1. How are the marriage and trial plots similar? Can they be paralelled? Explain.

2. How can characters like Antonio and Bassanio, Salerio and Solanio, etc., claim that love and money are compatible? In any case, why do they do so throughout the text?

3. Do a close-reading of these lines and then relate it to a theme in the play as a whole. How are these lines symptomatic of attitudes within the play and of this character in particular?

...to you Antonio
I owe the most in money and in love,
And from your love I have a warranty
To unburthen all my plots and purposes
How to get clear of all the debts I owe.
....
Oh my Antonio, had I but the means
To hold a rival place with one of them,
I have a mind presages me such thrift
That I should questionless be fortunate.
(1.2..130-34, 173-76)

4. How is xenophobia expressed in this play and how is the problem eventually resolved? Is the characterization of Shylock a demonstration of anti-semitism, per se, or of xenophobia more generally?

5. Why is the idea of mercy so important in this text? Who is it most important to and why? (Notice, in particular, who talks about it most.)

6. Is Jessica a 'good' character? That is, do you think she is commendable or reprehensible. Why?

7. Why do the women, Nerissa and Portia, play the ring trick at the end of the play? What is their purpose and what do they achieve?

8. Do a close reading of this passage and then relate it to a theme we have discussed in class. Again, think about its location in the play and who is speaking.

Ho no, no, no, no: my meaning in saying he is a good man, is to have you understand me that he is sufficient,--yet his means are in supposition: he hath an argosy bound to Tripolis, another to the Indies, I understand moreover upon the Rialto, he hath a third at Mexico, a fourth for England, and other ventures he hath squand'red abroad,--but ships are but boards, sailors but men, there be land-rats, and water-rats, water- thieves, and land-thieves, (I mean pirates), and then there is the peril of waters, winds, and rocks: the man is notwithstanding sufficient,--three thousand ducats,--I think I may take his bond. ....
I will be assur'd I may: and that I may be assured, I
will bethink me... (1.3.13-24, 26-27)

9. What is the difference between Jewish fiscalism and Christian mercantilism? Talk about how these two ideals are set up in the text and how they are worked out through the ending. (You might also address this as a social class as well as religious issue.)

10. How is music used in this play? It comes up on several occassions: most notably, when Bassanio is choosing his casket and in the final scene at Belmont. Why?

11. Discuss Portia as a woman of the Renaissance and as a lady in the tradition of courtly love. What does the presence of Portia in Merchant say about Shakespeare's opinion of women?

12. Some critics have argued that the two plots of Merchant are imperfectly joined. Discuss the many connections between and among the characters that prove this argument to be invalid.

13. Compare and contrast the National and the BBC productions of Merchant. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each, and use your discussion to suggest what an ideal production of the play would be like.