing to entrust the care of
her estate to him when she leaves for Venice with Nerissa.
However strong the bonds of friends are, and they are very strong indeed—Antonio is willing
to risk his life for his friend, after all—the play shows that these bonds must give way to another,
still stronger one: that between husband and wife. This is the point of the ring plot that Portia and
Nerissa contrive against their husbands after 4.1. They are determined to show the men how
important their vows are; the rings become symbolic of those vows. Perhaps they get the hint for
this plot when in the court scene each husband declares how willing he is to sacrifice his wife if
that would help save Antonio’s life (4.1.282–287, 290–292). At the end of the play, Portia
cleverly gives the ring to Antonio to give back to Bassanio, by this means showing the
ascendancy of married love over the friendship that hitherto held sway.
Deceptive Appearance and Disguise
Deceptive appearance and disguise are also important themes. The first two suitors are
deceived by the outward surface appearance of the caskets, as Morocco discovers when he reads,
―All that glisters is not gold‖ (2.7.65). Similarly, Arragon discovers that ―Some there be that
shadows kiss, / Such have but a shadow’s bliss‖ (2.9.66–67). Bassanio is wiser. He begins his
contemplation of the caskets with ―So may the outward shows be least themselves— / The world
is still deceiv’d with ornament‖ (3.2.73–74). He thus chooses the lead casket, though it is
outwardly the least attractive of the three.
Elizabethans accepted the theatrical convention of ―impenetrable disguise,‖ which Portia and
Nerissa adopt to help save Antonio; their disguise deceives everyone present in the court,
including their own husbands. The disguise works further to deceive Shylock, who in demanding
justice fails to see beyond the letter of the contract he has with Antonio and all its implications.
He calls Portia, in disguise as Dr. Balthazar, ―A Daniel come to judgment! yea, a Daniel! / O
wise young judge‖ (4.1.223–224). Blinded by his diabolical lust for vengeance, he fails to
perceive the wisdom of Portia’s appeal for mercy, which is clear and persuasive to everyone but
him. His self-deception leads directly into Portia’s deceptive agreement that he has a right to his
pound of flesh—until she springs her trap.
Mercy and Vengeance
In many of his plays, comedies as well as tragedies, Shakespeare examines revenge, a
compelling theme in much Elizabethan literature. Both church and state vehemently opposed
personal vengeance, which Francis Bacon called a kind of wild justice, not sanctioned by law or

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scripture (―Vengeance is mine; I will repay, sayeth the Lord,‖ Romans 12:19). In his most
eloquent speech, Shylock defends himself and his people as human beings who should be treated
as such (―Hath not a Jew eyes?‖ 3.1.59–73). But in context, he uses his claim of common
humanity to justify his action against Antonio. Listing many human attributes that Jews share
with Christians, he concludes: ―And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in
the rest, we will resemble you in that.‖ He thus perverts his eloquent apologia to condone, he
believes, his intention to take personal vengeance against his erstwhile enemy.
The counter argument appears in Portia’s beautiful lines on the quality of mercy. Her plea is
mercy, not revenge. She elevates the attribute of mercy even higher than the ―sceptred sway‖ of
kings (4.1.193). Mercy, she says, is an attribute of God himself, and she argues that this virtue
should ―season‖ justice (4.1.197). Note that she does not deny the importance of justice: justice
comes first, they mercy follows. Shakespeare is no sentimentalist, nor does he allow Portia to be
one. She recognizes, or says she does, the justice of Shylock’s claim against Antonio; the
contract they have made is valid, at least as far as it goes. But mercy should supervene.
This is the lesson that the Duke and Antonio, if not Shylock, learn when they spare Shylock’s
life. The quality of Antonio’s further mercy, however, is debatable, especially in the terms he
lays down (see next section). The Duke without hesitation reprieves Shylock, but Antonio insists
on some provisos. Is this Antonio’s revenge, masked as mercy?
2.7 Critical Controversies
Is The Merchant of Venice Anti-Semitic?
Much ink has been spilled over the question of whether The Merchant of Venice is anti-
Semitic. While most critics concede that anti-Semitism exists in the play, as in Antonio’s and
Gratiano’s attitude toward Shylock, that does not necessarily mean that the play is anti-Semitic.
Other critics maintain that from the way Shylock is addressed throughout The Merchant of
Venice, usually not by name but as ―Jew,‖ to the way Shakespeare characterizes him, making his
own daughter abhor him and his household, the play is thoroughly anti-Semitic. They go further
and claim that Shakespeare in writing the play displays his own anti-Semitism.
Clearly, Shylock is the villain of the piece, and his Jewishness is very much at issue. But
Shakespeare makes it clear that he is not only a bad man, he is also a bad Jew. He violates some
of his religion’s most fundamental precepts, including his action at the end when, rather than risk
death by adhering to his faith, he chooses to convert, to become an apostate. In all of his actions,
then, Shylock appears by no means as a typical Jew—which would make the play anti-Semitic—
but as a renegade Jew.
Antonio’s Mercy
How merciful is Antonio to Shylock at 4.1.380–390? True, he agrees to let Shylock have his
life and half his fortune, but he stipulates two conditions. The first is that Shylock must become a
Christian; the second, that he must bequeath all of his possessions to Lorenzo and his daughter.
Antonio further states that he will use and render his half of Shylock’s fortune, retained as part of
the fine, ―Upon his death unto the gentleman / That lately stole his daughter‖ (4.1.384–385). This
is surely rubbing salt into Shylock’s wounds, but much more significant is the requirement that
Shylock must convert.
Perhaps many in Shakespeare’s original audiences would see the requirement for conversion
as Antonio’s way of doing Shylock a favor. For Christain believers, the only means to salvation

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was acceptance of Jesus Christ as the savior. Otherwise, one was condemned to eternal
damnation. But such forced conversions could not be regarded as authentic and indeed were not
sanctioned by the Church. Moreover, Antonio seems to take full advantage of the power he has
over Shylock at this moment. If Shylock’s revenge was diabolical, how much better is
Antonio’s? He wounds Shylock deeply, as becomes evident when Shylock begs at last to be
allowed to leave and complains that he is not well (4.1.395–396). He does not appear again in the
play, and some speculate that he may even die soon afterward, as Laurence Olivier seemed to
indicate in his celebrated representation of Shylock at the National Theatre in London, when he
uttered a terrifying offstage scream after exiting the scene.
Jewish Justice versus Christian Mercy
Barbara Lewalski (―Biblical Allusion and Allegory in The Merchant of Venice,‖ Shakespeare
Quarterly 13 [1962]: 327–343) and some other scholars have treated The Merchant of Venice as
allegorically opposing Jewish justice (in the Old Testament) against Christain mercy (in the New
Testament). As a Jew, Shylock demands justice and rejects mercy in 4.1. As a Christian, Portia
counters with the claims of mercy, which should season justice. In this way, it appears, the New
Testament stands opposed to the Old. But this is to approach the play as well as scripture
simplistically. Mercy is very much a highly regarded virtue in the Old Testament as well as in
the New (see, for example, Psalm 106). ―Love thy neighbor as thyself‖ is not solely a New
Testament teaching. It has plenty of precedent in the Old Testament: ―You shall not have your
brother in your heart, but you shall reason with your neighbor, lest you bear sin because of him.
You shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your own people, but you
shall love your neighbor as yourself‖ (Leviticus 19:17–18; see also 33–34). Similarly, the
Golden Rule, though couched in negative terms, derives from Old Testament precepts, as
propounded by the Jewish sage Hillel, who declared, ―That which is hateful to you, do not do
unto others. That is the fundamental lesson of the Torah. The rest is commentary.‖

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