Summaries of Each Scene Acts I-V of the Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare - Essay Example

 The Merchant of Venice – Act 4 Scene 1: Antonio appears in court with the Duke of Venice, who is clearly in sympathy with Antonio and tries to convince Shylock that he is only trying to frighten Antonio with the performance. Shylock denies this and again calls for exactly what the bond offers. Bassanio arrives to try to reason with Shylock with similar results. Shylock rejects the money offered him in repayment of the loan, insists he himself has no need for mercy since he has done nothing wrong and the Duke says he’s sent for Dr. Bellario who is an expert in law. Nerissa comes in disguised as a clerk and gives the Duke a letter that introduces Balthasar, Bellario’s learned associate, to judge in his stead. Balthasar is actually Portia in disguise, but no one recognizes her. In judging the case, Portia first establishes that Antonio owes money and begs Shylock to show mercy, which he refuses. She then asks Antonio to pay his debt and Bassanio offers ten times the original amount owed or his own life and asks her to bend the law slightly in this instance in order to commit a great right. She insists the law must be upheld and Shylock refuses the sums Bassanio has offered. Looking over the bond, Portia agrees that it is binding, asks Shylock again for mercy and then instructs him to have a surgeon on hand to prevent Antonio from bleeding to death, which Shylock refuses since it isn’t stipulated in the contract. Antonio tells Bassanio good-bye, thinking he is about to die. Just before Shylock cuts into Antonio, though, Portia tells him to be careful not to spill a drop of blood, as that is not included in the contract and would constitute conspiracy against the life of a Venetian, punishable by the forfeiture of his estate, half to Venice in the form of the Duke and half to the offended party in the form of Antonio. Shylock then becomes willing to accept the money, but Portia insists it’s the pound of flesh or nothing. In the end, the Duke mercifully allows Shylock to keep his half of the estate by only charging Shylock a fine and Antonio also allows Shylock to keep Antonio’s half of the estate if he will agree to convert to Christianity and will all of his holdings to Lorenzo and Jessica upon his death. Shylock agrees and exits feeling ill. Portia, still safe in her disguise, demands the ring she gave to Bassanio as payment for her services, but he refuses because he promised Portia never to remove it. After she leaves, though, Antonio convinces Bassanio to send the ring to her and they send Graziano after her to deliver it. Scene 2: Portia sends Nerissa to Shylock’s house to make sure that the will is signed for Lorenzo and Jessica and is just finishing giving these instructions when Graziano enters with Bassanio’s ring. Nerissa decides to try to get Graziano to give up his ring, too, and has Graziano show her the way to Shylock’s house. The two women make their intentions known as they anticipate harassing their husbands over having given their rings to other women when the men thought they were giving them to men. Merchant of Venice – Act 4 Questions 1. Five qualities of mercy which the Duke appeals to Shylock to exercise include an appeal that Shylock is merely attempting to teach Antonio a lessen, that in showing mercy Shylock will prove himself a better human, an appeal to consider Antonio’s recent losses and give him a break, an appeal to satisfy his revenge in relishing Antonio’s fallen state and an appeal to consider that someday Shylock himself may be in need of mercy. 2. Shylock’s speech will not win him friends because the reasons he gives for hating Antonio so fully are based on nothing but base emotion and no justification. Even though he might have had reasons at one time, he is unwilling to accept anything less than Antonio’s disfigurement, pain and possible death as recompense for the suffering Shylock himself has endured but does not name as his reasons. 3. Antonio’s reaction is to just hope to get the trial over with as quickly as possible. He has accepted that the law cannot save him and that Shylock is crazy for revenge, so he attempts to bear everything with patience, but is relatively sure he won’t survive. 4. Shylock values money more than anything, but his stubbornness in the courtroom indicates his true values to be having respect among his peers. He wants his revenge on Antonio because Antonio has slandered his name publicly, which means that his revenge must also be public and in full accordance with the law to show that he is the better man and win him the kind of respect and admiration Antonio receives. 5. Portia’s delayed entrance heightens the dramatic effect of the courtroom scene by first creating anticipation regarding the outcome of the case as every attempt is made to change Shylock’s mind and then to incense the emotions of the players as Shylock doubts the courts will uphold the law and Antonio is dreadfully sure they will. The tension is increased with the need to wait for Dr. Bellario, an impartial party, to judge the case and the arrival of a letter instead that suggests the reappearance of Portia in disguise hinted at by her earlier plans revealed to Nerissa and the fact that the message is delivered to the court by Nerissa in disguise. Through this, the audience experiences a sense of the tense waiting experienced by the characters. 