TEACHING SHAKESPEARE’S THE MERCHANT OF VENICE TO 7TH GRADER CLASSROOM FROM A COMMONWEALTH NATION 

Shakespeare Week Reading for Exam Style Essay Structured Q/A 

1. Afterward of watching the documentary of Patrick Stewart’s theatrical performance of Shylock’s monologue and reading the following extract adapted from the reading materials of BBC bitesize curriculum, then answer these exam-style structured brief and broad question: 

Shylock challenges prejudice

Solario and Solanio are worrying about Antonio’s ships amid rumours they have sunk in bad weather. When Shylock enters, they cruelly laugh at him about his missing daughter.

Shylock has heard the rumour about Antonio’s ships and reacts by saying that Antonio should “look to his bond”. Shylock says he looks forward to getting Antonio’s pound of flesh as revenge for Antonio’s cruel mistreatment over the years.

Shylock gives a powerful speech about the mistreatment of Jewish people, in which he asks why they should be treated differently from others. “Hath not a Jew eyes?” he asks, “If you prick us, do we not bleed?”.

When Solario and Solanio leave, Shylock is joined by his Jewish friend Tubal, who gives more detail about Jessica’s disappearance, and the valuables she has taken with her. Shylock shows a more emotional side of himself as he mourns the loss of a ring taken by Jessica – it was a gift from his late wife.

Patrick Stewart performing as Shylock with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2011

“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 wrong us shall we not revenge?”

Questions:

1. Shylock recites one of the greatest monologues of Shakespearean drama. The monologue is a dramatic speech in which an actor in a play or a film, or as part of a theatrical or broadcast programme.

Explain in a sentence the figure of speech used in this address. [2]

2. Examine the character sketch of Shylock with regards to the rhetorical significance of parallelism.                                                             [8]

b). In the view of the pictorial image of Venice being the setting of The Merchant of Venice, examine the juxtapositional impact of the theme, “romance in Belmont and trouble in Venice.”                                                                                                  [4]                                                                                                 

The Italian city of Venice in which Shakespeare’s ‘The Merchant of Venice’ is set

c) After watching the theatrical performance of the trial and court scene from ‘The Merchant of Venice’ and referencing the Folger Shakespeare Library extract, discuss in depth the trial of Antonio.                                                                      [6]

GRATIANO 

O Jew, an upright judge, a learnèd judge!

PORTIA, as Balthazar 

Therefore prepare thee to cut off the flesh.

Shed thou no blood, nor cut thou less nor more

But just a pound of flesh. If thou tak’st more

Or less than a just pound, be it but so much

As makes it light or heavy in the substance

Or the division of the twentieth part

Of one poor scruple—nay, if the scale do turn

But in the estimation of a hair,

Thou diest, and all thy goods are confiscate.

GRATIANO 

A second Daniel! A Daniel, Jew!

Now, infidel, I have you on the hip.

PORTIA, as Balthazar 

Why doth the Jew pause? Take thy forfeiture.

SHYLOCK 

Give me my principal and let me go.

BASSANIO 

I have it ready for thee. Here it is.

PORTIA, as Balthazar 

He hath refused it in the open court.

He shall have merely justice and his bond.

GRATIANO 

A Daniel still, say I! A second Daniel!—

I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word.            

In Shakespeare’s Week Programme Later Worked Solution Handouts Materials Reading Resources Bequeathed To The Future Shakespearean Scholars

Worked Solution To The Question No b) Character Sketch of Shakespeare’s Shylock with Rhetorical Significance of the Effect of Parallelism

• Shylock is a wolfish murderous tyrannous villain compared to a blood thirsty dog but also foils as the epitome of a dignified nobleman for his sole sufferance belonging to the member of a persecuted race. 
• As the antagonist of Shakespearean drama, ‘The Merchant of Venice’, Shylock dominated the 18th and 19th centuries as melodramatic figure of horror and terror. 
• Shylock’s protective self-defensive mechanism of ironical humour wrought himself with the iron laden armour of shield against the injustices of sufferance against Antonio’s cruelty and bitterness inflicted in the past.
• Shakespeare, however, was stuck in the fringes/margins/borderlines/gulf behind being a semite and anti-semite in Christian Elizabethan European England.
• Modernistic interpretation of the antagonist Shylock projects and portrays modern world economic forum and/or international monetary fund during the Great Depression of the 1930s, juxtaposing the anti-semitism of Hitler’s Nazi-German holocaust during the Great World War II (1939-45).

Worked Solution To The Question No c) Romance in Belmont and Trouble in Venice

• With the wooing of courtship the couple Bassanio and Portia exchanged rings and likewise, Nerissa and Gratiano too are engaged.
• Romance surfeits towards the pinnacle while they promise their wedding vow that they will never part with.
• However, a gloomy and melancholy picture is visualized with Solario’s depressing news aftermath of Lorenzo and Jessica’s gathering—–that Antonio’s vessels of shipments unfortunately drowned and sank.
• Meanwhile Portia persuades Bassanio to rescue Antonio with a ransom of double the 8000 ducats from the stony adversary and inhuman wretch—–Shylock in Venice.

  Worked Solution to the Question No d) The Court and Trial Scene

• The trial and the court scene is often the most quoteworthy textual references in Shakespearean studies because of the unexpected plots and twists. Here in Act 4 from ‘The Merchant of Venice,’ Shylock is the epitome of the stony adversary and inhuman wretch and the Jew as resonated in the echoes of the Duke.
• Shylock is adamant of his bond-forfeiture of Antonio’s pound of flesh. 
• However, the ‘Daniel is come to Judgement’, Portia in disguise of the counsellor Balthazar from Padua offers recompense of double the amount which the Jewish antagonist Shylock waves off and casts aside. 
• William Shakespeare allegorizes the trope of Judaism; whilst satirizing the dramatia personae of Shylock, contrasting traditional medieval Catholic Christian merchant as represented by the character of Antonio
• Ironically hypocrisy has been personified in the New Testament contemporizing literary trope of Judaism in the context of materialism, money-lending, legalism, the pound of flesh contract and/or bond, contrasting the authenticity of honesty, morality and integrity prevailing in Christian spirited souls.
• In the nick of time, Portia’s interruption salvages the life of the Christian spirited Antonio as result of the novel discovery that the bond elicits pound of flesh without shedding of blood.
• Antonio, thus thanks in ironical sarcasm of Shylock’s own words——– “A second Daniel! ——— I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me the word.”
• Finally Shylock forfeits Judaism and wealth of fortunes for the sake of compassion and mercy by being spiritually converted to Christianity. 

References

The following quizlet has been prepared in consultation with references:from Save My Exams, Revision World and Spark Notes 

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Revisiting The Merchant of Venice for High School Classroom