The Merchant of Venice · GCSE English Literature

Plot

Bassanio needs money to woo the wealthy Portia, so his friend Antonio, a merchant, borrows 3,000 ducats from Shylock, a Jewish moneylender. Shylock, whom Antonio has insulted and spat on, demands a pound of Antonio's flesh if the loan isn't repaid.
Portia's suitors must choose between gold, silver and lead caskets. Bassanio chooses lead and wins her.
Shylock's daughter, Jessica, elopes with Lorenzo, a Christian, taking her father's money.
Antonio's ships are reported lost, and Shylock demands his bond. In court, Portia, disguised as a young lawyer, pleads for mercy, then argues that the bond allows flesh but no blood. Shylock loses his case, his wealth is taken and he is forced to become a Christian.
In a comic final act, Portia and Nerissa tease their husbands about rings they gave away to the 'lawyer' and 'clerk'.

Prejudice and antisemitism, mercy and justice, money and wealth, love and friendship, and appearance and reality ('All that glisters is not gold').

Written around 1596–97. Jews had been expelled from England in 1290, and most Elizabethans held strongly antisemitic views. Usury (lending money for interest) was forbidden to Christians by the Church, so moneylending was linked with Jewish people.
Venice was a rich trading city, whose laws had to be applied fairly to foreign merchants.
Modern audiences, especially after the Holocaust, often see Shylock as a victim of prejudice as well as a villain.

'Hath not a Jew eyes?' and 'If you prick us, do we not bleed?' (Shylock).
'The villainy you teach me I will execute' (Shylock). 'The quality of mercy is not strained' (Portia).
'All that glisters is not gold' (the scroll in the gold casket).