Act 4 Scene 1 Essay, Research Paper

“The Merchant of Venice” was written by William Shakespeare almost certainly between 1596 and 1598 and was first performed at The Theater, London, in 1597. The play is classed as one of the sixteen comedy plays but it is also a “problem” play due to the tragic elements woven throughout the intricate plot. It was performed in front of a xenophobic, Elizabethan audience who were not particularly well educated or literate but they understood the complexities of the issues being raised in the play and would have been less sympathetic towards Shylock than a modern day audience. The play concludes with a harmonious ending but throughout the plot, reoccurring themes of sadness and tragedy are included. This is why “The Merchant of Venice” falls into one of the more difficult comedy plays.

The play is set in Venice, an ancient civic republic and not a nation ruled by a King or Queen. Venice fascinated the Elizabethans, as it was commercially hospitable to people from all parts of the world e.g. Greeks, Jews and Protestants. The city was also a trading centre of great importance; Venice itself was a Catholic city and was politically independent. A place of great beauty, luxury and extremely artistic, it is the perfect setting for “The Merchant of Venice”.

The play centres on two main characters, Antonio, an extremely wealthy merchant and Shylock, a very wealthy Jew. In Venice, your word was your bond. A promise made by word of mouth was the same as having an agreement in writing you had to keep your word or pay the consequences.

Shylock is a usurer, a person who lends sums of money to others, charging vast amounts of interest. However, Antonio also lends amounts of money, but minus the interest. This is one of the main reasons why Shylock hates Antonio with a vengeance as Antonio is supposedly causing Shylocks´s profits to drop. Shylock also hates Antonio for the differences in their lifestyles and religions-

“I hate him for he is a Christian”

Shylock as agreed to lend a sum of money to Antonio. As part of the agreement, Shylock insists that if his money is not returned within a designated period of time, with the added interest, he be entitled to cut exactly one pound of flesh from Antonio´s body.

When the abuse of the Jew as usurer is combined with the Christian religious bias that marked Elizabethan England; the result is a natural demonization of the Jew. This demonization leads to the degradation of Shylock and portrays the image of a wanton murderer. In Elizabethan times, this corruption of the Jewish religion was of course perfectly acceptable. Jews were often subjected to public humiliation-

“Laughed at my losses…mocked at my gains”

To live a fairly peaceful life, many Jews hid behind the pretend veil of Christianity, often practising this foreign religion in public to convince other people.

It is this bond between Shylock and Antonio that results in the court scene in Act 4 Scene 1, the dramatic climax of the play. Although it is not the final scene, it is the finale of the “The Merchant of Venice” where all the perplexing sub-plots and main storyline are pulled together to create an explosive ending.

One of the reasons Act 4 Scene 1 is so dramatically effective is due to the tension created between Shylock and Antonio. At the very beginning of the scene, a slight sense of injustice is induced due to the fact that Antonio is seated and Shylock is standing before the Duke. In a Venetian court of justice, the accused is standing with the accuser seated, not the reverse. This gives the impression that Shylock is the one on trial when in fact it is Antonio, who is resigned to his seemingly inevitable fate-

“To suffer with a quietness of spirit”

Strong emotive language is used to emphasise this point-“Poor merchants flesh” to remind the jury that Antonio has suffered enough.

As well as the stress caused from the trial, Antonio´s greatest source of wealth, his argosies, sank earlier on in the plot, causing him a great deal of anxiety and losing him a substantial amount of money. These reasons make the audiences sympathies lie with Antonio, even though Shylock is the defendant.

Throughout the play, Shylock is perceived as inhuman and malevolent. However, in Act 3 Scene 1, the powerful and emotive speech –

“ Hath a Jew not eyes… if you prick us do we not bleed”

Stresses the common core of humanity that lies beneath the exterior of Shylock´s complex character. A note of hypocrisy occurs here; a mere seventeen lines after this plea, he is ranting and raving over the theft of his money by his only daughter, Jessica. With very strong language, Shylock wishes that Jessica

“Were dead at my foot”

This wish for his daughter´s death revokes much of the sympathy created by the former plea for the recognition of his humanity. Shakespeare yet again paints a picture of a malignant, murderous Jew – who in this instance – is willing to kill his only daughter for the sake of a few ducats. This greed for money is recognised by his repetition of his demands for his bond to be followed and the constant reminder of how much he has lent Antonio – three thousand ducats.

This gives the reader a powerful impression of who and what the character of Shylock is as a person. With these thoughts in the audience´s heads, it is easy to see why Shylock is doomed from the start of the trial even before it has begun. “The Merchant of Venice” is a comedy play so we know that the play is set to include a harmonious ending, common sense allows us to guess that Shylock will lose the trial.

