Leading Streak Today
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Your Streak Today
Or is your gold and silver ewes and rams?
The Merchant of Venice - Language
This GCSE English Literature quiz will test you on language in The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. The Merchant of Venice contains a mixture of poetry and prose. Its language is charged with the wealth of Venice, the flowery imagery of courtly love, the ugliness of social exclusion, and the brutality hidden beneath financial transactions.
The language choices in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice tell us how characters regard one another, how they are feeling and why they choose to follow a particular course of action. The themes of the play are evident not only through the plot and actions of characters, but often more subtly through the slow build-up of related language. It can be a useful revision technique to collect examples of vocabulary related to each of the themes of the play. Consider which character uses each of these collected examples and what the implications might be.
1 .
At the beginning of the play, when Antonio tells Salerio of his sadness, Salerio assumes that he is worried about his ships, saying, "Your mind is tossing on the ocean". What makes this an effective phrase?
The phrase is effective because Salerio's view turns out to be incorrect
The use of imagery makes the phrase effective
The phrase is effective because it uses a metaphor
The metaphor emphasises how thoroughly Antonio's mind is present with his ships, at least in Salerio's view
Remember that it's important to explain what imagery accomplishes, what its effect is, rather than to just state that it is present. Here the implied metaphor is that Antonio's mind is another ship, or perhaps a passenger on one of his ships, and is at the mercy of the waves
2 .
BASSANIO: Or is your gold and silver ewes and rams?
SHYLOCK: I cannot tell. I make it breed as fast.
What is significant about Shylock's use of the word "breed"?
SHYLOCK: I cannot tell. I make it breed as fast.
What is significant about Shylock's use of the word "breed"?
Ewes and rams breed
Gold and silver cannot reproduce themselves
Breed is an archaic word
All of the above
Shylock compares his ability to make money to an animal's capacity to reproduce, boasting that he can increase his fortune as quickly as sheep give birth to more sheep
3 .
ANTONIO: ...for when did friendship take / A breed for barren metal of his friend?
What is the significance of the word "barren"?
What is the significance of the word "barren"?
Antonio reiterates the point that money cannot create more money
The use of the word "barren" hints that Shylock has no friends
Antonio believes that money is as valuable as life
All of the above
Antonio states the Christian position on usury; it is unnatural in its pretence that money can give birth to more money (something that is barren cannot reproduce or give life). Yet his own activities as a merchant involve a similar reliance on the growth of wealth. His comparison might also give rise to Shylock's request for living flesh rather than barren metal
4 .
Speaking of the men who hope to marry her, Portia says, "For there is not one among them but I dote on his very absence; and I pray God grant them a fair departure." What does she mean by this?
She loves them each dearly
She hopes they go away quickly
She is worried they will not have safe journeys home
She wishes they would hurry up and choose one of the caskets
Although she is using the most polite language, Portia wishes nothing more than that her unwanted suitors would leave her alone
5 .
"For aught I see, they are as sick that surfeit with too much as they that starve with nothing." What does Nerissa mean by this?
Those who are rich are in danger of starvation
It can be just as bad for people to be too rich as to be too poor
Those who are poor are in reality much better off than those who are rich
It is better to starve than to overeat
Nerissa is mocking Portia for her complaint that she is "aweary of this great world", but she does so by acknowledging that too much wealth can be bad for people
6 .
"My ships have all miscarried." What does "miscarried" mean here?
The ship has failed in its purpose
The ship has lost the cargo it was carrying
The ship was intended to reproduce and now cannot
All of the above
This is another example of the idea that wealth can reproduce wealth in a similar way to animals giving birth
7 .
Which one of the following statements does not logically follow the others?
"If you prick us do we not bleed?"
"If you wrong us shall we not revenge?"
"If you tickle us do we not laugh?"
"If you poison us do we not die?"
Shylock presents vengeance as a natural consequence similar to the involuntary physiological consequences of tickling, poisoning and pricking
8 .
Which of the following phrases implies that a person can be a possession?
"The gentleman that lately stole his daughter"
"The offender's life lies in the mercy / Of the Duke"
"I am married to a wife / Which is as dear to me as life itself"
"Repent but you that you shall lose your friend"
Lorenzo "stole" Jessica from Shylock, as if she were one of his possessions
9 .
"Here in her hairs / The painter plays the spider, and hath woven / A golden mesh t'untrap the hearts of men." What does Bassanio mean in these lines?
The portrait painter has not painted Portia very beautifully
The portrait painter resembled a spider
Portia's hair in her portrait is like a spiderweb, meant to catch unwary men
Portia is wearing a golden mesh on her head
Despite the use of the phrase, "golden mesh", the image is not very flattering!
10 .
I should think of shallows and of flats,
And see my wealthy Andrew, decks in sand,
Vailing her hightop lower than her ribs
To kiss her burial.
How does Salerio speak of his ship in these lines?
And see my wealthy Andrew, decks in sand,
Vailing her hightop lower than her ribs
To kiss her burial.
How does Salerio speak of his ship in these lines?
As if it were indestructible
As if it were alive
As if it were supernatural
All of the above
The tradition of using feminine pronouns ("her") to speak of ships, the name "Andrew", and the depiction of the ship as kissing the spot where it becomes wrecked give the impression that Salerio values his ship as a living being
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