Act 4 — The Merchant of Venice — OCR GCSE English Literature J352
OCR GCSE English Literature · J352
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.
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.
