The Merchant of Venice Study Guide

Characters

• AntonioAntonio guarantees that Bassanio will not deliberately break faith with Portia again and learns from a letter she gives him that three of his merchant ships have returned safely.First appears: Act 1, Scene 1
• SSalarinoSalarino tries to explain Antonio's sadness by imagining the loss of his merchant ships, then suggests that he is in love.First appears: Act 1, Scene 1
• SSalanioSalanio tells Antonio that having wealth at sea would make him anxious about the weather and the safety of his investments.First appears: Act 1, Scene 1
• BassanioBassanio defends giving away his ring as gratitude for Antonio's rescue, promises Portia to keep faith and receives the ring back before discovering she was the doctor.First appears: Act 1, Scene 1
• LorenzoLorenzo welcomes the returning household and thanks the women for the deed granting him and Jessica everything Shylock possesses at his death.First appears: Act 1, Scene 1
• GratianoGratiano admits giving his ring to the clerk, learns that the clerk was Nerissa and ends with a joke linking the safety of her ring to sexual fidelity.First appears: Act 1, Scene 1
• PortiaPortia challenges Bassanio over his broken promise, returns his ring through Antonio, reveals her disguise and gives Antonio news that three of his ships are safe.First appears: Act 1, Scene 2
• NerissaNerissa rebukes Gratiano for giving away her ring, returns it as her identity as the clerk is revealed and delivers Shylock's deed to Lorenzo and Jessica.First appears: Act 1, Scene 2
• PSPortia's servantPortia's servant announces a Venetian messenger with rich gifts from an approaching lord and praises the messenger's promise as an ambassador of love.First appears: Act 1, Scene 2
• ShylockShylock loses his claim to Antonio's flesh and, with his life dependent on the Duke's pardon, agrees to become a Christian and settle his estate on Lorenzo and Jessica after his death.First appears: Act 1, Scene 3
• The Prince of MoroccoThe Prince of Morocco chooses the gold casket because he thinks it worthy of Portia, finds a death's head and a warning against outward show, and leaves in grief.First appears: Act 2, Scene 1
• Launcelot GobboLauncelot teases Jessica about damnation and conversion, then answers Lorenzo's accusation that he has made a Moorish woman pregnant with a pun.First appears: Act 2, Scene 2
• Old GobboOld Gobbo is Launcelot's nearly blind father, who fails to recognise his son at first and then helps him ask Bassanio for employment.First appears: Act 2, Scene 2
• LLeonardoLeonardo is Bassanio's follower, whom Bassanio urges to finish buying and arranging things for his feast and return quickly.First appears: Act 2, Scene 2
• JessicaJessica playfully accuses Lorenzo of false vows, says sweet music never makes her merry and is named with him as a beneficiary of the deed to her father's estate after his death.First appears: Act 2, Scene 3
• The Prince of ArragonThe Prince of Arragon rejects the gold casket as the crowd's choice, assumes he deserves Portia and chooses silver, only to find a fool's portrait and leave unsuccessful.First appears: Act 2, Scene 9
• ASAntonio's servantAntonio's servant summons Salarino and Salanio to speak with his master at home.First appears: Act 3, Scene 1
• TubalTubal returns from searching for Jessica with reports of her spending and Antonio's losses, and Shylock asks him to engage an officer.First appears: Act 3, Scene 1
• SSalerioSalerio is a messenger from Venice who brings Antonio's letter to Bassanio at Belmont and reports Shylock's insistence on the bond.First appears: Act 3, Scene 2
• GThe gaolerThe gaoler accompanies Antonio outside at his request and is rebuked by Shylock for allowing it.First appears: Act 3, Scene 3
• BBalthasarBalthasar is Portia's servant, whom she sends to carry a letter to Doctor Bellario in Padua and bring notes and garments to the Venice ferry.First appears: Act 3, Scene 4
• The DukeThe Duke presides over Antonio's trial, admits the disguised Portia on Bellario's recommendation and pardons Shylock's life while threatening to withdraw that pardon unless he accepts Antonio's conditions.First appears: Act 4, Scene 1
• CThe clerkThe clerk reads Bellario's letter recommending a young doctor named Balthasar to act in his place.First appears: Act 4, Scene 1
• SStephanoStephano brings word of Portia's approaching return and is sent by Lorenzo to alert the household and bring out the musicians.First appears: Act 5, Scene 1

