Act 4 — The Merchant of Venice — Edexcel GCSE English Literature 1ET0
Edexcel GCSE English Literature · 1ET0
Act 4
The plot, part by part
What you need to know
The trial: Shylock's demand for his bond, Portia's plea for mercy, her ruling on flesh and blood, Shylock's punishment and forced conversion, and the rings given away.
Key quotations: 'A stony adversary, an inhuman wretch / Uncapable of pity', 'a lodged hate and a certain loathing / I bear Antonio', 'Hates any man the thing he would not kill?', 'I am a tainted wether of the flock, / Meetest for death', 'The quality of mercy is not strain'd, / It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven', 'My deeds upon my head! I crave the law', 'A Daniel come to judgment! yea, a Daniel!', 'I cannot find it; 'tis not in the bond', 'This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood', 'Tarry a little; there is something else', 'He presently become a Christian', 'I am not well: send the deed after me, / And I will sign it'.
Structure: the trial's reversal, as Shylock's insistence on the letter of the bond is turned against him, then the turn back to comedy with the rings.
Context: Shylock's forced conversion, and how productions have staged his exit, from a villain's defeat to a tragedy.
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.
