The Merchant of Venice

Act 111, sc.i

Class X
Q1. What rumour is Salerio talking about?
Answer: Salerio talks about an uncontradicted rumour that Antonio has had one of his ships with rich cargo
wrecked in the Goodwin sands in the middle of the English channel. ( 2 key points)

Q2. How does Salerio differentiate between Shylock and Jessica?

Answer: Salerio says that there is more difference between Shylock and Jessica than between jet and ivory,
more between their bloods than there is between red wine and rhenish. ( 2 key points) Q3. How according
to Shylock, has Antonio been harming his interests?
Answer: According to Shylock, Antonio has disgraced him and caused him losses equal to half a million
ducats. He has scorned his secret Jewish nation and interfered to present his profits. He has also encouraged
Shylock’s enemies. ( 5 key points)

Q4. How does Shylock justify his desire for revenge upon Antonio?
Answer: Shylock asks has not a Jew has life like other men? Has he not hands, physical organs, bodily form,
the same senses, like and passions? Is he not fed with the same food as other men, hurt with the same weapons,
affected by the same diseases, healed by the same medicines, harmed by summer and cooled by winter just as
a Christian is? If Christians poison, will not Jews die? And if Christians wrong him, will he not take his
revenge. If a Jew wrong a Christian, where does the Christian see him submit patiently as the Bible enjoins?
No, he will take his revenge. If a Christian wrongs a Jew, what should the Jew’s reaction be, according to the
Christian exchange? Why , it should be revenge! ( 17 key points)

Q5. What further losses has Jessica caused Shylock?

Answer: According to Tubal, Jessica has sold a diamond worth two thousand ducats in Frankfurt. Shylock,
moreover has to spend a lot of money in his search for Jessica. Jessica , in addition, spend eighty ducats in
Genoa. She has also exchanged Shylock’s turquoise engagement ring given by his wife , Leah, for a monkey.

( 4 key points)

Q6. What instructions do Shylock give to Tubal at the end of the scene?
Answer: Shylock tells Tubal to immediately engage a legal officer for him. If Antonio forfeits, Shylock will
rip his heart out, because if Antonio is out of the picture , Shylock can make as much profit as he likes.

( 3 key points)

Act 111, sc.ii

Q1. Why does Portia want to make Bassanio wait in Belmont? Why she can’t actually do it?
Answer: Portia would like to keep Bassanio a month or two in Belmont before he makes the choice of the
casket. She could perhaps tell him which is the right casket to choose.

(2 key points)
She cannot do so because she is foresworn. (1 key point)

Q2. What role has music to play when Bassanio makes the choice of casket?
Answer: Portia says that let music be played while Bassanio is making his choices; then, if he fails, he dies
as the swan dies, fading away in music. That the comparison may be more complete, Portia’s eyes ( full of
tears) shall be like the stream and watery death bed, as the river is for the swan.
If Bassanio succeeds, then the music will be as the flourish of trumpets, when loyal subjects bow down
before a newly crowned ruler; it will be like the sweet sounds which at daybreak awaken the dreaming
bridegroom and tell him that it is his marriage day. (8 key points)

Q3. Explain Portia’s allusion to Hercules.

Answer: Portia says that Bassanio proceeds towards his choice of caskets. With no less dignity and with
much more love than did the youthful Hercules, when he saved the virgin who was offered as a sacrifice by
the people of Troy to the sea- monster. Portia stands there like Heseone , who was offered as the sacrifice.
The rest of the maidens , including Nerissa , are like the Dravidian wives, with tear-stained faces come out
to see the result of the deed. (3 key points)

Q4. How does Bassanio prove that outer appearances have no real truth?
Answer: Bassanio says that a legal case , however much it is bad and dishonest, may be pleaded in a fine
eloquent voice which covers up the face of evil, in religion, no sin is so bad but someone with a grave face
will support it and quote a text from scripture to justify it, so hiding the bad with fair and coloured words.
Even the most simple voice has some outward resemblance to virtue. (3 key points)

Q5. What does Bassanio go on to say about Beauty?

Answer: Bassanio says that beauty can be bought by weight in a chemist’s shop, and that makes a seeming
contradiction in Nature, for those who wear most of the purchased beauty our ‘lightest’ in character. It is the
same case with curly, winding, golden haired wigs, which plays so in a lively way in the wind over a face
supposed to be beautiful, but often taken from another head, (the dowry of a second head) with the skull on
which it grew lying in the tomb/grave. (5 key points)

Q6. What does Bassanio say about gold?

