The Merchant of Venice: Act II
Chapter Four
Syllabus topic 1.1, "The Merchant of Venice - William Shakespeare"
Pages 17 to 21 of 406
In one line
Act II runs the casket test twice and empties Shylock's house: two suitors choose wrongly at Belmont, and in Venice Shylock's servant leaves him and his daughter elopes with a Christian, taking his money and his jewels.
In the wording a student can write in an examination: Act II develops both plots in alternation, showing the failure of the Princes of Morocco and Arragon at the caskets, the departure of Launcelet Gobbo from Shylock's service, and the elopement of Jessica with Lorenzo carrying away her father's ducats and jewels.
The scenes in order
Act II Scene i, Belmont. The Prince of Morocco arrives and asks Portia not to dislike him for his complexion. Portia tells him she is not free to choose, and that but for her father's lottery he would stand as fair as any comer. He is told the condition of the test: whoever chooses wrongly must swear never to speak to any lady in the way of marriage afterwards. He accepts.
Act II Scene ii, Venice. Launcelet Gobbo, Shylock's servant, debates with himself in a long comic speech whether to run away, with the fiend at one elbow telling him to run and his conscience telling him to stay. His half-blind father Old Gobbo arrives, and Launcelet plays a joke on him by pretending his own son is dead. They then go together to Bassanio, who takes Launcelet into his service, and Gratiano asks Bassanio to let him come to Belmont.
Act II Scene iii, Shylock's house. Jessica says goodbye to Launcelet, gives him a ducat, and asks him to carry a letter secretly to Lorenzo. Alone, she speaks the two lines that decide her part in the play.
Alack, what heinous sin is it in me
To be ashamed to be my father's child!
She adds that though she is a daughter to his blood she is not to his manners, and that if Lorenzo keeps his promise she will become a Christian and his wife.
Act II Scene iv, a street. Lorenzo, Gratiano, Salarino and Solanio plan a masque, a street entertainment in costume. Launcelet delivers Jessica's letter, and Lorenzo tells Gratiano the plan: Jessica has directed how he shall take her from her father's house, what gold and jewels she is furnished with, and what page's suit she has ready.
Act II Scene v, before Shylock's house. Shylock is going out to supper with Bassanio, unwillingly. He gives Jessica the keys, tells her he goes in hate to feed upon the prodigal Christian, and says he dreamt of money-bags, so there is some ill a-brewing. Warned that there may be masques, he orders her to lock up the doors and not to look out at the windows.
The Merchant of Venice: Act II
Lock up my doors, and when you hear the drum
And the vile squealing of the wry-neck'd fife,
Clamber not you up to the casements then.
He leaves on a proverb, "Fast bind, fast find". Jessica's answer, when he is gone, is a single couplet: if her fortune is not crossed, he has lost a daughter and she a father.
Act II Scene vi, the same. The masquers wait. Jessica appears above, dressed as a boy, throws down a casket of her father's money, says she is ashamed of her exchange of clothes, and goes back in to gild herself with more ducats before coming down. Gratiano's comment as she goes is worth marking: "Now, by my hood, a gentle, and no Jew." Antonio then arrives with news that the wind has changed and Bassanio is going aboard at once, so the masque is cancelled.
Act II Scene vii, Belmont. Morocco reads the three inscriptions.
| Casket | Inscription |
|---|---|
| Gold | Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire |
| Silver | Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves |
| Lead | Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath |
He reasons that lead threatens rather than promises, that silver invites him to weigh his own worth, and that gold must be right because all the world desires Portia. He chooses gold, and finds a skull with a scroll in its eye: "All that glisters is not gold". He leaves, and Portia's line as he goes is one of the ugliest in the play: "Let all of his complexion choose me so."
Act II Scene viii, Venice. Salarino and Solanio report two things. First, Shylock has raised the Duke and searched Bassanio's ship, too late, and has run through the streets crying about his daughter and his ducats together.
My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter!
Fled with a Christian! O my Christian ducats!
Second, a Frenchman has told Salarino that a richly laden vessel of their country was wrecked in the narrow seas between France and England, and he feared it was Antonio's. Solanio's line is the plot turning: "Let good Antonio look he keep his day."
Act II Scene ix, Belmont. The Prince of Arragon takes the same oath and reasons differently. He refuses gold because he will not rank himself with the barbarous multitude who choose by show, and takes silver because a man should have as much as he deserves. He finds the portrait of a blinking idiot with a schedule, and goes away with two fools' heads instead of one. A messenger then announces a young Venetian at the gate, and Nerissa's closing line names the hope: "Bassanio, Lord Love, if thy will it be!"
The Merchant of Venice: Act II
What the caskets are actually testing
The lottery is not random, and questions are set on why. Each casket is a statement about what a person expects from love.
Gold promises what many men desire, so it appeals to a man who values the lady as a prize other men want. Morocco chooses it and is shown a skull, because that is what desiring what everybody desires comes to in the end.
