First, there is no perfect way to teach The Merchant of Venice-- or anything else. This is "a" way; it is not "the" way. Also, if you are a student, please keep in mind that teachers are the intended audience here. Feel free to read this page -- it contains no state secrets -- but please be aware that the issues here will be less helpful for you personally than they would if you yourself were teaching this class.
Beforehand: Prereading Questions
Prepare students beforehand by giving students the following list of prereading questions.* The purpose of the prereading questions is pretty simple: it's to get students thinking about these larger thematic issues of mercy, justice, law, comedy, and tragedy and the like that occur throughout Merchant and act as a catalyst for the action. These questions may be used as the basis for the philosophical chairs exercise below. Students should answer these questions individually and supply reasons and evidence or examples to support their answers.
How can you tell if a play or film is supposed to be a comedy? What are the necessary qualities a comedy must possess to be a comedy?
Agree or disagree: You should always show mercy to others.
Agree or disagree: If someone hurts you, they deserve to be hurt equally in return.
Agree or disagree: The law should be obeyed by everyone equally.
Agree or disagree: The law should be bent or changed to accommodate individual circumstances.
Agree or disagree: Wealth is not the same as privilege in a society.
Agree or disagree: It is ethical and appropriate for defense attorneys to use legal loopholes in order to free their clients.
Discussion: Philosophical Chairs*
Directions
Assign the questions given above and have students answer them individually, agreeing or disagreeing and jotting down reasons why they have come to their conclusions.
Put students in groups of at least four. Have them argue the questions one by one until EVERYONE has come to actual consensus about the question.
Instruct the students NOT to go by "majority rules" and not to give in because everyone else disagrees.
Encourage students to fight for their position (verbally...) and give explanations and examples.
Arguments Ensue Once groups have come to a consensus -- a process which may take a substantial amount of time, possibly as much as an entire regular-length period -- then students should be directed to go to one side of the room or the other depending on the question. (Using the example above, all students should go to the right side of the room if they agree that the purpose of college is to prepare one for a career and to the left if they disagree.) There are a number of different rules for conducting philosophical chairs that should be explained and put on the board for reference:
Philosophical Chairs Rules
Students are to keep an open mind and listen to the speaker's statements without rushing to judgment. Students are to divide into Yes/No groups based on their answers to the questions,
No speaker may speak twice in a row for his or her side.
No raised hands. This is a discussion among adults.
WAIT AND RESTATE. Wait three seconds before responding, and then restate what the last person said.
Respond to the actual content of the other person's argument. Do not just wait to say your ideas.
If you are undecided, you may be in the "hot seat." The hot seat is to be occupied for only ONE MINUTE before you decide to move to one side or the other.
Do not cheer or give verbal feedback. Just move silently to one side or the other to show support.
The Teacher's Role in Philosophical Chairs During this discussion, the teacher should primarily stay out of it except to enforce the rules -- or to call foul on students who aren't moving even after a very persuasive argument has been given.
Prereading Homework
Prior to beginning study of The Merchant of Venice, it's helpful if students do some degree of outside preparation to increase their background knowledge about key issues and terms that will come up during the play. For these questions, students should do mini-research: that is, they should look up the answers using reliable sources of information that are cited.
Research Questions
What is usury?
Why were Christians forbidden by their church to lend money at interest?
What is the origin of the word “ghetto”?
Write short (1/2-page) biography of Shakespeare, including country of origin, dates of birth/death, three major works, basic political situation or major events occurring during his lifetime.
What profession or professions were European Jews allowed to practice during the Renaissance?
One technique of literary composition is to take an important word or idea and repeat it as a motif hroughout the literary work. One key word for Shakespeare in this play is “bond.” Find at least three different definitions for this word and explain the differences among the words. At least one definition should include the contractual or legal sense of this word.
One important technique of reading is to take a general idea an author brings up and see if you can find a similar or analogous idea or situation in your own society or experience. Shakespeare details some of the problems that moneylending can cause in this play. What would be a modern equivalent of moneylending? Describe at least one of the problems that moneylending (or its modern equivalent) can cause to individuals or a society at large.
