Act 2 — The Merchant of Venice — AQA GCSE English Literature 8702
AQA GCSE English Literature · 8702
Act 2
The plot, part by part
What you need to know
Morocco's choice of the gold casket, Launcelot leaving Shylock, Jessica's elopement with Lorenzo and her father's ducats, Shylock's grief, and Arragon's choice of silver.
Key quotations: 'Mislike me not for my complexion', 'Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire', 'Let all of his complexion choose me so', 'the fiend is at mine elbow', 'Our house is hell, and thou, a merry devil, / Didst rob it of some taste of tediousness', 'But though I am a daughter to his blood, / I am not to his manners', 'Lock up my doors; and when you hear the drum', 'I'll go in hate, to feed upon / The prodigal Christian', 'But love is blind and lovers cannot see / The pretty follies that themselves commit', 'Here, catch this casket; it is worth the pains', 'My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter! / Fled with a Christian! O my Christian ducats!', 'Did I deserve no more than a fool's head?'.
Structure: scenes alternate between the caskets at Belmont and the elopement in Venice, and Shylock's grief is reported second-hand by Solanio, who mocks it.
Context: Morocco's skin colour and Portia's response to it, and the casket test's source in an old collection of tales.
