Act 1 — The Merchant of Venice — Edexcel GCSE English Literature 1ET0
Edexcel GCSE English Literature · 1ET0
Act 1
The plot, part by part
What you need to know
Antonio's sadness and Bassanio's request for money to woo Portia, Portia and Nerissa on her suitors and her father's will,
and the bond Shylock and Antonio agree: three thousand ducats against a pound of flesh.
What each scene establishes about character and theme, with key quotations.
Key quotations: 'In sooth, I know not why I am so sad', 'A stage where every man must play a part, / And mine a sad one', 'In Belmont is a lady richly left', 'Thou know'st that all my fortunes are at sea', 'my little body is aweary of this great world', 'so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father', 'Three thousand ducats; well', 'How like a fawning publican he looks!', 'I hate him for he is a Christian', 'If I can catch him once upon the hip, / I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him', 'You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog, / And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine', 'Let the forfeit / Be nominated for an equal pound / Of your fair flesh', 'My ships come home a month before the day'.
Form: Antonio's and Bassanio's verse against Portia's witty prose about her suitors, and Shylock's aside revealing his hatred to the audience.
Context: Christian teaching against lending at interest, and the Rialto as the centre of Venice's trade.
Edexcel's Shakespeare question has two parts: part (a) on the printed extract marks only language, form and structure (AO2), so context earns nothing there; part (b) on the play elsewhere, from memory, marks the argument and its references (AO1, 15 marks) and context (AO3, 5 marks), not language analysis. Say which part each worked paragraph and exam tip is for.