Is it ethically or morally justifiable to compel someone to change his or her philosophical, ethical, or religious beliefs if you believe those beliefs are harmful?
NOTE: For the above questions, I expect you to seek out reliable sources of information and cite them in your answers. You may not use Wikipedia. You also may not use any Internet resource ending in or including the tag “.com.” I also want you to paraphrase your answers – do not just copy words but put them in your own language and own terms.
NOTE #2: All answers should be in complete sentences and should probably be at least three sentences long per question. Sentences should be written at or above grade level.
Some questions taken or adapted from this outstanding site: http://www.nationalgreatbooks.com/pdf/GansEnglish101ClassicalRhetoricModule.pdf
Preliminary Lecture
Overall, the following information needs to be presented at a minimum, ideally in interspersed lecture and questions. Students should understand the following basic information by the time the background information lecture is over. You can do these in any order.
Dates of birth and death, major country and cities associated with him
The Globe and how it appealed to multiple classes of patrons
General overview of Macbeth
How Shakespeare's language ranges from simple to complex
How Shakespeare is NOT "OLD ENGLISH," but rather, MODERN English. (See below)
The purpose of iambic pentameter to tell us which words and ideas in a given line are of crucial importance.
MORE INFO If you need more information about any of these points listed above, please feel free to use these notes.
William Shakespeare was born to a middle-class family in the small town of Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564. Not much is known about his early life and schooling except through inference and circumstantial evidence, but what we do know is that when he came to London in his youth, he would transform not only English drama, but the English language.
Theater The major theater associated with Shakespeare was The Globe, which basically looked like a large toilet paper cylinder on end -- it was open-air, and naturally lit. There were very few formal sets and props, and yes, all of the parts were played by men because it was generally considered licentious or improper for women to perform onstage. (And YES, the Elizabethan audiences were willing to suspend disbelief about male actors playing women, but Shakespeare himself will constantly play with gender throughout his play, as in Twelfth Night, where the heroine, Viola, disguises herself as a man to protect herself in a strange place, and ends up falling in love with Orsino, who is in love with Olivia, who is in love with Viola, whom she thinks is a man. Add Viola's near-identical twin brother Sebastian, and you have yourself a party. Literally, in the character of Viola, you have a man pretending to be a woman who's pretending to be a man who's in love with a man who's in love with a woman who's actually a male actor playing a woman. And so on.)
Shakespeare's Language and the "Not Old English" Issue Shakespeare's language ranges from the richly allusive and educated to the simple and accessible -- sometimes within the same line, as when Macbeth says that his bloody hands "will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red." His language is rich in nouns especially, concrete language rather than abstract or unrelatable imagery that would not appeal to a wide audience. Instead, it reaches out to all classes, both the "groundlings" (the people who occupied the standing-room-only cheap seats right in front of the stage) to the wealthier patrons in the boxes.
What's also a common misconception is the idea that Shakespeare, because he wrote in the late 1500s, somehow wrote "Old English." This is about as true as saying that Shakespeare was an earlier species of human being because he lived hundreds of years ago. Shakespeare didn't write in Old English. This IS Old English, by the way:
No, in actuality, Shakespeare didn't write Old English; he didn't write in Middle English. He wrote in MODERN ENGLISH. Yes, he used "thou" and the second-person familiar form of "you" that we no longer use. That's not enough to make it a whole new class of language.
What Iambic Pentameter is For Many teachers simply teach that Shakespeare wrote in iambic pentameter. They almost never explain WHY. If pressed, they sometimes may explain that Shakespeare usually had his noble characters speak in verse and his common characters speak in prose (true), but that's not an answer to the question. Why don't they speak in iambic tetrameter? In dactylic hexameter? Why that?
Well, for one, we tend to think of short lines (as in iambic pentameter) as being lilting and singsong. Think of the poetry of Emily Dickinson, which often keeps a (rough) iambic trimeter/tetrameter pattern, for example, or think of a typical folk ballad. It's not that this meter is somehow bad -- it's not -- but the "feel" of a serious speech done in iambic trimeter or tetrameter is seriously undercut by the fact that it sounds like the beat to "Old Dan Tucker."