Answer: Bassanio says that gold is showy which King Midas could not eat. (2 key points)

Q7. Which casket does Bassanio choose? What does he find inside? What is his reaction?

Answer: Bassanio chooses the lead casket.

He finds Portia’s portrait inside the lead casket.

Bassanio says that Portia’s lips are slightly parted by the action of her sweet breath. On her golden
hair the painter has worked , like a spider, making a golden web to capture the hearts of men, faster than
gnats that are trapped in cobwebs. The eyes are so beautiful, that the painter, having painted one , should
have been rendered blind by the bedazzling charm of his creation. (6 key points) Q8.
What is written in the scroll?

Or

What does Bassanio say and do after reading the scroll? Bas
Answer: The scroll says, “You who have not chosen by the eye alone, may you always be fortunate and choose
as truly as has! Since this fortune has fallen to your lot, be satisfied and seek no more.”
 (4 key points)

Q9. What does Portia say about herself in self- evaluation?

Answer: Portia says that for Bassanio’s sake she wishes that she might be three times twenty what she is, a
thousand times more beautiful, ten thousand times more rich. She might defy all descriptions in virtues, in
Beauty, in property, and in friends. She defines herself as an inexperienced unlessoned girl, untrained ,
unschooled , unpractised, unaccustomed in life. She is happy that she is not yet too old to learn, even happier
because she is not so slow of Nature that she cannot learn, happiest of all because she has a gentle spirit
which she can entrust to the spirit of Bassanio, her lord, governor and king. (8 key points)
Q.10. How does Bassanio react after Portia declares him to be the master of her and her possessions?
Answer: Bassanio says she made him speechless only his blood is pounding in his veins. There is the same
confusion in his bodily faculties as there comes after a fine speech by a well- beloved prince, among the
murmuring, delighted and excited crowd (citizens). (3 key points) Q.11.
How does Gratiano describe his winning over Nerissa’s heart?
Answer: Gratiano says that while Bassanio saw Portia, he looked at Nerissa. He kept investing all his energies
in swearing vows to Nerissa until the very roof of his mouth was dry. In return, Gratiano got the promise from
Nerissa that he would have her love, provided Bassanio has the good fortune of winning Portia. (5 key points)
Q.12. Who comes a little later? What does he bring? What is Bassnio’s reaction to it ?

Answer: Salerio comes a little later.

He brings a letter from Antonio for Bassanio.

As Portia observes , while reading the letter, Bassanio’s face turns pale. Portia assumes that some dear
friend of Bassanio must have died, for nothing else in the world would so change the mood of any firm-
minded man. (5 key points)

Q.13. How does Bassanio describe Antonio’s letter?

Answer: Bassanio says that the paper of the letter may be compared to the body of Antonio, and every word o
it a gaping wound from which life – blood is streaming. (3 key points) Q.14.
How does Salerio describe Shylock and his behaviour after Antonio’s losses at sea?
Answer: Salerio says that never has he known a living being in the form of a man so keen and eager to destroy
another man as Shylock. He keeps arguing his case on applying to the Duke, morning and evening, and
threatens to take legal action against the city’s prerogative of freedom if they refuse him justice. The Duke and
nobleman of greatest authority have tried to persuade him , but none could drive him from his forfeiture,
justice and the bond. (5 key points)

Q.15. How does Portia extend her support to Bassanio?

Answer: Portia tells Bassanio to pay Shylock six thousand ducats and dispose the bond, double six thousand
and then treble that to release Antonio from his clutches. First, he requests Bassanio to go to the church and
have their marriage ceremony performed , and then set out for Venice to save Antonio. Bassanio shall have
gold to pay the debt twenty times over. (2 key points)

Q.16.What has Antonio written in the letter?

