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Last updated: Fri, Jul 31, 2015

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Act and scene list

Characters in the Play
Entire Play Antonio, the merchant in The Merchant of Venice, secures a loan from Shylock for his friend Bassanio, who seeks to court Portia. Shylock, a Jewish moneylender, recalls past insults from Antonio and, instead of asking interest on the loan, asks instead—in what he calls a “merry sport”—that if the loan is not repaid, Antonio will owe a pound of his own flesh.Bassanio sails to Belmont, where the wealthy heiress Portia is being courted by suitors from around the world. Her father’s will requires that the successful suitor solve a riddle involving chests of gold, silver, and lead. Where others have failed, Bassanio succeeds by selecting the right chest. Portia marries Bassanio; her waiting woman, Nerissa, marries his friend Gratiano.Shylock’s daughter, Jessica, has eloped with Bassanio’s friend Lorenzo, taking her father’s money with her. Shylock is devastated. When Antonio cannot repay the loan, Shylock demands the pound of flesh. When the news reaches Belmont, Bassanio returns to Venice. Portia and Nerissa also travel to Venice, disguised as a lawyer and his clerk. Portia uses the law to defeat Shylock and rescue Antonio.
Act 1, scene 1 Antonio, a Venetian merchant, has invested all his wealth in trading expeditions. Bassanio, his friend and kinsman, asks him for money to go to Belmont, where Bassanio hopes to marry the heiress Portia. Antonio gives Bassanio permission to borrow the money on Antonio’s credit.
Act 1, scene 2 At Portia’s estate of Belmont, Portia and Nerissa talk over Portia’s frustration at being unable to choose her own husband. According to her father’s will, she may marry only the man who chooses correctly among three small chests made of gold, silver, and lead. Portia likes none of the suitors who have so far arrived. A messenger enters to announce the coming of a new suitor, the Prince of Morocco.
Act 1, scene 3 In Venice Bassanio goes to Shylock, a Jewish moneylender, to borrow, in Antonio’s name, 3,000 ducats. Shylock hates Antonio but agrees to lend the money provided that Antonio sign a bond to yield a pound of his own flesh if he is unable to repay the loan on time. Shylock insists that the bond is a kind of joke, a “merry bond.” Bassanio distrusts Shylock, but Antonio, confident of the success of his trading expeditions, agrees to sign the bond.
Act 2, scene 1 At Belmont the Prince of Morocco greets Portia, who tells him the terms of the contest: if he chooses the wrong chest, he must never again seek to marry. He accepts these terms.
Act 2, scene 2 In Venice Shylock’s servant, Lancelet Gobbo, debates whether he should find a new master. Lancelet’s father comes in search of him and asks Bassanio to take Lancelet into his service. Bassanio agrees to become Lancelet’s master. Bassanio also agrees to allow Gratiano to accompany him to Belmont, provided that Gratiano behave properly in public.
Act 2, scene 3 Jessica, Shylock’s daughter, says good-bye to Lancelet and gives him a letter for Lorenzo, a friend of Bassanio. In a soliloquy, Jessica reveals her desire to marry Lorenzo.
Act 2, scene 4 Lorenzo, Gratiano, Solanio, and Salarino try to arrange a masque for Bassanio’s dinner that night. Lancelet brings Lorenzo Jessica’s letter indicating that she will rob her father and, in disguise as a page, elope that night with Lorenzo.
Act 2, scene 5 Lancelet brings Shylock an invitation to dinner at Bassanio’s. Shylock grudgingly accepts and commands Jessica to guard their house carefully. Lancelet also manages to tell Jessica that Lorenzo is coming for her that night.
Act 2, scene 6 Gratiano and Salarino wait for Lorenzo near Shylock’s house. As soon as Lorenzo arrives, he calls Jessica, who throws him down her father’s treasures and goes off with him to be married. Antonio enters to announce that Bassanio is about to sail for Belmont.
