The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare -- Act 5, Scene 1 -- Summary and Analysis

Written by

Summary

Lorenzo and Jessica are at Belmont, telling a love story together, beginning with that of Troilus and Criseyde and ending with their own. Nerissa enters as Stephano and announces that Portia will be back during the night.

Lancelot enters and announces that Bassanio will also arrive during the night.

Portia and Nerissa arrive, and then Bassanio, Antonio and Gratiano arrive. Nerissa admonishes Gratiano for parting with her ring. Bassanio hears this and shrinks. Portia confronts him and promises to never bed him until she sees the ring. Portia gives him hell about the ring and he tries to defend himself.

Antonio whines that he is the cause of the quarrels.

Nerissa and Portia present their rings to their husbands and say that they got them when they slept with the doctor and his clerk the night before. Gratiano grows angry and Portia reveals the trick. Portia also brings Antonio the news of three of his ships having made it safely and richly to harbor. She tells Lorenzo and Jessica of Shylock's will.


Main events

  • Everyone returns to Belmont
  • Ring blowout and cleanup
  • Portia brings good news: some of Antonio's argosies are safe, and Shylock will leave money to Jessica and Lorenzo


Participating Characters

  • Lorenzo
  • Jessica
  • Stephano (Nerissa)


Analysis and Discussion

In this scene, there is much less action and progression of plot and more waxing poetic.


  • This exchange between Jessica and Lorenzo is full of hints about the less romantic aspects of their love: "slander her love" and "unthrift love". But in the following passage, is Jessica outright saying that Lorenzo's love isn't sincere?

JESSICA

In such a night
Did young Lorenzo swear he loved her well,
Stealing her soul with many vows of faith
And ne'er a true one. 19


  • The beginning of the speech could be love poetry: Sit, Jessica, and look at the beautiful sky. Instead of the sky inspiring love in Lorenzo, however, it makes him think of his body as a "muddy vesture of decay" which prevents him from hearing the song of the stars. Depressing. 

LORENZO

Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold:

There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st 60
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins;
Such harmony is in immortal souls;
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.


  • Lorenzo's speech about the power of music has perhaps a meta-theatrical layer about the paralyzing/calming power of theater or conversely about the power of orchestra music that accompanies plays

LORENZO

The reason is, your spirits are attentive: 70
For do but note a wild and wanton herd,
Or race of youthful and unhandled colts,
Fetching mad bounds, bellowing and neighing loud,
Which is the hot condition of their blood;
If they but hear perchance a trumpet sound,
Or any air of music touch their ears,
You shall perceive them make a mutual stand,
Their savage eyes turn'd to a modest gaze
By the sweet power of music: therefore the poet
Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones and floods;
Since nought so stockish, hard and full of rage,
But music for the time doth change his nature.

  • Shylock as Erebus?

LORENZO

The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night
And his affections dark as Erebus:
Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.


  • This passage may refer to one of two things: a) Antonio and Portia's good deeds of lending/giving money to their friend/spouse that will certainly be forgotten in the grand scheme of things b) a meta-theatrical comment about outstanding few works of art shining in a world of poor quality art

PORTIA

That light we see is burning in my hall.
How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.

NERISSA

When the moon shone, we did not see the candle.

PORTIA

So doth the greater glory dim the less:
A substitute shines brightly as a king
Unto the king be by, and then his state
Empties itself, as doth an inland brook
Into the main of waters.


  • Relativity of good and bad (respect here meaning "perspective"). Again, could be a meta-literary reflection about the relative quality of art, or could be about the story – the benevolence and malevolence of Shylock and Antonio from their own points of view.

PORTIA

Nothing is good, I see, without respect: 


  • Nerissa echoes Portia like Solanio and Salarino echoed each other in the first act

PORTIA

Even so void is your false heart of truth.
By heaven, I will ne'er come in your bed
Until I see the ring.

NERISSA

Nor I in yours
Till I again see mine.



