Merchant of Venice - Shakespeare

1. Acts (3 key events)

1.1. Act I

1.1.1. Antonio is overtaken my sadness.

1.1.2. Bassanio admits his love for Portia

1.1.3. Basanio ask's Antonio for money to win over Portia and Antonio says he will give it to him even though Antonio has none himself.

1.2. Act II

1.2.1. Launcelot and Jessica talk about running away together because of how mean Shylock is.

1.2.2. The Prince of Maraco makes an excuse to make up for the fact that he is a different race from Portia.

1.3. Act III

1.3.1. Portia begs Bassanio to not pick a casket for a few days.

1.3.2. Shylock makes his villinaous plan apparent.

1.3.3. Antonio's business is going down and rumors go around about how he is loosing money and his ships are sinking.

1.4. Act IV

1.4.1. Portia dress's as a clerk and save Antonio from his fate and bassanio disobey's portia and gives the "clerk" his ring that portia told him not to ever loose or sell and always to keep it close.

1.4.2. Portia wants to make sure that Shylock signs over the money to Lorenzo and Jessica.

1.4.3. Shylock loses everything and Portia and Nerrisa get ready to leave to go to Padua.

1.5. Act V

1.5.1. Jessica and Lorenzo talk back and fourth about famous lovers.

1.5.2. Portia and Bassanio argue about the ring

1.5.3. Nerrisa and Portia give Bassanio and Grationio new/same rings telling them to be more careful with these rings.

2. Vocabulary (4 words per act or 20 in total)

2.1. garnish - outfit or dress

2.1.1. What garnish are you gonna where to the prom.

2.2. gudgeon - a small fish that is easily caught, a person thatś easily duped

2.2.1. You are like a gudgeon, you need to be more careful around the police.

2.3. visage - a persons face with reference to the form or features

2.3.1. Your visage is much like a frogs.

2.4. jaundice - a medical condition with yellowing on the eyes and mouth

2.4.1. Your so tired it looks like you have jaundice.

2.5. Signor - a title or form and adress

2.5.1. The way you speak makes you sounds like you are a walking, talking signor.

2.6. prest - an obsolate loan of money

2.6.1. My mother gave me a prest but it is of no use to me.

2.7. doit - the smallest piece of money

2.7.1. Wow thanks for the doit.

2.7.2. Wow thank you for this doit, I really apreeciate it.

2.8. ostent - external show

2.8.1. The ostent of the house looks nice but the inside is horrid.

2.9. cope - requite, or give the equivelant of

2.9.1. He couldn't cope with the pain anymore.

2.10. argosy - large merchant man

2.10.1. that argosy over there is scaring me..

2.11. regreets - greetings

2.11.1. Regreets my parents are always boring.

2.12. tranect - to cut across

2.12.1. For thanksgiving my mom made a turkey and our uncle made a trancet into it.

2.13. forfieture - the loss or giving up of something as a penalty of wrong doing

2.13.1. I wasn't aloud to go to the movies because of the forfieture my parents placed on me.

2.14. commodity - a useful or valuable thing

2.14.1. This money is very commodity.

2.15. humility - humanity

2.15.1. Humility can be unfair sometimes

2.16. strain'd - compelled or moved by force

2.16.1. My bed was strain'd after I ran into it.

2.17. quiring - singing in concert

2.17.1. Carry kept quiring all day.

2.18. obdurate - stubbornly refusing to change one's opinion or course of action

2.18.1. Sometimes your so obdurate that I hate you.

2.19. attendeth - and indictive form of attendence

2.19.1. Her attendeth is very bad on a regular basis.

2.20. in use - in trust

2.20.1. The money you gave me is in my use.

3. Themes

3.1. 1. Prejudice and hatred is cyclical and difficult to escape.

3.1.1. It is shown many times in the play between people like shylock and antonio, shylock and jessica, shylock and bassanio. Most of it is caused by religion and money.

3.2. 2. Mercy is a necessary quality and should be freely given

3.2.1. It is a necessary quality because without it there would be hatred everywhere in the world and can change and help many lives. I do not agree though with the part where it should be freely given because sometimes people are not always deserving of mercy especially for it to be freely given

3.3. 3. It is difficult to emphasize love and loyalty over personal gain.

3.3.1. Yes it is and this is very well shown in the play. Wether it is with shylock an bassanio or nerrisa and jessica. With the pound of flesh or there husbands giving away the rings.