Answer: Antonio has written to Bassanio that his ships have all met with disaster, his creditors are growing
cruel, his means have fallen very hard and his bond to Shylock has been forfeited. He wanted to meet Bassanio
once before his death, but if his love allows him to come only then he should. (5 key points)

Act 111, sc iii

Q 1. Why does Antonio say to Solanio that the Duke cannot deny the course of law to Shylock?
Answer: According to Antonio, the Duke cannot refuse to let the law take its course , because the privileges
strangers enjoy in Venice must not be refused, or it will be a great accusation against the justice of Venice,
since the trade and business dealings there are among men of all nations. ( 3 key points)
Act 111, sc iv
Q1. What does Portia say about friendship and common traits in character?
Answer: Portia says that when two friends have spent their time together, bearing equal love for each other
in their souls , there must be some similarity in face, in manners and disposition. (3 key
points) Q2. What responsibilities do Portia assign and why?
Answer: Portia entrusts Lorenzo with the responsibility and management of her household till her husband
returns. She herself has made a solemn vow to Heaven to live in prayer and meditation with no other attendant
except Nerissa ,till her husband and her return. There is a monastery two miles, from Belmont , and there shall
they remain. (3 key points)

Q 3. What instructions do Portia give Balthazar?

Answer: Portia’s hands Balthazar a letter and tells him to rush to Padua. He is to give the letter to her cousin ,
Dr. Bellario. He is also to collect all the papers and garments from Dr. Bellario and bring them with all possible
speed to Belmont. (5 key points)

Q4. What does Portia tell Nerissa about her plan?

Answer: Portia tells Nerissa that when both of them shall dress up as young men, she shall be the finer of the
two. She will carry her dagger by her side with a greater act of bravery , and speak with such a shrill voice as
one hears when a boy’s voice is first attaining the deep notes of a man. She shall take one manly step for each
two affected feminine paces, and shall speak of fights like a fine boastful young man. She shall tell strange
lies of how honourable ladies sought her love, and fell sick and died when she would not grant it to them.

(7 key points)

Act 111, sc V
Q1. What opinion has Jessica about Portia ?
Answer: Jessica says that it will be necessary for Lord Bassanio to live an upright life, since he has such a
blessing in his life. He is experiencing the joys of heaven while he is still on the earth here, and if he does not
merit them while on earth , he could never reasonably expect to get to heaven. If two heavenly god’s were to
play some game of skill, the wager staked on the result might be imagined to be two earthly women. Then if
Portia were one of the two, there would have to be some additional stake of value added to the other woman ,
for this rough world could not produce Portia’s equal. ( 6 key points)
 Act 1V, sc i
Q1. What does the Duke say to Shylock about his ‘strange apparent cruelty’?
Answer: The Duke says that he believes that Shylock will keep his revengeful spirit till the case is in its last
stage, and then he will suddenly show mercy and repentance. He will not only abandon his claim of having a
pound of flesh from Antonio’s body, but also forgive him payment of some portion of the original sum of three
thousand ducats, looking sympathetically at Antonio’s losses. (5 key points)

Q2. How does Shylock justify his claim for a ‘pound of flesh’?
Answer: Shylock says that what does it matter to any other person if his house is troubled by a rat ,and he
chooses to spend thousand ducats to have them poisoned? There are certain men who have an aversion to a
gaping pig, and others who fly into a passion at the sight of cat. Other people cannot control their urine when
they hear the shrill notes of the bagpipe. Personal inclination is the ruler of passion, and inclines it towards
liking or disliking. He says that he has a deeply rooted hatred and all definite loathing of Antonio, and therefore
he pursues this unprofitable suit against him. (7 key points)

Q3. How does Antonio explain to Bassanio that is futile to argue with Shylock?
Answer: Antonio says that Bassanio might as well stand on the sea shore and ask the tide not to rise so high
as usual. He might as well ask the wolf why he made the mother sheep mourn for the lamb he devoured. He
might as well forbid the pine tree on the mountains to have their high tops and to make no noise when disturbed
by the winds of heaven. He might be able to do anything but to soften the cruel heart of Shylock. (4 key points)
Q4. How does Shylock respond to the Duke’s plea for mercy?
Answer: Shylock tells the Duke that Christians have many slaves which they have bought , and like their asses
, dogs do servile duties on no other grounds except that they have bought them. If Shylock tells the Christians,
“Give them their freedom and marry them to your own children, why do they perspire carrying heavy load?
Let them sleep on beds as comfortable as your own, and let them have as rich food to eat”, they would not
listen to him since the slaves are their property. Similarly, the pound of flesh , which he demands from Antonio
has been bought by him at a high price. ( 8 key points)

Q5. How does Antonio express his helpless desire to die?

