Mercy, justice and the law — Edexcel GCSE English Literature 1ET0
Edexcel GCSE English Literature · 1ET0
Mercy, justice and the law
Themes
What you need to know
How Shakespeare explores mercy, justice and the law, from the bond to the trial and Portia's plea for mercy across the text, and why it matters to the text's meaning.
Where it appears, the key quotations that show it, and different ways it can be interpreted.
Evidence from the beginning, middle and end of the text.
How to use the lesson's key quotations in an essay, with a short worked paragraph.
Key quotations: 'It is an attribute to God himself', 'On what compulsion must I? tell me that', 'I stand for judgment: answer; shall I have it?', 'Wrest once the law to your authority: / To do a great right, do a little wrong', 'There is no power in Venice / Can alter a decree established', 'How shalt thou hope for mercy, rendering none?', 'What judgment shall I dread, doing no wrong?', 'Thou shalt have justice, more than thou desirest', 'Tarry, Jew: / The law hath yet another hold on you', 'That thou shalt see the difference of our spirits, / I pardon thee thy life before thou ask it', 'What mercy can you render him, Antonio?'.
Context: the trial read as Christian mercy set against Shylock's demand for justice, and whether the Christians show the mercy they ask of him.
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.
