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Summary The Merchant of Venice Grade 11 (Various textbooks)
Summary study book The Merchant of Venice of William Shakespeare - ISBN: 9781139835251 (.)
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0, Table of Contents
Characters ...................................................................................................................................... 2
Themes ........................................................................................................................................... 5
Motifs .............................................................................................................................................. 8
Symbols .......................................................................................................................................... 9
Chapter summary ........................................................................................................................ 10
Additional information ................................................................................................................. 19
Frequently asked questions & answers ..................................................................................... 23
1
, Characters
Shylock
A Jewish moneylender in Venice.
Angry by his mistreatment by Venice's Christians, notably Antonio, Shylock plots to get
revenge by cruelly demanding a pound of Antonio's flesh as recompense.
Despite being viewed by the other characters in the play as an inhuman monster, Shylock
occasionally deviates from stereotype and displays himself to be extremely human.
Shylock is one of Shakespeare's most memorable characters because of his contradictions
and lyrical displays of hatred.
Portia
Belmont's wealthy heiress.
Only Portia's intelligence matches her beauty.
Portia is able to marry her real love, Bassanio, despite being bound by a stipulation in her
father's will that binds her to marry whichever suitor picks correctly from three caskets.
Portia, disguised as a youthful legal clerk, is by far the most astute of the play's protagonists,
and she is the one who saves Antonio from Shylock's knife.
Antonio
The merchant who, in his love for his friend Bassanio, signs Shylock's contract and nearly dies.
Antonio is a mercurial figure, often gloomy for no apparent reason and, as Shylock points out,
possessed of an incorrigible hatred of Jews.
Nonetheless, Antonio is well-liked by his peers, and he shows mercy to Shylock, albeit on
certain terms.
Jessica
Jessica, despite being Shylock's daughter, despises life at her father's house and marries
Lorenzo, a young Christian nobleman.
Her soul's fate is frequently in doubt : the people in the play wonder if her marriage will be able
to transcend the fact that she was born a Jew, and we wonder if her selling of a ring given to
her father by her mother was unduly heartless.
Bassanio
A Venetian gentleman who is Antonio's kinsman and close friend.
Bassanio borrows money from Shylock with Antonio as a surety because of his love for the rich
Portia.
Bassanio, an ineffective businessman, proves himself a respectable suitor by properly
identifying the casket in which Portia's portrait is kept.
Gratiano
Bassanio's friend who travels with him to Belmont.
During the trial, Gratiano, a rude and garrulous young man, is Shylock's most vociferous and
caustic critic.
Gratiano falls in love with and finally marries Portia's lady-in-waiting, Nerissa, while Bassanio
courted her.
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