Table of Contents: The Merchant of Venice -- Summary and Analysis


The Merchant of Venice. Image source

Comments

Post a Comment

Hey friend! 🌈 I can't help with your assignments but maybe other readers can. Good luck! 🤞

Popular posts

"Professions for Women" by Virginia Woolf - Summary

Written by
Image
Virginia Woolf is addressing a group of women seeking employment in a workforce predominated by men. She speaks of the struggle present for all women writers, and that is to break out of the conventions society has for women- being pure, and conservative, and sycophantic towards men without a mind of their own. This is a mental barrier that she was able to break, with great difficulty, in order to incorporate her own voice into her writing. She was able to do so thanks to her financial independence, which allowed her to not depend on writing for a livelihood and allowed her to break conventions. Now that women will join the workforce, Woolf says that it is important to ask questions regarding what all of this implies, and how women are to behave once they are professionals, and to explore the individual voice that women will need to bring to their jobs. Virginia Woolf
Read more

In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens by Alice Walker - Summary

Written by
Image
Walker describes Jean Toomer's exploration of the Reconstruction South. Toomer found women sexually abused and lost, but who he saw to hold power, spirituality and beauty of which they were not aware. They were waiting for these unknowns to be made known. In the meantime they did not appreciate any aspects of life. These black women were artists whose creative forces were abandoned to the hardships of life. Black women who were able to create such as Phillis Wheatley and Zora Hurston had divided loyalties, between black and white cultures. They were raised in both and their art is not genuinely hers but confused due to this. Many have criticized Wheatley's poetry for glorifying white people but Walker understands that art for Phyllis was a soulful practice and it sustained her. This is not the end of the story, for the next generation of black women has survived. There is now the quest for black female identity. Society is not understanding of this strife. The quest
Read more

American Dreamer by Bharati Mukherjee - Summary

Written by
Image
Mukherjee calls America a myth. Mukherjee is a naturalized citizen and had to prove her worth to become one. She was born in Calcutta, India and never expected to naturalize, but to return home to marry the man her father picked for her. When she first arrived in Iowa for two years to study it was very homogeneous but now, 35 years later, it is so diverse that there's a cultural   or identity crisis regarding foreigners. In India this was unheard of, because classification matters above all and decrees precisely who each person is. Mukherjee herself was defined by her ancestry, caste and homeland. One day she spontaneously married her Canadian husband. For ten years she felt like an expatriate, and wrote a book that was an expression of this. After 14 years in Canada she decided to become an immigrant instead of an expatriate and moved to America with her family. Canada was hard because it was very racially exclusivist. America on the other hand held the appeal of its egalitari
Read more

"The Reading Process: A Phenomenological Approach" by Wolfgang Iser - Article Summary

Written by
Image
Iser, Wolfgang. "The Reading Process: A Phenomenological Approach." The Implied Reader: Patterns of Communication in Prose Fiction from Bunyan to Beckett. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins UP, 1974. 274-94. Print. From Wikipedia: Phenomenology, in Husserl's conception, is primarily concerned with the systematic reflection on and analysis of the structures of  consciousness , and the  phenomena  which appear in acts of consciousness. Such reflection was to take place from a highly modified "first person" viewpoint, studying phenomena not as they appear to "my" consciousness, but to any consciousness whatsoever. Husserl believed that phenomenology could thus provide a firm basis for all human  knowledge , including scientific knowledge, and could establish philosophy as a "rigorous science" of measurable perception. SUMMARY I – The work of literature is text and the reader's response According to phenomenology, when co
Read more

The Ethics of Living Jim Crow by Richard Wright - Summary

Written by
Image
1 Young Richard's and the other black families lived behind the railroad tracks in Arkansas, their yards strewn with cinders. One day his gang got into a fight with white kids, who used broken bottles instead of cinders for the fight. Richard was injured, and instead of consoling him his mother admonishes him for fighting white boys and beats him until he is sick with fever. From that time on the lawns and trees become a symbol of white people, then a symbol of fear. They move to a different house in Mississippi, far from a black neighborhood. Richard gets his first job at an optical company. He is careful to be polite to the white men around him. When he carefully asks if they would teach him some of the trade like they had said they would, they become colder to Richard. Finally they bully him into leaving, accusing him of rudeness to them. 2 His second job is a porter at a clothing store. Richard's white boss and his son beat and rape a black woman for not
Read more

