Act 1 — The Merchant of Venice — OCR GCSE English Literature J352
OCR GCSE English Literature · J352
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 place where Venice's merchants and moneylenders do business.
OCR's question on this play is one essay, from a choice of two, for 40 marks: an extract-based question on the printed extract and the play elsewhere, or a discursive question on a view of the play, using at least two moments. Response (AO1) and language, form and structure (AO2) carry the most weight and equal weight, context (AO3) counts as the play shows it, and 4 marks are for vocabulary, sentence structures, spelling and punctuation (AO4). An extract-based answer that never leaves the extract, or a discursive answer built on one moment, cannot go above Level 3. Each worked paragraph and exam tip is labelled with the question it is for.
