Important Questions & Answers in Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare
ICSE class 10 students once again gets Merchant of Venice for English Literature. Here are some important questions with answers that you must certainly read to understand the play in a much better way. Feel free to ask any questions in comments below.
Also, this exclusive package might interest you – ICSE English Literature: Merchant of Venice Review Notes for Class 10
Merchant of Venice Questions with Answers
1. Discuss Antonio’s character and his part in the play.
As to Antonio’s character, we learn as much from what is said about him as from what he says himself. As is natural for one of his rank and wealth, he is surrounded by friends; but, in spite of the opinion of Gervinus, I can see no reason for regarding any one of them as merely a fawning parasite. They never speak of him except in terms of warmest love and esteem, as when Salanio says, “The good Antonio, the honest Antonio, O that I had a title good enough to keep his name company!” And when the news of the bad fortune of his ventures reaches them, they all express genuine sorrow; but on his account, not their own. Judging by the light given us in the play, he seems to have been a man somewhat advanced in years, with no immediate family, but with a nature craving affection. In this position he has taken to his heart his young kinsman, Bassanio, for whom he cherishes a love as tender as ever father bore for son, or an older for a younger brother.
In the opening words of the play he confesses to a sadness for which he will give no reason; and on further inquiry, the only discoverable cause lies in the fact that he will have to resign his position as first in Bassanio’s affections, since the latter is about to commence his suit for the hand of some unknown fair one. Yet he shows himself thoroughly unselfish in his devotion, and is even willing to violate all business principles and borrow money at interest, in order to lend Bassanio the money wherewith to purchase his outfit. Antonio shows not a little pride and belief in his own independent strength in the calm indifference with which he treats the dangerous condition inserted in the bond by the Jew; and his imprudence in this particular, combined with his former harsh treatment of Shylock, came near resulting in his utter destruction.
Indeed, it is hard to reconcile his harshness toward Shylock with his general disposition and deportment. Still, there are extenuating reasons for his feelings of hostility. In the time in which he was supposed to live, the Jews were looked upon universally with abhorrence and contempt; the taking of interest was regarded as being in direct opposition with all Christian principles; and the individual character of Shylock was such as to arouse aversion in even the most tolerant.
Still, the treatment he received from Antonio was unjustifiable; and Antonio had to suffer for it. But in spite of this grave blemish, the merchant, with his grave kindliness, constancy, and unselfishness, is one who exacts admiration and esteem from all.
Considering the play as an organized whole, Antonio occupies the central position: hence the title of the play. As an individual, or as a dramatic personage, he excites far less interest than either Shylock or Portia; but it is nevertheless he who furnishes the ground for the meeting and contest of these two great forces in the play. It has well been said that Shakespeare has made this character verge on the neutral, else his overpowering hold upon our sympathies would have prevented us from duly appreciating the other influences at work in the play. But though he is thus the Centre of the organic structure, his presence in the play is not due solely to a dramatic necessity. Through his instrumentality Shakespeare teaches us one of the gravest of lessons the beauty, durability, and power of true friendship.
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2. What is the development of character in Bassanio?
Bassanio is an example of a type of young manhood to be found almost every day. Handsome, clever, pleasure-loving, and pleasure-seeking, but still with many noble traits, it is not until some sudden crisis occurs in his life that he discovers his own littleness, or that his friends realize how much there is in him that is truly manly and noble. His first act in the play is to borrow money not for the first time from Antonio in order to purchase a suitable outfit in which to woo a lady of great wealth whom he believes to be already prepossessed in his favor. He confesses to a feeling of great admiration for the lady, which is, in one of his temperament, probably his leading motive in seeking her, though he declares to Antonio, to spare the feelings of the cousin who had done so much for him, that his chief object is to gain money with which to pay his debts.
But shortly after his arrival at Belmont, his feelings undergo a sudden and unexpected revulsion. The utter truth and candor of the beautiful Portia, her implicit trust in his equally good faith, and her unreserved surrender of herself and all her fortune into his keeping, strip him of all his customary polite pleasantries, and leave him “bereft of all words”; but by the loss of the ornamental and self-admired flourishes, the manhood within him, already clearly discerned by the keener eyes of Antonio and Portia, is revealed to himself and to others more plainly than ever before. He recognizes at once how utterly despicable had been all mercenary motives, and rallies all his innate nobility to enable him to cope with the matchless creature who would, with a generous simplicity that was almost sublime, entrust him with her all-in-all.
With all his nobler energies thus suddenly aroused, the knowledge that Antonio’s life is endangered through his fault, and the action incumbent upon him in consequence, are just the forces needed to continue and confirm the beneficial change already produced in his character. His conduct throughout the trial-scene testifies to the development going on within him, and gains the entire approval of the ever-watchful eyes of the youthful judge; so that in the fifth act, when complete harmony is at last restored, we feel that Bassanio, purified and elevated by her influence, though he may not be her equal, is yet worthy of his Portia.
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3. How would you describe Shylock in the early scenes of the play?
In the first two scenes in which Shylock appears, he is as hard, as cold, and as keen as glittering steel. Throughout the play the effects of his intensely active intellect are to be seen; for every word he utters hits the mark with a suddenness and an unerring precision that is at once startling and terrifying. But in these early scenes, before his passions are roused to activity, he is shown as the shrewd business man ready and willing to sacrifice anything for the sake of his idol, money. In each one of the sudden moves he makes in I. iii., in his rapid, but sure calculation of the relative value of mercantile ventures, in his quick perception of his advantage over the Christian who would borrow of him, in his shrewd defence of his use of the interest system, in the wily and plausible way in which he drives the proud merchant into the snare he has set for him, the acuteness of intellect and promptness of action which came so near making him the victor over Antonio are apparent. So in I.v., the mean littlenesses into which avarice will betray a man are clearly shown.
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