Themes of The Merchant of Venice
Chapter Thirteen
Syllabus topic 1.1, "The Merchant of Venice - William Shakespeare"
Pages 67 to 70 of 406
In one line
The play works six ideas hard: justice against mercy, the letter against the spirit, prejudice, appearance against reality, money against friendship, and the position of an outsider in a society that needs him and despises him.
Theme one: justice and mercy
The proposition. A valid agreement gives a right that the law must enforce, and mercy is the free decision not to enforce a right you have. The two cannot be reconciled, because mercy that can be compelled is not mercy.
Where it is worked. The Duke's plea in Act IV Scene i, "We all expect a gentle answer, Jew". Shylock's four-word reply to the demand, "On what compulsion must I?" The mercy speech itself. Portia's refusal to bend the law for a good outcome because it would become a precedent. And the sentence at the end, which shows none.
The position the play takes. It refuses to let mercy win the argument. What defeats Shylock is strict construction, not compassion, and the mercy shown to him afterwards costs him his religion. The play then reopens the question in Act V, where a broken oath is pressed hard and forgiven, as if to show what mercy would have looked like.
Theme two: the letter against the spirit
The proposition. Words in a document mean what they say, and what they say may be very far from what anybody intended.
Where it is worked. The bond itself, which says flesh and does not say blood. Shylock's refusal of a surgeon because it is "not in the bond". Portia's judgment. Portia's own father's will, which she obeys to the letter while wishing it otherwise. The rings, which are given on an express condition and demanded back on the letter of it.
The position the play takes. Strictness is shown to be a tool and not a virtue. The same method saves Antonio and ruins Shylock, and Act V shows a household choosing not to use it.
Theme three: prejudice, and the play's antisemitism
The proposition. A society may license a man's trade, take his money, and treat him as less than human at the same time.
Where it is worked. Antonio's admitted spitting and name-calling. Solanio's "the dog Jew". The boys of Venice following him in the street. Gratiano's speeches in court. The Duke's use of the word "gentle" for both kind and gentile. The alien statute, which can apply to him and never to Antonio. Against all of that, the speech in Act III Scene i, the turquoise ring, and the argument about purchased slaves.
The position the play takes. This is genuinely contested and you may argue either way, provided you use the evidence. The reading that fits most of the text is that Shakespeare took an inherited stage villain and gave him a case, so that the play delivers a comic ending while making the audience uneasy about who is delivering it.
Themes of The Merchant of Venice
Theme four: appearance and reality
The proposition. What a thing looks like is a poor guide to what it is.
Where it is worked. The three caskets, most of all the scroll in the gold one, "All that glisters is not gold". Bassanio's speech before choosing, which takes its first example from law: a corrupt plea, seasoned with a gracious voice, obscures the show of evil. The bond that is proposed as "a merry sport". Portia and Nerissa in disguise. Antonio's "The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose".
The position the play takes. Unambiguous: judge by substance. The play then complicates it by having its heroine win through a disguise.
Theme five: money, friendship and worth
The proposition. Everything in this play is priced, including things that should not be.
Where it is worked. Three thousand ducats buys a courtship. Portia offers six thousand, then twelve, then thirty-six. Jessica sells a turquoise for a monkey and spends fourscore ducats in a night. Shylock cries for his daughter and his ducats in one breath. Antonio's friendship is expressed as a bond and, in Act V, as a second suretyship. The lead casket is the only object in the play that asks a man to give rather than to get.
The position the play takes. That the things worth having cannot be bought, stated through the caskets, and then a plot in which nearly everybody gets rich anyway.
Theme six: the outsider, and the city
The proposition. Venice needs Shylock's capital and Shylock needs Venice's protection, and neither can admit it.
Where it is worked. Antonio's speech in Act III Scene iii: the Duke cannot deny the course of law because the trade and profit of the city consists of all nations. Shylock's "I stand here for law". The alien statute. And the detail that Shylock will buy, sell, walk and talk with Christians but will not eat, drink or pray with them.
The position the play takes. It states the commercial logic honestly, better than most textbooks, and then shows the city breaking its own rule the moment the rule protects the wrong man.
How to build a thirteen-mark essay on a theme
Take "justice and mercy" as the worked example.
