The Merchant of Venice ACT 3 Notes

ACT 3 - Summary SCENE 1: Solanio and Salarino have a conversation and reveal that one of Antonio’s ships has wrecked in the Narrow Sea. Shylock enters the scene and receives the good news. He is still planning on taking revenge on Antonio. Shylock talks with Tubal, another Jew. Tubal reveals that Jessica has been spending a lot of Shylock’s money. She has even purchased a monkey with her mother’s engagement ring. SCENE 2: Bassanio is preparing to choose a casket. Portia wants him to wait a day or two before choosing, but Bassanio wants to do it right away. Portia plays a song and music while Bassanio chooses. He ends up choosing the lead casket and “Portia’s counterfeit” is inside, meaning that he has won the lottery. He will marry Portia and inherit all of her wealth. It is revealed that Gratiano will marry Nerissa. As the two couples are celebrating their relationships, Lorenzo and Jessica show up in Belmont with Salerio, Bassanio’s servant. Bassanio is given a letter from Antonio. Antonio says that his ships have all wrecked and Shylock has come calling for him flesh. Portia tells Bassanio that they need to go to a church and get married and after that, Bassanio should leave to help him friend. Portia gives Bassanio a ring.

ACT 3 – Summary cont. SCENE 3: Antonio begs Shylock to forget the agreement, but Shylock is staying true to the bond that was made. He wants to take a pound of Antonio’s flesh. Antonio must go on trial before the Duke of Venice. Antonio thinks that he is going to lose the trial because by law, he made a bond with Shylock. SCENE 4: Bassanio and Gratiano leave for Venice. Portia tells Lorenzo and Jessica to look after her house while she is away. She and Nerissa are planning on going to Venice. Portia and Nerissa are going to disguise themselves as boys. They leave Belmont and head to the docks. SCENE 5: Jessica and Lancelot Gobbo are having a conversation. Lancelot tells Jessica that she is going to have to pay for the sins of her father. Lorenzo yells at Lancelot and tells him to prepare for a feast that they will be having later that night.

Relationships BASSANIO + PORTIA GRATIANO + NERISSA LORENZO + JESSICA

Scene 1 – “hath not a Jew eyes?” “He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million, laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies – and what’s his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wring us, shall we not revenge?”

Scene 1 - Jessica “Your daughter spent in Genoa, as I heard, one night four score ducats…One of them showed me a ring that he had of your daughter for a monkey.”

“Fair Portia’s counterfeit!” Scene 2 - Counterfeit “Fair Portia’s counterfeit!”

SCENE 2 “That he would rather have Antonio’s flesh than twenty times the value of the sum that he did owe him;”

SCENE 4 “Lorenzo, I commit into your hands the husbandry and manage of my house until my lord’s return; for mine own part I have toward heaven breath’d a secret vow to liv ein prayer and contemplation, only attended by Nerissa here, until her husband and my lord’s return.”

SCENE 5 “Yes truly, for look you, the sins of the father are to be laid upon the children.”