Answer: Antonio says that he is like a diseased sheep in the flock, more liable to death than the others. The
weakest fruit falls soonest from the tree and let this be his fate. (3 key points)

Q6. How does Gratiano express his sense of outrage and frustration on Shylock?
Answer: Gratiano tells Shylock that he makes him doubtful of the Christian faith, and inclined to believe in
the theory of Pythagoras, that the souls of animals sometimes enter the bodies of men. Shylock’s vile spirit
once inhabited the body of a wolf who was hanged for killing men. Even as he was hanged on the gallows his
fierce soul sped away from him to the still unborn body of Shylock in the vile womb of his mother and entered
it for the inclinations of Shylock are wolf- like , bloody, starved and ravenous. (9 key points)
Q7. What has Bellario written in his letter to the Duke?
Answer: Bellario writes that he was sick at the time of receiving the letter, but at the same he was being visited
bya young lawyer from Rome called Balthazar. Bellario told Balthazar about the nature of conflict between
Antonio and Shylock. They consulted many legal books together, and Balthazar is acquainted with his
Bellario’s views on the cage. Bellario opines that Balthazar’s youthfulness should not be considered a reason
for keeping back the highest esteem for him, for he has never known so young a man with such sober
judgement. (6 key points)
Q8. How does Portia expand on the quality of mercy?
Answer: Portia says that mercy is a blessing which cannot be compelled. It must come as freely as the gentle
rain from Heaven which falls upon the earth beneath. It is doubly blessed,it blesses the person who shows
mercy, and also to him who receives it. It is the greatest quality ever in the most powerful man. It is a nobler
quality in a royal king than the crown, which he wears. His sceptre is the emblem of his worldly power,
reminding men of the respect due to law and majesty. But mercy is something far above the earthly power, it
is a noble quality coming from the very heart of a king. It is most divine in its working , when justice is mingled
with mercy. (10 key points)

Q9. How does Bassanio offer to compensate Shylock in the Court of Venice?
Answer: Bassanio offers to pay twice three thousand ducats to Shylock. If that is not sufficient, he shall
undertake to pay ten times the amount. If he fails to do so, he may forfeit his hands, his heart. He says that if
this offer is not accepted, then it is evident that a spirit of malice has conquered justice. ( 5 key points)
Q.10. Why does Antonio say to Bassanio that fortune is kinder to him than usual?
Answer: Antonio says that fortune is treating him more kindly that she usually does to men. It is often her
custom to let the wretched man live on after his wealth has been lost, so that his hollow eyes and wrinkled
face show forth his poverty – stricken condition. From such a prolonged misery, fortune has mercifully cut
him off. (3 key points)
Q.11. Which legal point does Portia come up with to prevent Shylock from cutting a pound of flesh from
Antonio’s body?
Answer: Portia says that the bond does not allow Shylock to shed any drop of blood. The words definitely say
“ a pound of flesh”. In cutting it, if Shylock sheds one drop of Christian blood, then by the laws of Venice , all
his lands and property will be forfeited to the state. (4 key points)
Q.12. What further warning does Portia give to Shylock?
Answer: Portia says that Shylock should shed any blood while cutting a pound of flesh from Antonio’s body,
and be careful to cut neither more nor less than an exact pound- if he cuts more or less, if only enough to make
it lighter or heavy by the twentieth part of a scruple, then Shylock will suffer death and all his possessions will
be confiscated. (5 key points)

Q.13. What further grip, according to Portia, has the law on Shylock?
Answer: Portia says that it is laid down in the laws of Venice that if he proved against a foreigner that, directly
or indirectly, he has plotted against the life of any citizen of Venice, then that citizen against whom he plotted
may seize one half of the foreigner’s property. The other half shall be paid into the private treasury of the state,
and the offender may only retain his own life by the exercise of mercy by the Duke, no other person being
allowed to intervene. (6 key points)

Q.14. What proposals do Antonio give the Duke to forgive Shylock?

Answer: Antonio requests the court to remit the fine of one half of Shylock’s property, on the condition that
he would let Antonio have the other half to employ in business so that he may give it, on Shylock’s death to
his son-in-law, Lorenzo. In return for this favour , Shylock must at once convert to Christianity, and secondly,
he draws up his will there in the court , leaving all he possesses at death to his son-in-law, Lorenzo, and his
daughter Jessica. (5 key points)

Q.15. What does Bassanio offer Portia and Nerissa ? What do they as ask for from Bassanio ?
Answer: Bassanio requests Portia (Balthazar) and Nerissa to accept the three thousand ducats, which they
owed to Shylock, as a reward for freeing Antonio from legal penalties.

Portia and Nerissa insist to have the marriage rings of Bassanio and Gratiano and nothing else.(3 key points )