On the other end of the scale, iambic hex- or heptameter just sounds drawn-out and overly long, a quality Alexander Pope mocked in his "Essay on Criticism" in his comments about "A needless Alexandrine ends the Song/That, like a wounded Snake, drags its slow length along." In many ways, iambic pentameter is the "Goldilocks meter" of English poetry: not too long, not too short, and just right.
Iambic pentameter can also tell an actor something very important: Which WORDS are the important ones to stress? After all, there's a vast difference between saying, "YOU look nice today" versus "You look nice TODAY." Bottom line, the important words in the line are the ones that Shakespeare deliberately puts in a position where they will be stressed by the meter pattern.
Shakespeare Didn't Use a "British Accent" If you choose to do activities with students in which they enact a scene from the play or recite a mono/duo/ensemble scene, some students may (erroneously) adopt a fake British accent, thinking that’s what one is “supposed to” do to a Shakespeare play. Let them know that the accent we associate with the modern British upper-class didn’t really exist until well after Shakespeare’s death, when the Duchess of Devonshire, who had enormous influence on style and trends, decided that this was a far more “proper” way to speak and sound. There is a considerable movement toward developing or restoring original pronunciation to Shakespeare plays in performance in Britain, and the result is an accent that kind’ve sounds like Ireland by way of Kentucky, so…not exactly like Prince William here.
Reading and Annotation Initially, students should be instructed to read the first act of the play. Assume about one act per week if you need a rough timeline. Give students a verbal preview (or prepare a PowerPoint) of the opening scenes of the play.
Instruct students to read and annotate Act I over a weekend. If students are regular-level, it's generally better to break this up into a smaller chunk and assign them to read and annotate Act I all the way to the end of scene 4, and then assign them to read the rest of the act after you've checked annotation.
Encourage the students to use the annotation symbols and approaches below:
(Q) Question - Ask about something in the passage that is unclear -- usually begin with "Why?"
(SR) Strong Reaction - Mark down ideas or scenes or moments which evoke a strong reaction in you.
(IT) Important Things - Keep track of important moments in the plot.
(C) Connect - Make a connection to your life, the world, or another text
(P) Predict - Anticipate what will occur based on what’s in the passage
(CL) Clarify - Answer earlier questions or confirm/disaffirm a prediction
(J) Judge - Make a judgment about what the author is trying to say, or about the characters' decisions or actions or words.
Discussion Step One: Find Your Focus You will not have time to discuss every single idea or line in this play. Instead, you will need to find a focus issue or topic that you will come back to again and again, and will spend special attention on in analysis and discussion of specific scenes. For example, if I were going to teach Othello, one issue I would definitely explore is the issue of sociopathy, so that means I'm definitely analyzing every single one of Iago's soliloquies, but especially the ones early in the play in which he's establishing his character. I'd also be interested in the issue of gender, so I'd definitely focus on the "suckle fools and chronicle small beer" contest between Iago and Desdemona, as well as Emilia's bitter words about "...they belch us" late in the play.
For The Merchant of Venice,, the following issues are rich in possibilities. Pick at least two below.
Privilege and The Other One classroom exercise for younger students doing this play involves drawing a circle with a dot in the middle of it representing the most central, powerful place in Venetian society -- a dot possibly occupied, say, by the Duke of Venice. Then arrange the other characters in relative distance near to or away from that central dot. Not surprisingly, figures such as Shylock are far away from that center of power and may be outside the circle altogether -- but what's far more fun are ambiguous characters like Portia or Antonio. Though privileged by money (in the first example) and sex (in the second), both have qualities that exclude them from the innermost reaches of the power structure in this play, and both seek to appropriate some degree of power through other people. Shylock, excluded because of his religion, is deeply crucial to the functioning of Venetian society because of his profession -- indeed, people like Bassanio are in dire need of Shylock's specific services. Jessica, as a pivotal figure in this play, longs to belong to the world of the privileged Venetians, but does so only by a violent rejection of her father and all of his values -- but at what cost? Is she truly accepted by the society for which she has sacrificed so much of her identity?