Chapter summaries

1. Act 1, Scene 1

   Antonio cannot explain his sadness, and rejects his friends' suggestions that trade or love causes it. Salarino's imagined shipwrecks introduce the risks of commerce even as Antonio insists that his investments are spread across ships, destinations and years. Bassanio, Lorenzo and Gratiano arrive, and Gratiano urges Antonio to abandon his gloom while mocking men whose silence passes for wisdom. Once the others have left, Bassanio admits that an expensive way of life has put him in debt, especially to Antonio. He presents a further loan as a way to recover earlier losses and describes Portia through her wealth, beauty, virtues and what he takes as signs of interest in him. Antonio promises his purse and person if Bassanio's plan is honourable, making friendship a commitment to material support, though he must borrow because his wealth is at sea.

2. Act 1, Scene 2

   Portia's complaint that she is weary of the world echoes Antonio's sadness, although Nerissa reminds her of her good fortune. Portia distinguishes knowing what is good from acting on it, then complains that her father's marriage rule denies her freedom to choose. Nerissa defends the test of three caskets, made of gold, silver and lead, as a way to find a loving husband. Portia's comic portraits of the suitors show her sharp judgement, while her plan to tempt the German suitor towards the wrong casket with wine shows her desire to influence a choice she cannot make herself. She nevertheless says she will obey her father's will, welcomes the suitors' refusal to take the test and joins Nerissa in praising the remembered Bassanio. The servant's announcement brings another suitor into prospect, and Portia's comment about Morocco's complexion shows that her own judgements also contain prejudice.

3. Act 1, Scene 3

   Shylock assesses Antonio's ability to repay Bassanio's proposed loan by weighing his trading ventures against the dangers facing ships. He refuses Bassanio's dinner invitation, distinguishing commercial dealings with Christians from eating and praying with them. When Antonio enters, Shylock's aside reveals both religious hatred and resentment that Antonio's interest-free lending reduces the rates others can charge. Antonio is prepared to break his usual rule against paying interest for his friend, but disputes Shylock's use of the story of Jacob's sheep to justify charging interest. Shylock describes Antonio's insults, spitting and kicking, and Antonio answers that he is likely to repeat them and wants to borrow as an enemy rather than a friend. Shylock calls his interest-free offer friendly and playful, but proposes taking a pound of Antonio's flesh from wherever he chooses if Antonio fails to repay. Bassanio objects, but Antonio accepts because he expects ships worth many times the loan to return a month before repayment is due.

4. Act 2, Scene 1

   Morocco enters with his followers before Portia, Nerissa and their attendants, and begins by defending his complexion. He proposes comparing whose blood is redder, his or a fair-skinned northerner's, turning his defence into a competitive test of worth. Portia says that appearance does not wholly govern her preferences, but stresses that her father's test prevents her choosing freely. Morocco lists heroic feats he would perform for her, then compares the casket test to a game of dice in which a weaker man might defeat a stronger one. His speech sets personal worth against the power of chance as he understands it. Portia makes the penalty clear, and Morocco agrees to proceed despite the risk of losing her and the right to court another woman.

5. Act 2, Scene 2

   Alone on stage, Launcelot performs an argument between his conscience and a tempting fiend about leaving Shylock's service. He chooses the fiend's advice while calling his Jewish master a devil, making religious abuse part of his comic justification. Old Gobbo arrives without recognising him, and Launcelot exploits his father's poor sight with misleading directions and a false report of his own death. After revealing himself, Launcelot redirects his father's gift towards Bassanio because he admires the fine new clothes Bassanio gives his servants. Bassanio grants their confused petition, explaining that Shylock has already recommended Launcelot, and orders him a more decorated livery than the other servants'. Bassanio sends Leonardo to finish preparations for his feast, then agrees that Gratiano may come to Belmont if he moderates his noisy manners. Gratiano's promise to display prayer-books and solemn gestures makes respectable behaviour sound like a performance, though both men permit merriment that evening.