Act 2, scene 7 At Belmont the Prince of Morocco attempts to choose the right chest and win Portia. He picks the gold one and finds in it a skull and a warning not to choose on the basis of appearances. He leaves in disappointment.
Act 2, scene 8 In Venice Solanio and Salarino discuss the latest news: Shylock’s torment over the loss of his daughter and the treasures that she took; the destruction of an Italian ship in the English Channel; Antonio’s sadness at the departure of Bassanio.
Act 2, scene 9 At Belmont the Prince of Arragon attempts to win Portia by choosing the silver chest, but finds in it the picture of a blinking idiot. He leaves. A messenger announces the arrival of a splendid envoy from another suitor. Nerissa prays that this one is Bassanio.
Act 3, scene 1 In Venice Solanio and Salarino have learned that the Italian ship wrecked in the English Channel was Antonio’s. Shylock enters angry at Jessica’s flight. He declares his intention of taking a pound of Antonio’s flesh if Antonio is unable to repay the loan. Tubal enters to tell Shylock news of Jessica’s extravagancy and Antonio’s losses. Shylock sends Tubal to begin the process of Antonio’s arrest.
Act 3, scene 2 Portia advises Bassanio to postpone choosing for fear he should make the wrong choice. Bassanio declares himself unable to live in uncertainty. Portia is overjoyed when Bassanio correctly chooses the lead chest containing her picture. Giving Bassanio a ring as a symbolic act to indicate her giving to him both herself and everything that is hers, Portia insists that he treasure the ring. Gratiano announces that he and Nerissa will also marry. Salerio, Lorenzo, and Jessica arrive with the news of Antonio’s financial ruin and the apparently certain destruction that he will soon suffer at Shylock’s hands. Portia offers to pay the debt many times over and tells Bassanio to return to Venice immediately after their wedding to save Antonio.
Act 3, scene 3 Antonio seeks out Shylock in an effort to get the moneylender to listen to him. But Shylock insists that the terms of the bond be fulfilled. Antonio is resigned to death provided Bassanio is there to see him die.
Act 3, scene 4 Portia entrusts the management of her household to Lorenzo and pretends to leave with Nerissa for a house of an order of nuns. She sends a messenger to Dr. Bellario of Padua and tells Nerissa that they, in disguise as men, will follow their husbands to Venice.
Act 3, scene 5 Lancelet, the clown, makes jokes at the expense of Jessica and then Lorenzo. Jessica praises Portia and jokes with Lorenzo.
Act 4, scene 1 In court at Venice, Shylock demands that the terms of his bond be fulfilled. Portia enters as a doctor of laws, with a letter of introduction from Dr. Bellario. She saves Antonio by determining that the bond allows Shylock no more than a pound of Antonio’s flesh and not a drop of his blood. She also finds Shylock guilty of plotting the death of a Venetian and subject to the penalty of forfeiting his estate and suffering execution. Antonio intercedes with the Duke to reduce the penalty. A defeated Shylock agrees to the proposed terms.Bassanio offers the disguised Portia the three thousand ducats that he brought to give to Shylock, but Portia demands the ring that she herself gave Bassanio. When he refuses, she departs as if insulted. When Antonio asks Bassanio to give the ring, Bassanio sends Gratiano after her with it.
Act 4, scene 2 Gratiano gives the disguised Portia Bassanio’s ring. Nerissa decides to try to obtain from Gratiano the ring that she had given him.
Act 5, scene 1 Portia and Nerissa return to Belmont. When Bassanio and Gratiano also return, bringing Antonio with them, Portia and Nerissa “discover” that their husbands have given away their rings. Antonio steps in and pleads with Portia to forgive Bassanio. At this request, the women return the rings to their husbands and reveal that Portia was the lawyer who saved Antonio. Portia also tells Antonio that three of his ships have successfully returned and tells Lorenzo that he is Shylock’s heir.

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Act 1, scene 1

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