Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Act 1 Scene 1 Questions and Activities
Act 1 Scene 1 Questions and Activities
“I have a warranty to unburden all my plots and purposes… How to get clear of all
the debts I owe.”
The play begins with Antonio speaking to Solanio and Solarino about his mysterious sadness, which
they explain away as anxiety over several ships he has at sea laden with pricey goods to trade. They
are joined by Gratiano and Bassanio who is in love with a wealthy and beautiful heiress named
Portia. Bassanio aspires to Portia’s hand in marriage, but the problem is he’s squandered all his
money and can’t fund a trip to the island of Belmont where she lives. Bassanio asks Antonio for a
loan so he can woo Portia and secure her inheritance. With all his assets tied up in his own business
ventures, Antonio promises to find a moneylender and get credit for a 3000 ducat loan.
Knowledge Check
Try to answer these questions from memory:
3. Why is Antonio not worried about his 8. Why does Bassanio need to borrow
wealth at the beginning of the play? money from Antonio?
(a) All of his wares are insured (a) To hide his identity
(b) He cares not for money (b) To save some time
(c) His wares are on more than one ship (c) To woo a woman
(d) He has more than enough money (d) To reach his home
1. What is Antonio feeling at the start of the play? Do we ever find out why? Are there any
clues?
2. The characters in this scene are all men of business. How does this influence the language
they use and the mindsets they seem to share?
3. What does Bassanio need money for? What has he done with all his money? Does the way
he speaks about money reveal anything about what kind of man he might be?
4. How do the characters relate to each other? What kind of advice do they offer? Do you get a
feeling that there are bonds between certain characters?
5. How does the scene end? What does Antonio promise Bassanio? How does the end of the
scene create a modicum of tension? Can you predict or foreshadow any drama to come later
in the play?
Discussion Point: brotherly love
“I hold the world but as the world, a stage where every man mut play his part, and
mine a sad one.”
The ambiguity of Antonio’s sadness at the start of the play is never satisfactorily resolved. What dos
he have to be sad about? He’s a successful businessman, investing in several ships which are still
afloat and on-schedule. He has fine credit on the rialto, the public arena for trade and doing business
on Venice. And he has the friendship of his Christina companions, several of whom show up to offer
him support in this scene.
Yet maybe this last happiness contains the seed of his sadness too. Given the exceedingly close
relationship between them, it has been suggested that Antonio suffers some kind of unrequited love
for Bassanio. His emotional energy is certainly fixated on his young friend and, unlike many of the
other principal characters, he has no romantic partner of the opposite sex. Does the play present
evidence for this theory, or is Antonio simply offering the kind of brotherly or fatherly love you might
expect from an older, wiser friend?
The Merchant of Venice opens on a street in Venice near the Rialto, a public venue for
commerce, trade, finance, and business. At the time of writing The Merchant of Venice, the
titular city was an important center of European trade; everything from silks to spices to
exotic animals to gold passed through this flourishing port. Fortunes were made and lost by
the signors and burghers of the city, who profited from the Duke’s permissive tax laws,
corruption and opportunities that trade presented.
The twin settings of the play, Venice and Belmont, are juxtaposed contrastingly: the world of
Venice, usury, of the court, and commerce lies a ship’s short journey from the world of
Belmont and its music, candlelight, fairytale princesses, love-games, and romance. However,
even from the very first scene Shakespeare complicates this picture by implying how
commercial aspects of the Rialto are present in Belmont too. Portia is spoken of like the prize
gem of this rich world, the lady of ‘sunny locks’ which are compared to the ‘golden fleece’.
Her riches, beauty and virtue are reported in deliberate sequence:
By including in Belmont symbolic elements from Venice, Shakespeare fuses two aspects of
life, tangible and intangible, romantic and commercial. As in the real world, these are not
separate, no matter how geographically distinct they might appear to be. The linkage of the
two through the character of Bassanio implies the extent to which material thoughts dominate
the world in which he lived and wrote.
Quotation Bank
If you only remember three lines, remember these…
Based on your own reading of Act 1, Scene 1 and / or your classroom discussion, add another
memorable line to this table, and provide an analysis comment: