The Merchant of Venice - Dialogue

Dialog conveys meaning not only through its content, but also through specific details such as language choice, use of dialect and even interruptions and pauses.

Ask yourself the following questions as you read The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare or any work of fiction: How do different characters speak? How does vocabulary vary between different characters? Does the way in which a character speaks change over time, or in different situations? Does it matter to whom the character is speaking? Since this is Shakespeare, you might even like to compare dialog that is written in poetry with dialog that is written in prose. What are the differences between the characters who speak in one but not the other?

Dialog conveys much more than the individual beliefs and preferences of any character. Dialog also gives you practical information, such as which events lead to the point at which the play began or how characters are related and have engaged with one another in the past. In The Merchant of Venice it is valuable to pay close attention to how each character discusses money and love or friendship. What can this tell us about the relationship between two key themes of the play?

Memorizing Shakespearean dialog is not only a good way to impress your teacher, but also a useful method of preparing to write about the play. Create a list of the most significant examples of dialog for each character, especially noting those that illustrate their characteristics or occur at a turning point in the text.