Act 3 — The Merchant of Venice — OCR GCSE English Literature J352
OCR GCSE English Literature · J352
Act 3
The plot, part by part
What you need to know
Antonio's lost ships and Shylock's 'Hath not a Jew eyes?' speech, Bassanio's choice of the lead casket and his marriage to Portia,
Antonio's arrest, and Portia's plan to go to Venice disguised as a man.
Key quotations: 'Now, what news on the Rialto?', 'let him look to his bond', 'To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge', 'I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes?', 'If you prick us, do we not bleed?', 'The villainy you teach me I will execute', 'I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys', 'Tell me where is fancy bred', 'The world is still deceived with ornament', 'Myself and what is mine to you and yours / Is now converted', 'Here are a few of the unpleasant'st words / That ever blotted paper!', 'I'll have my bond; speak not against my bond', 'The duke cannot deny the course of law'.
Structure: Shylock's revenge and Bassanio's happiness rise together, so Antonio's letter breaks into the happiest moment at Belmont.
Context: the 'Hath not a Jew eyes?' speech read as a plea for shared humanity or as a justification of revenge, and why Venice's law must hold for foreign traders.
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.
