Shylock Study #2

Shylock makes his last appearance in A4S1

How does he behave when he thinks he is winning? Shylock acts quite childish
Is his behaviour what you expected of him based on the story so far, look carefully at his one-ine answers, as well as at his longer speeches. Look too at his reply to Gratiano L 139-142. Yes Shylock is quite confident and cocky about how he is going to get the pound of flesh owed.
Why do lines 40-46 offer a particularly chilling comparison. What is Shylock saying. Compare L67.
How does Shylock react when he becomes the victim? He asks them to be merciful even though he wasn't prepared to do that to Antonio when he was the victim

The Merchant of Venice - Act 4

What does the Duke believe Shylock intends to do? He thinks he will show mercy
What does Shylock intend to do, and what reasons does he give for his decision? Kill Antonio. Because its apart of the law and Antonio has never treated him well.
Why must the law be allowed to stand (why can’t the judge dismiss this case)? Because of the bond that Antonio and Shylock made.
Shylock is very clear about the restrictions in the wording of the deed, how does Portia use these loopholes? because the deed says that he can only take a pound of flesh so if anything such as a tiny bit of blood or if he takes a little bit less or a little bit more flesh then a pound he is breaking the bond
What penalties does Shylock now have to pay? Are they fair? Why/why not. Shylock now has to give half of his money to the state and the other half to his daughter then he has to become a christian. I don't think that having to become a christian is very fair because if you believe in something else you probably wouldn't want anyone to tell you that you had to change religions.
How do Lorenzo and Jessica gain by the result? Because they get half of Shylocks money
What reward has Portia claimed and why is this significant? Bassanio's ring because he promised to never take it off or to give it away
Portia tells Shylock ‘The quality of mercy is not strained’. How does she try to persuade Shylock to show mercy, how much mercy is she willing to show him (line 345-362)? She tries to persuade Shylock to show mercy by trying to appeal to his better sense

Act Four, Scene One
A4S1 L 70-80. Antonio gives us three short images of how useless any attempt by Bassanio to save his life will be
What are they? Standing at a beach and asking the ocean to get smaller, Ask the wolf why it killed the lamb and made it's mother cry, Pine trees on the mountain to stop waving their treetops when the storm blow through them
What do they tell us about one of Shakespeare's interests? That he likes to compare things and that he likes to give different option.
Do you think this is an effective way of demonstrating the problem? Yes because it shows how impossible he thinks the situation is going to be to overcome.
Each example is an extreme and impossible, what influence does this have on how you expect the rest of the scene to develop? The influence this has on the rest of the scene is that is going to be hard to win the case
A4S1 L90-100, Shylock uses vivid comparisons when he wants to make a point.
What example does he use to illustrate the fact that the pound of flesh is his: ‘tis mine and I will have it’
It is much longer comparison than the three used by Antonio  but do you think it is more striking/effective/convincing? I think that this is more effective than the three used by Antonio be cause it is sharp and simple and he says it confidently.

Can Dos:

Rigorous: extremely thorough and careful
Remorse: Regret or guilt for wrong committed
Malice: The desire to harm someone
Abject: completely without pride or dignity
Epitaph: Something that a person,time or place will be remembered.
Inexecrable: Deserving of being cursed or execrated
Impugn: dispute of the truth, validity or honesty

Research In the Shakespeare court we have a judge. Which system do you think is fairer, that in the play, or that of modern day? I reckon that modern day is fairer because it gives more of a chance for both sides and since now more things have been updated since the older days they have been able to take things that worked well and ditched the worse things to improve the court.