A Wife's Story by Bharati Mukherjee - Summary

Written by
Image
The narrator is an Indian female. She plans to write to playwright David Mamet about the content of his plays that are offensive to Indian women. His plays are also racist, portraying Indians as stingy and ugly. In India, she thinks, this would not have been accepted. She is at the play with Imre, a Hungarian refugee whose English is not very good. He is very protective of women. He is married with two children and is petitioning for their emigration. She too is married- her husband is in India. Imre does not understand why she is so upset and advises her to relax. He breaks into a dance, and since she is too embarrassed to dance in public she hugs him, taking him by surprise. She notes that her family members, educated in English facilities, would never do anything so silly. She mentions that her son has died. Her marriage was arranged. She feels light, almost free. She is in New York getting a Ph.D. in special ed. She has a small scholarship. She has a family history of beatin
Read more

A Journey by Edith Wharton - Summary

Written by
Image
Edith Wharton. Image source A female protagonist is on a train to New York at night when it's raining, watching the lights flash by in the darkness. She thinks how she and her husband, in the berth across from her, have become estranged. They used to be in sync but now he has grown petulant and slow. She used to be a schoolteacher, and after meeting him she felt her life had hope but now it felt hopeless again. She thinks back. Soon after their wedding he was prescribed rest cure which failed. They moved to Colorado where she felt despondent taking care of him and he was growing worse and changing and they grew apart gradually. Also nobody knew her or cared about her newlywed gifts of which she is proud. Sometimes she pitied him but mostly she was frightened. Finally the doctors gave them permission to go home. This meant he was dying but she sometimes forgot and grew excited about the trip. The train trip starts well but soon grows worse and people in the car pass ju
Read more

"Realism and the Novel Form" by Ian Watt - Chapter Summary

Written by
Image
Watt, Ian. "Chapter 1: Realism and the Novel Form."   The Rise of the Novel . Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970. Print. The literary form of novel appeared in the 18 th century among a group of writers who had very little in common- Defoe, Richardson and Fielding. However there must have been something prevalent in that era which led them to create this new form. The novel differs from previous work in that it is characterized by realism. Realism isn't to be defined as the opposite of idealism. Realism is the attempt at portrayal of all aspects of human experience. Realism lies in the manner in which life is represented. The novel is marked by the attempt to view life scientifically. The modern idea of realism is that which we perceive via our senses. In the middle ages it was universal ideas which were thought to be true reality. Descartes however hypothesized that reality is perceived by the individual and is not attached to previous ideas on reality. The develop
Read more

"A Model of Christian Charity" by John Winthrop - Summary

Written by
Image
God has made the world so that there are those who are less fortunate, and more fortunate. The reasons are: 1. To be in accord with the variability present in the natural world. Also, it is more satisfactory to gain followers of God secondhand, via a man messenger than directly by God accruing them.  2. The variation in the goodness of people gives God the opportunity to use his power to moderate vices, and support and endow with virtues.  3. Variety causes men to need one another and thus grow closer together. The difference in men is not because some are better than others but because this serves God and all God's men. People should show mercy and exercise justice toward one another, and be governed by the Laws of Nature (love thy neighbor as you love yourself) and Gospel (hospitality, as dictated by the Gospel). The following is in Q&A format: Men should help others in need. They should behave in this way because they care for one another as much as they ca
Read more

American Horse by Louise Erdrich - Summary

Written by
Image
Buddy and his half brother and his mother Albertine American Horse are in the woodshed, hiding from the cops. One of them is Officer Harmony, a tribal policeman who is tough on Native Americans. Buddy knows something horrible is coming, something metal from the sky with barbs and hooks, to kill them. He enjoys watching his mother sleep. His mother regrets her experiences with men but not Buddy. She hates men. Two policemen and a social worker Vicky Koob come. Buddy hugs his mother close and relishes the contact despite the fear. The brown dog barks at them viciously so one of the policemen draws his gun on him and it retreats. Uncle Lawrence, in strange garb, opens the door. Harmony tells him they have papers that allow them to take Buddy. The other officer, Brackett, warns Lawrence that they'll take him too if he doesn't cooperate. They handcuff him and start searching the house and shed. Koob is eager to find Buddy "to salvage him". She catalogues all of the
Read more