The Merchant Of Venice Character Quotations edexcel 1-Shakespeare

Key word or phrase to memorise: “bound” and “Well”

What the quotation means: Shylock is quick to repeat that Antonio is indeed “bound” to him when he enters into a deal with Bassanio that means that Antonio owes him money 

Theme: Wealth and Power

• Shakespeare presents ideas about wealth and the way it brings power through Shylock:

  • His pun, “bound”, alludes to the way Antonio’s debt (which he is “bound” to pay back) will figuratively bind him (like a trap) to Shylock

  • His pleasure at the certainty of this is conveyed in the addition of “Well”

• Shakespeare foreshadows the conflict that this relationship will bring:

  • Shylock’s obsession leads him to seek merciless vengeance on Antonio

Key word or phrase to memorise: “jewels in her ear!”

What the quotation means: Shylock is furious that his daughter has disappeared and asks Tubal if he has found her, adding that he would rather she were dead so that the jewels she wears are returned to him 

Theme: Love and Friendship

• Shylock’s emotional outbursts are often about the cost of things, or his loss of wealth

• Shakespeare illustrates Shylock’s value for money over his relationships:

  • While he seems desperate to find his daughter, his real worry is revealed

  • Shylock’s wish for the “jewels” rather than her safe return portrays his callousness

• It would be a mistake, though, to suggest that he does not care for his daughter at all:

  • Much of his anger here comes from a sense of betrayal — her disappearance hurts him because he trusted her

  • The plosive alliteration of the “d” sound here gives a sense of his fury, suggesting that he spits these words out

Key word or phrase to memorise: “take my life”

What the quotation means: When Shylock’s judgement comes, he is offered a pardon if he gives half his wealth to Antonio and half to the state, but Shylock refuses, asking instead for them to take his life

Theme: Prejudice and Intolerance

• Shakespeare illustrates how Shylock considers money to be vital to life:

  • His need for his living, he says, is more valuable than “life”

  • He suggests that he cannot sustain life without money 

  • The play presents ideas about a society that prioritises wealth

• Shakespeare’s Shylock is intolerant of Antonio’s values and seeks vengeance:

  • In this scene, though, Shylock is forced to surrender all of his values

  • The play raises questions about justice and intolerance

• Shakespeare’s Elizabethan audience would have found this line, which plays into racial stereotypes of covetous Jews, amusing:

  • Modern audiences, though, recognise the cruelty and racially-motivated injustice with which Shylock is treated here

Key word or phrase to memorise: “condition of a saint” and “complexion of a devil”

What the quotation means: Portia is frustrated at her father’s wish that she find a suitable man to marry through a series of tests, joking that she cares less about their nature and more about their skin colour or race, and that she would prefer a foreign man to be her priest than her husband

Theme: Prejudice and Intolerance

• Shakespeare illustrates society-wide discriminatory attitudes:

  • Portia’s witty comment reveals her casual, flippant racism

  • Her joke links non-white races to the “devil”, playing on the common belief that the devil had black skin

• The play portrays a number of oppressed characters who exhibit prejudice against other minorities:

  • The rhyming of “wive” with “shrive” (which means ‘to confess) perhaps indicates ironic resignation at her limited role in her marriage

  • Portia links suitors and priests, illustrating the influence of both