6. Act 2, Scene 3

   Jessica and Launcelot meet in Shylock's house as he prepares to leave his employment. She describes the house as hell but calls Launcelot a merry devil, turning the religious language of his earlier complaint into praise for his humour. She gives him a ducat and asks him to deliver a letter secretly to Lorenzo at Bassanio's supper. Launcelot's tearful farewell mixes affection with a joke suggesting that a Christian, rather than Shylock, fathered her. After his exit, Jessica's soliloquy reveals guilt about being ashamed of her father. She distinguishes inheriting his blood from sharing his manners and makes her hoped-for marriage and conversion depend on Lorenzo keeping his promise.

7. Act 2, Scene 4

   The four friends plan to slip away during supper, disguise themselves and return, but they have not yet arranged torch-bearers. Launcelot arrives with Jessica's letter, which Lorenzo recognises by its handwriting and praises through a play on the word 'hand'. Lorenzo gives him something and sends a private promise to Jessica while Launcelot is on his way to invite Shylock to Bassanio's supper. Once Salarino and Salanio leave to prepare, Lorenzo tells Gratiano the letter's instructions for taking Jessica from her father's house. Her page's clothes and valuables make the planned departure an act of disguise as well as a transfer of wealth. Lorenzo praises Jessica while calling her father faithless, showing that his love for a Jewish woman does not prevent religious contempt towards her father.

8. Act 2, Scene 5

   Shylock warns Launcelot that Bassanio will not indulge his appetite and laziness, contradicting Launcelot's earlier complaint of being starved. He gives Jessica his keys but says a dream about money-bags has made him uneasy about going out. Although he distrusts the invitation, he decides to eat at the expense of the Christian he regards as wasteful. News of the masque makes him order Jessica to lock the doors and keep away from the windows, describing the house as a body whose ears must be stopped. Launcelot counters those instructions with a message to look out for a Christian, which Jessica disguises as an ordinary farewell when Shylock asks about it. Shylock hopes his former servant will help waste Bassanio's borrowed money and leaves with a proverb about securing possessions. Jessica's final couplet exposes what his precautions cannot control: her intention to leave him.

9. Act 2, Scene 6

   As Gratiano and Salarino wait in masks, Lorenzo's lateness prompts a cynical discussion of how desire weakens after it gets what it wants. Gratiano compares a returning, battered ship with an extravagant young man, joining the language of love to commerce and waste. Lorenzo arrives and calls up to Jessica, who appears above in boy's clothes and hands him a valuable casket. She is embarrassed by her disguise and objects that acting as a torch-bearer will draw attention to what she wants concealed. She goes to secure the doors and take more ducats, while Lorenzo praises her as wise, fair and true and Gratiano praises her by denying her Jewish identity. Jessica comes down and leaves with Lorenzo and Salarino, so the escape happens without Shylock present. Antonio then arrives to summon Gratiano to Bassanio's ship: the wind has changed, and the planned masque will not take place.

10. Act 2, Scene 7

    Portia has the caskets uncovered and confirms that the one containing her portrait will make her the successful chooser's wife. Morocco reads the three inscriptions aloud and rejects lead because he will not risk everything for something he considers worthless. He weighs silver's promise of what he deserves against his birth, wealth, upbringing and love, but turns towards gold because so many men desire Portia. Calling her a saint, a gem and an angel, he assumes that her value must correspond to the richest container. The gold casket instead reveals a death's head with a scroll that rebukes trust in glittering surfaces. The contrast between the precious exterior and the image of death exposes the error in his reasoning. Morocco leaves distressed, while Portia's wish that everyone of his complexion should choose the same way shows her continuing racial prejudice.

11. Act 2, Scene 8

    Only Salarino and Salanio are on stage, so the departures, search and public distress reach the audience through their accounts. Salarino says that Bassanio sailed with Gratiano but without Lorenzo, and that Antonio assured the duke the lovers were not aboard. Salanio imitates Shylock's cries by repeatedly mixing daughter, ducats, jewels, religion and demands for justice, while Salarino reports that boys mock him in the street. Their insults shape the report, so it is not an unmediated speech by Shylock. Salanio worries that Antonio will suffer if he misses his repayment date, and Salarino recalls hearing of a richly laden Venetian shipwreck without knowing whose vessel it was. Salarino then describes Antonio urging Bassanio to take time over courtship and put the bond out of mind, before taking his friend's hand with tears in his eyes. The friends' tenderness towards Antonio contrasts with their derision of Shylock's distress, and they leave to relieve Antonio's sadness.