Christianity versus Judaism An obviously difficult topic, this issue absolutely needs to be handled with objectivity and tact, bearing in mind that discussing stereotypes and prejudice can often end up reinforcing them or making students on either side (or neither side) feel excluded or targeted. Obviously, any discussion of religion needs to be done fairly and judiciously so that a teacher is not advocating for belief or disbelief in any religious view. The issue, though, is crucial to this play: Shakespeare's text builds on a highly popular play, The Jew of Malta, by rival poet Christopher Marlowe, in which Marlowe's unambiguous anti-Semitism is on full display. Is this an anti-Semitic play? Does Shakespeare endorse the anti-Semitism of his own characters? Trevor Nunn, the director of Masterpiece Theatre's production starring Henry Goodman, argued that "My intention is to show that the play is as much anti-Christian as it is anti-Jewish. It is a masterpiece about human behavior in extremis." Does the text support this reading? Are the Christian characters consistent in their professed beliefs? Does Shakespeare want us to see the Christian characters as heroes?
Class versus Wealth At the heart of this play lies the issue of money, a subject that is brought up almost immediately. This is a play of money, loans, interest, promises, and (of course) bonds both financial and social -- but it is also a play that is deeply and painfully conscious, perhaps as much as or even more than F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, about the profound difference between class and wealth. The nobleman Bassanio has the former; the wealthy merchant Antonio has plenty of the latter, and together, they make a dynamic duo: Antonio's social-climbing desire to surround himself with noble friends meshes well with those same improvident young men's desire for gold. This relationship, of course, suggests that the friendship between Bassanio and Antonio may be more self-serving for both men than it might appear at first: each man is getting something out of it. No matter how much money Antonio has, though, he will always, like Gatsby, be an arriviste. Probably more wealthy -- and certainly more excluded -- than Antonio is the moneylender Shylock, who is largely perceived by the Christian characters of this play as a predator. For Shylock, though, the only protection in this world which is largely hostile to him and to everyone of his religion -- an extremely real and well-founded fear in both Shylock's time and (shamefully) in ours -- is his money, his bulwark against persecution. With his money, he becomes, if not welcome in Venetian society, deeply necessary to it. Though Shylock has no social-climbing aspirations, his daughter Jessica has -- or at the very least, she is motivated to escape from the position of exclusion in which she has lived her whole life, and knows that money will do what it can to buy her way into the society that has scorned both her and her father. Class is a prize that is purchased at an exceedingly large price in this play.
Gender If religion and class are factors that exclude characters, to a greater or lesser degree, from places of privilege in Venetian society, another factor of exclusion is surely gender. From the beginning, characters like Portia are subject to the will of others -- in Portia's case, quite literally: she is bound (a word that will recur throughout the play) by her father's literal and metaphorical will. From beyond the grave, he will determine her husband for her, choosing for her because, despite her obvious intelligence and discernment, as a woman she cannot be trusted to make the right choice for herself. Interestingly (or perhaps just depressingly), Portia's father seems to have been correct, too: the man she chooses is Bassanio, a character whom the audience knows to be...well, let's just say "fool's gold" is probably close to the mark. Indeed, one strongly suspects that had Portia not rigged the contest set up by her father to weed out potential bad matches for his daughter's hand, Bassanio would have been so precisely the kind of man to "go for the gold" that one has to wonder whether or not the contest was devised to get rid of him in particular. Portia has limited outlets for her quick wit other than snarky conversations with her friend/servant Nerissa, and it is telling that she has evidently studied law for its own sake with her uncle (a very different man, one suspects, than Portia's father) when she has precisely zero practical reason to suspect that this is learning she will ever have the chance to put in practice. In a modern era, Portia could aspire to be another Sandra Day O' Connor; in the world of Venice, she is little more than an attractive decoration -- and in that context, her intelligence makes her situation more tragic, not less. Only when she is dressed as a man and becomes an active participant in the grittier man's world of Venice (rather than the Disney Princess dreamworld of Belmont) does Portia realize both the extent of her own intellectual powers and much of the truth of her own situation.