Dramatic tension is induced when Portia, disguised as a young man, cross-examines Shylock in court. Lulling him into a false sense of security, she allows him to believe she is on his side. Shylock is absolutely determined to have his bond and to have his pound of “carrion” flesh.

Before Portia presents her argument, Bassanio asks Shylock-

“Why dost thou whet thy knife so earnestly?”

And Shylock replies –

“To cut the forfeiture from that bankrupt there”

Shylock is actually sharpening his knife in preparation to murder Antonio! His serious tone brings forth images of grotesqueness, yet the crowd in the court are expecting to see blood, and this horrific suggestion by Shylock is possibly met with approval by the crowd. Images of blood and horror are continued when Gratiano portrays images of wolves –

“Governed a wolf…bloody, starved and ravenous”

This causes dramatic thoughts and images to be conjured in the minds of the audience, images of a bloodthirsty monster that will stop at nothing short of murder.

When Portia enters the courtroom, she asks-

“Which is the Jew and which is the merchant?”

Perhaps she is trying to create a sense of justice by not wanting to show any favourites, but on an Elizabethan stage set, she would immediately recognise the Jew from his distinctive dress!

Portia´s opening speech begins with –

“The quality of mercy is not strained”

She is trying to explain that mercy cannot be forced, you can´t compel someone to show mercy if they are not merciful. This statement is obviously aimed at Shylock as he has just proclaimed –

“On what compulsion must I?”

He is stating that he is going to show absolutely no mercy whatsoever.

This is an extremely powerful speech, full of references to Christianity and God. Portia, in effect, personifies mercy as being like the qualities of a king. In Elizabethan times, it was believed that God chose all kings.

Portia creates the impression she is agreeing with Shylock and his merciless bond –

“You must prepare your bosom for his knife”

Shylock is ecstatic that Portia is on his side he obviously admires her judgement – “o excellent young man!”

The audience´s appetite for blood is whetted and it seems almost certain they are going to see it until Portia makes an important discovery. By now, the audience will be on the edge of their seats in anticipation of what is going to happen.

In the bond, not one drop of Christian blood may be spilt. Of course this would be an impossible task to perform and it is here that the dramatic turning point of the play occurs. Constant references to the weight of the flesh provokes images of scales and measuring units and this picture of scales ties in with the reoccurring theme of justice and how it is unfairly balanced between the two religions.

The relationship between Bassanio and Antonio comes to the forefront in this section. Antonio can literally be seen as the lover of Bassanio, willing to die for him and to forgive him for it

“Sacrifice them all…”

This creates the conflict between Portia and Antonio, a conflict she is willing to test by demanding that Bassanio give her his ring. The fact that Antonio does part with his ring for Antonio´s sake, as does Gratiano, implies that Bassanio chooses Antonio over Portia. This is of course unacceptable, as is seen in the next act where Portia severally chastises Bassanio for loving a man more than he loves her.

Portia not only frees Antonio at this point but also convicts Shylock of attempted murder. Shylock cannot go through with the bond and is forced to give up his fortune and to convert from Jewry to Christianity

“To presently become a Christian”

The theme of mercy is continued with the Duke showing Shylock mercy – “ I pardon thee life before thou ask it”

The theme of justice is also continued but perhaps now it is injustice. Shylock is being forced to convert his religion. For Shylock, this is the worst possible thing he could be made to do and it is the end of his world as he is proud to be a Jew.

Earlier on in the court scene, Shylock exposed the hypocrisy of the Christian religion by questioning the business of Christians having slaves. In effect, the hypocrisy has been allowed to reappear in the fact that the Duke and Antonio are forcing Shylock to become a Christian.

Shylock is now a totally beaten and resigned man, a far cry from his confident and vengeful image and with his exit from the courtroom, harmony begins to leak into the play as the scene draws to a close.

Shakespeare successfully combines elements of comedy, irony, sadness, horror and justice in “The Merchant of Venice” to produce a play full of dry humour and thought provoking storylines. Many aspects of the plot such as the discrimination of Jews are regretfully still in place in today´s society. Throughout the play there was also the reoccurring image of the scapegoat. Both men fit this description, with Shylock clearly the social outcast, driven out of society and Antonio represents the goat about to be sacrificed.

I enjoyed reading and analysing “The Merchant of Venice” although I recognise that the text is open to multiple interpretations: some can even directly contradict one another. The elements of anti-Semitism are frequent and have led me think more deeply about how the changes in modern society have affected our belief in God and the various ways in which we discriminate against those who are different to us.

Zoë Mitchell 11JRa