12. Act 2, Scene 9

    Nerissa prepares for Arragon's choice, and the prince states the oath requiring secrecy about his selection, no further courtship of a maid if he fails, and immediate departure. He dismisses lead for its appearance, then rejects gold because he refuses to choose with the common crowd. His criticism of people who judge only the outside sits uneasily beside his own response to lead. Silver's promise of deserved reward prompts a speech against unearned rank, followed by his confident assumption that he merits Portia. The casket contains a fool's portrait and a mocking verse, and Arragon leaves acknowledging that he now carries two fools' heads. After Portia mocks the suitors' elaborate reasoning and Nerissa invokes destiny, a servant announces a Venetian messenger with gifts from an approaching lord. Portia eagerly goes to meet this messenger, but only Nerissa names Bassanio, as a hope rather than confirmed news.

13. Act 3, Scene 1

    In a Venetian street, Salanio and Salarino discuss news of a shipwreck and greet Shylock with religious insults and mockery about his daughter. Shylock answers that Jews have the same bodies and feelings as Christians, then turns this claim of equality into a defence of revenge learned from Christian conduct. Antonio's servant summons the two men away, leaving Shylock with Tubal. Tubal has not found Jessica, but brings reports of her spending and says he has spoken to sailors who escaped the wreck of Antonio's ship from Tripolis. Shylock moves between rage at his daughter, whom he wishes dead with the stolen valuables, and delight at Antonio's losses. His grief over a turquoise ring received from Leah in his bachelor days gives one lost possession a value beyond money. He asks Tubal to engage an officer and declares his intention to take Antonio's heart if the bond is forfeit, linking revenge with the commercial freedom Antonio's removal would give him.

14. Act 3, Scene 2

    At Belmont, Portia asks Bassanio to delay choosing because she fears losing him, but refuses to break her oath by telling him the answer. A song about desire nourished by the eyes accompanies his reflections on deceptive ornament, and he rejects gold and silver for lead. Portia's aside reveals overwhelming joy at his choice, and he opens the casket to find her portrait and the successful chooser's scroll. Portia gives herself and her possessions with a ring that makes a claim on his fidelity, and Bassanio vows that it will leave his finger only when his life ends. Gratiano reveals that Nerissa's promise of love depended on Bassanio's success, and the two couples agree to marry together. Salerio's arrival with Lorenzo and Jessica interrupts the celebration: Antonio's letter reports disaster, Bassanio admits the debt that endangered his friend, and Jessica recalls Shylock's preference for flesh over repayment. Portia offers many times the sum owed and directs Bassanio to marry her first, then travel to Venice, placing her wealth behind his obligation to Antonio.

15. Act 3, Scene 3

    Shylock enters a Venetian street with Antonio, Salarino and the gaoler, angrily rejecting any appeal to mercy. He refuses Antonio a hearing and repeats his demand for the bond as both a legal right and a sworn obligation. Turning Antonio's earlier insult against him, he says that someone called a dog should be feared for his fangs. After Shylock leaves, Antonio attributes the hatred to his own practice of rescuing debtors from forfeitures. Salarino trusts the duke to prevent enforcement, but Antonio argues that denying foreigners their legal rights would damage Venice's justice and trade. Worn down by losses and grief, Antonio anticipates the demand for flesh the next day and asks only that Bassanio come to see him pay his friend's debt.

16. Act 3, Scene 4

    Lorenzo praises Portia's support for Antonio, and she reasons that so close a friend of Bassanio must resemble her husband in character. She entrusts the household to Lorenzo and Jessica and says she has vowed to withdraw with Nerissa to a nearby monastery. After their departure, her instructions to Balthasar reveal preparations for a different journey, giving the audience knowledge the household's new guardians lack. He must deliver a letter to her cousin Doctor Bellario in Padua and bring back notes and garments to the ferry serving Venice. Portia tells Nerissa that they will see their husbands in the guise of young men, though she postpones explaining her whole scheme until they are in the coach. Her plans to adopt a youthful voice, a manly stride and boastful stories present masculine behaviour as something she can imitate and mock.