Paragraph one. State the two ideas and say what your answer is. For example: the play sets an absolute legal right against a mercy that by definition cannot be compelled, and it resolves the conflict by avoiding it, since Shylock is defeated by construction and not by compassion.
Themes of The Merchant of Venice
Paragraph two. The claim of justice. Shylock's bond, its validity, his four-word answer, Antonio's own explanation that the Duke cannot deny the course of law.
Paragraph three. The claim of mercy. The Duke's plea, the mercy speech in its five steps, and why it fails: a Christian argument made to a Jew in a court that has abused him.
Paragraph four. How the case is actually decided. Blood, the exact pound, the refusal of the principal, the alien statute.
Paragraph five. The other side. Bassanio's "to do a great right, do a little wrong", and Portia's answer about precedent, which is the best argument in the play for strictness.
Paragraph six. Act V, where the same conflict returns as a broken oath and is settled the other way, and a conclusion that answers the question in its own words.
What beginners get wrong
They list themes without proving them. One incident per claim, named by act and scene, is what separates a pass from a good mark.
They treat a trial as a theme. A trial is an event. Justice and mercy is the theme it works.
They give the play a moral it does not have. The play does not conclude that mercy is better than justice. It shows mercy losing the argument and then shows a household living differently.
They ignore Act V in theme answers. Every theme above is worked again in the last act, in a lower key, and an answer that ends at the trial has left out the resolution.
A worked answer
Question. "Write an essay on the theme of appearance and reality."
Paragraph one, the position. The play states early that outward show is untrustworthy, proves it three times in the casket plot, and then complicates its own lesson by winning the trial through a disguise.
Paragraph two, the caskets. Morocco chooses gold because all the world desires Portia, and finds a skull and the scroll "All that glisters is not gold". Arragon chooses silver on his own merit and finds a fool's head. Bassanio chooses lead after a speech arguing that the world is deceived with ornament, taking his first example from a corrupt legal plea seasoned with a gracious voice.
Paragraph three, the bond. The same theme in the main plot. The forfeiture is proposed as "a merry sport" and is an instrument for killing a man, and Bassanio alone says so at the end of Act I: "I like not fair terms and a villain's mind."
Paragraph four, the complication. Portia wins by appearing to be what she is not, in borrowed robes and a false name, carrying a letter that is true only in part. A play that condemns judging by appearances is resolved by a successful deception.
Themes of The Merchant of Venice
Paragraph five, the conclusion. So the theme is not a simple moral. What the play condemns is reading the surface of a thing instead of its substance, and what it rewards is the reader who can tell a gilded casket from a lead one and a merry bond from a death warrant.
Quick revision
Six themes: justice and mercy; letter against spirit; prejudice; appearance and reality; money and worth; the outsider and the city.
Justice and mercy: "On what compulsion must I?" is the question the play cannot answer, and does not.
Letter against spirit: no blood in the bond, no surgeon in the bond, the will, the rings.
Prejudice: spitting admitted, "dog Jew", the alien statute, against the speech in III.i and the turquoise.
Appearance and reality: the caskets, "All that glisters is not gold", the merry bond, the disguise.
Money: everything is priced, including a daughter's ring and a friend's body.
The outsider: Venice needs foreign capital and says so, then finds a statute for aliens.
Test yourself
1. What is the difference between a theme and an incident? An incident happens once, such as the elopement or the trial. A theme is an idea the play returns to in several places, such as justice against mercy. An examiner asking for a theme wants the idea, proved by incidents.
2. Give three places where the letter against the spirit is worked. The bond, which grants flesh and not blood; Shylock's refusal of a surgeon because it is not nominated in the bond; and Portia's obedience to the exact terms of her father's will while wishing she were free.
3. How does Act V return to the theme of justice and mercy? A promise is broken, the injured party has an absolute right to complain and presses it hard, and then forgives and restores what was lost. It is the trial replayed with the opposite ending.
4. State the strongest argument in the play for strict enforcement. Portia's: that no power in Venice can alter an established decree, because the decision would be recorded as a precedent and many errors would follow the same example into the state.
5. How should an essay handle the antisemitism of the play? By setting out what is done and said to Shylock, then what Shakespeare gives him in reply, and then taking a position on whether the play endorses the treatment or exposes it. Both positions are arguable; an answer that refuses to take one scores less.
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.