6. Portia’s case against Shylock begins with an assertion that Shylock is within his legal rights in demanding that Antonio pay a pound of flesh. By doing this, she gains Shylock’s trust because she is the only person willing to see things the way he does, through a strict interpretation of the law. Although she keeps asking him to show mercy in accepting some other restitution, she constantly agrees with him that Antonio’s only legal option is to surrender the flesh as indicated in the bond. However, after Shylock has thoroughly rejected any opportunity to show mercy, Portia reveals that the bond doesn’t allow him to draw blood. Since there’s no way for Shylock to collect his pound of flesh without spilling blood, he cannot claim his price and, since he has demanded that the law be strictly interpreted, he can collect nothing else either. At the same time, the bond itself is proof that the Jew, a non-Venetian, has conspired to take the life of a Venetian, which is against the law. This infraction is punishable by the offender relinquishing all property, half to go to the state, meaning the Duke, and half to go to Antonio, as the target. Legally, Shylock can only keep his possessions if the Duke and Antonio choose to show the kind of mercy Shylock earlier refused to give. 7. Shylock does not receive the value of his bond when he finally agrees to accept it because Portia has decreed that since he wanted a strictly literal interpretation of the law when it meant Antonio must physically suffer and would not accept a substitute, so should the law be applied in reverse. Antonio was expected by Shylock to pay nothing but the pound of flesh due and thus Shylock may not be offered anything but the pound of flesh which, if he takes, will result in his own destruction. 8. When the trial ends, Shylock has gone from being the proud Jewish man of property legally exercising his rights over another to a humble avowed Christian man of no worth save what the Duke and Antonio have mercifully allowed him to keep with no rights over anyone. 9. The Duke allows Shylock to keep half of his property if he will just pay a small fine for the trouble he’s caused and permits him to live as the law states that it is up to the discretion of the Duke whether the offender live or die in the case against Shylock. Antonio allows Shylock to keep the other half of his property if he swears to convert to Christianity and if he agrees to will all of his property to Lorenzo and Jessica, his only child, upon his death. Their mercy is demonstrated to be all the greater because of Shylock’s lack of it. 10. The scene is continued after Shylock has departed as a means of enticing the audience to remain interested until the end of the play when all the loose ends can be tied up. By the end of the scene, the audience is attempting to determine what Portia’s response will be to Bassanio’s giving away of the ring he promised to keep. Merchant of Venice – Act 5 Scene 1: The scene enters with Lorenzo and Jessica involved in romantic declarations of love to each other, comparing themselves with the great lovers of classical literature and making romantic observations about the moonlit night, the stars and the beauty around them. Messengers arrive indicating that Portia will be home soon and that Bassanio will be home soon after that. Portia arrives and hears the music Lorenzo’s ordered, thinking that the true worth of things lies in its context. She asks Lorenzo not to mention her absence just before Bassanio arrives with trumpets and Antonio and Graziano. Bassanio introduces Portia to Antonio, who reports about the favorable decision of the court, and then Nerissa begins to get on Graziano’s case for having given away his ring. Portia chimes in claiming that Bassanio would never do such a thing and Graziano points out that he did. Then Portia pretends to be hurt and claims she will never go to his bed until he produces the ring. Bassanio insists that he gave it to a worthy man, but Portia insists he must have given it to another woman and says she will do the same with another man, giving him what belongs to Bassanio. Antonio argues on their behalf and succeeds in getting the women to reaccept their husbands. Each give their husbands rings, suggesting they be more careful with these rings than they were with the others, but both Bassanio and Graziano recognize the rings. The women pretend that they slept with the lawyer and his clerk in order to get the rings back, but Portia quickly relents and tells the truth. Then Antonio gets news that some of his ships have arrived safely in port, meaning he’s not bankrupt and Lorenzo learns about Shylock’s will and everyone celebrates their happiness. Read More