17. Act 3, Scene 5

    In the garden at Belmont, Launcelot claims Jessica is damned through her parentage, while she says that her husband has made her a Christian and will save her. His complaint that more Christians will mean more pork-eaters turns conversion into a joke about the cost of food. Lorenzo enters and accuses Launcelot of making a Moorish woman pregnant, an accusation Launcelot answers with a pun rather than an account of his conduct. Ordered to arrange dinner, Launcelot repeatedly takes words in the wrong sense and delays carrying out a plain instruction. Lorenzo condemns this preference for clever words over meaning and extends the criticism to fools of higher standing. Jessica describes Portia as a blessing who gives Bassanio heaven on earth, before the couple turn to teasing praise of Lorenzo and leave for dinner.

18. Act 4, Scene 1

    The Duke calls Shylock inhuman and sympathises with Antonio, who stands with Bassanio, Gratiano and Salerio, but Shylock rejects repayment and defends his claim by comparing it with the Christians' ownership of slaves. Nerissa brings Bellario's letter, and Portia enters disguised as the young doctor of laws it recommends under the name Balthasar. Her appeal to mercy fails, and she confirms the bond's penalty while Shylock refuses to provide a surgeon because none is specified. Antonio says farewell to Bassanio, whose willingness to sacrifice his wife for his friend prompts a rebuke from the disguised Portia, while Nerissa similarly answers Gratiano's wish that his wife were in heaven. Portia then turns literal interpretation against Shylock by forbidding any blood or variation from the exact weight, denies him repayment because he has refused it, and invokes a law confiscating an alien's wealth and endangering his life for seeking a citizen's death. After the Duke pardons Shylock's life, Antonio asks the court to waive the state's claim, proposes holding the other half for Lorenzo after Shylock's death and demands conversion and a deed leaving Shylock's estate to Lorenzo and Jessica; the Duke threatens to revoke his pardon unless Shylock complies. After Shylock agrees and leaves unwell, Portia declines payment but requests Bassanio's ring, and he sends it after her at Antonio's urging despite having explained his promise to keep it.

19. Act 4, Scene 2

    Alone with Nerissa in the street, Portia directs her to Shylock's house with the deed and says they will reach home before their husbands. Her remark that Lorenzo will welcome the document links the legal settlement to the household at Belmont. Gratiano catches up with Bassanio's ring and an invitation to dinner, confirming that Bassanio has parted with the pledge he had promised to keep. Portia accepts the ring but refuses the invitation and asks Gratiano to guide her disguised companion to Shylock's house. In an aside to Portia, Nerissa reveals that she too gave her husband a ring with a promise to keep it, and announces her intention to try to obtain it. Portia's answering aside anticipates arguments over the rings and exposes to the audience a plan Gratiano does not hear, keeping the wives in control of the disguise.

20. Act 5, Scene 1

    In the moonlit avenue to Portia's house, Lorenzo and Jessica trade stories of lovers, and Jessica teases him about his vows before Stephano and Launcelot announce the approaching returns. Lorenzo calls for musicians, and when Jessica says sweet music never makes her merry, he explains her response as attentiveness and describes music's power to calm wild creatures. Returning with Nerissa, Portia reflects on how light and music depend on their surroundings, then asks the household to conceal her absence before Bassanio, Antonio and Gratiano arrive. Nerissa challenges Gratiano for surrendering his ring, and Portia joins the accusation before Gratiano exposes Bassanio's matching breach of promise. Bassanio's defence that gratitude to Antonio's rescuer obliged him to give the ring sets friendship against his marriage vow, while the audience's knowledge of the wives' disguises makes their threats of infidelity dramatically ironic. Antonio offers his soul as security that Bassanio will not deliberately break faith again, Portia returns the ring through him, and the wives briefly claim to have slept with the doctor and clerk before revealing their identities with Bellario's letter as evidence. A second letter confirms that three of Antonio's ships are safe, and Lorenzo welcomes the deed imposed on Shylock at the trial as a gift from the women.

Key quotes