Silver promises as much as the chooser deserves, so it appeals to self-esteem. Arragon chooses it, after a speech about how estates and offices should go by merit, and is shown a fool's head, because a man who is sure he deserves the best is a fool.
Lead demands that the chooser give and hazard all he has, so it asks for risk with no promise at all. It is the only one that offers nothing and asks everything, which is what the play thinks love is.
This is the theme of appearance and reality, and it runs straight into the trial. Morocco is refused for choosing by the outside, and the scroll tells him that all that glisters is not gold. Six scenes later a bond that looks like a merry sport turns out to be an instrument for killing a man.
Jessica, and why this act matters legally
Jessica does three things in one night: she leaves her father's house, she takes a casket of his ducats and later "more" ducats besides, and she takes jewels including, as Act III will show, a turquoise ring her mother gave him. She then marries a Christian and converts.
Consider the position coldly. Property has been removed from a house by a person entrusted with the keys and handed to men waiting outside. Shylock does what any person in that position would do: he raises the Duke, searches the ship, and cries in the street for justice and the law. Every character in the play treats this as ridiculous, and the boys of Venice follow him mocking. Solanio calls him "the dog Jew" while reporting it.
Two consequences follow for the rest of the play. First, this is the moment Shylock's demand stops being commercial. Until now he wanted a good bargain; from here he wants Antonio's life, and Act III will say why. Second, the audience is invited to laugh at a father who has lost his daughter and his savings on one night, and how you feel about that invitation decides how you read the trial.
What beginners get wrong in this act
They treat Act II as filler. It contains the elopement, the two failed choices that explain the third, and the first news that a ship has been lost. Nothing in it is spare.
The Merchant of Venice: Act II
They say Jessica escapes cruelty. The text supports it: she calls the house hell and says she is ashamed to be her father's child. But she also robs him, and the play never lets her repay it. A good answer says both.
They think the caskets are a fairy tale detail. They are the play's theory of judgment, and they set up the reading of the bond in Act IV, where a document that looks like one thing is held to mean exactly what it says.
They confuse the two princes. Morocco chooses gold and gets a skull. Arragon chooses silver and gets a fool's head. Marking that pair correctly is worth two marks in a reference-to-context question.
A worked answer
Question. "What do the three caskets test, and how do you know?"
Building the answer. Take the inscriptions first, because they are the evidence: gold promises what many men desire, silver promises as much as the chooser deserves, and lead demands that the chooser give and hazard all he has.
Then the two failures. Morocco chooses gold, reasoning that all the world desires Portia, and finds a skull with the scroll "All that glisters is not gold". Arragon chooses silver, after a speech refusing to rank himself with the barbarous multitude, and finds the portrait of a blinking idiot.
Then the conclusion. So gold catches the man who wants what others want, and silver the man who is sure of his own merit, while lead is the only casket that promises nothing and asks everything. The test is not of cleverness but of what the chooser expects from love, and Bassanio passes it in Act III Scene ii by choosing the metal that threatens rather than promises.
Quick revision
Nine scenes, alternating Venice and Belmont.
Morocco chooses gold and finds a skull with the scroll "All that glisters is not gold". Arragon chooses silver and finds a fool's head.
The three inscriptions: gold, what many men desire; silver, as much as he deserves; lead, must give and hazard all he hath.
Launcelet Gobbo leaves Shylock for Bassanio; the comic scene with Old Gobbo.
Jessica elopes with Lorenzo in boy's clothes, taking a casket of ducats and jewels. Shylock raises the Duke, searches the ship, and runs crying "My daughter! O my ducats!"
Act II Scene viii carries the first report of a wreck in the narrow seas, and the warning "Let good Antonio look he keep his day".
Test yourself
1. Why does Morocco choose gold, and what does he find? Because the inscription promises what many men desire, and he reasons that all the world desires Portia. He finds a skull with a scroll beginning "All that glisters is not gold".
The Merchant of Venice: Act II
2. Why does Arragon reject gold? Because he refuses to choose what the "fool multitude" desires and to rank himself with the barbarous multitudes. He takes silver on the ground that a man should have what he deserves, and is given a portrait of a blinking idiot.
3. What exactly does Jessica take with her? A casket of her father's money thrown down from the window, more ducats that she goes back to fetch, and jewels. She is also dressed in a page's suit, a boy's clothes, and acts as Lorenzo's torch-bearer.
4. What is the significance of Solanio's line "Let good Antonio look he keep his day"? It is the first time anybody in the play connects Shylock's rage to the bond. The audience is told, before Antonio knows it, that the forfeiture will now be pressed.
5. How does the casket test connect to the trial scene? Both turn on reading. The caskets punish men who read an inscription for what it seems to promise instead of what it says, and the trial destroys Shylock by reading his own document for exactly what it says and nothing more.
The rest of this subject
These notes are cut from the University's printed syllabus. Open the syllabus itself, or the past papers, for the same subject.