Sexuality "In sooth, I know not why I am so sad," this play begins, foregrounding Antonio's famous lament about his downcast mood. Probing nosily, his friends jokingly determine that he must be in love: the only explanation that Antonio does not directly deny. Many readers of this play have persuasively argued that Antonio's true love in this play -- a love which may or may not be requited-- is the love he feels for Bassanio; indeed, Antonio is willing to give his own life to save his friend. Bassanio himself will assert that he would sacrifice everything, even his wife, to preserve Antonio. How this issue is taught is, of course, a matter of audience appropriateness and student maturity, and it needs to be noted that theirs could be a deeply devoted friendship without a necessarily romantic element. However, in a play about "the other," we find that "the other" is not always the excluded moneylender Shylock, relegated to the ghetto and compelled to wear specific clothing that identifies himself as Jewish, nor the Spanish and Moorish suitors who are treated as comic stereotypes in almost every production of this play. Instead, the concept of "the other" can extend as deeply as the most elite, most "inside" players in this game if we include gender and sexuality as crucial factors of identity.
Justice versus Mercy What is the difference between justice and mercy? Is the justice that is handed down to Shylock a form of either justice or mercy, or is it merely punishment disguised as justice, mercy, or both? Are words -- the basis of law -- determined only by mutual agreement and therefore bendable to one's will, or do they actually mean anything real and true? Is mercy only to be extended from the poor to the rich? In this play, do those in privilege ever demonstrate mercy to those who are not? What about justice?
Step Two: Choose Your Scenes
Procedure When you've chosen your focus, you can choose scenes to study with particular focus and purpose. You'll be coming back to those scenes with the students, reading them aloud, and re-annotating them with a specific focus or issue in mind, then using the scene as the particular focus of class discussion and writing.
Assign the scene to re-read.
Assign a specific focus of annotation, e.g., "Okay, I want you to put a (P) sign wherever you see Lady Macbeth gaining POWER in this scene. Be prepared to tell me WHAT she is doing to achieve that power and WHY it is working or not working."
Discuss why and what students marked, e.g., "Bob, I noticed you marked (P) in the line, 'What beast was't, then?' Who else marked that line? Okay, you did, Anna? Why did you decide to mark that line? Vernon, did you mark that line? Why did you decide not to mark it?
Optional Reflection: Assign a focus question or summary paragraph as an exit ticket or as a part of Cornell notes.
Keep discussion going by referring to the act-by-act questions if needed, in order to develop points or respond to issues raised by students. (See "Link to Discussion Questions" at the bottom of this page.
_________________________________________ Scenes About Privilege/The Other
Note: This conflict is literally so present throughout the entire play, whether we're talking about money, race, religion, or gender, that it is more productive to say "The Entire Play" rather than listing individual scenes.
_________________________________________
Scenes About Christianity vs. Judaism
ACT 1, SCENE 3
(1.3.1) Bassanio, Antonio, and Shylock agree to the "merry bond" in which Antonio will borrow three thousand ducats from Shylock to be repaid in three months or he loses a pound of his own flesh.
ACT 2, SCENE 2
(2.2.1) Enter the Clown [LAUNCELOT GOBBO] alone. Shylock's servant Launcelot and his father meet Bassanio and Gratiano. Bassanio gives Launcelot a job and tells Gratiano he can come along with him to Belmont.
ACT 2, SCENE 3
(2.3.1) Enter JESSICA and the clown [LAUNCELOT]. — Jessica, Shylock's daughter, says farewell to Launcelot, who is leaving her father's house to be the servant of Bassanio. She also gives him a letter to deliver secretly to Lorenzo. After Launcelot leaves, Jessica exclaims, "Alack, what heinous sin is it in me / To be ashamed to be my father's child!" She then reveals that she plans to marry Lorenzo and become a Christian.
(2.5.1) Enter [SHYLOCK the] Jew and [LAUNCELOT,] his man that was, the Clown. — Shylock bids Launcelot good riddance and calls for Jessica. He says that he is going to Bassanio's feast, even though he's sure the invitation was only meant to flatter him, and tells Jessica to keep the house locked up while he's gone. As Launcelot is leaving, he quietly passes the word to Jessica that Lorenzo will be coming to get her.
ACT 2, SCENE 6
(2.6.1) Enter the masquers, GRATIANO and SALERIO. — Close to Shylock's house, Gratiano and Salerio, "masquers," party-goers who were supposed to go to Bassanio's feast, are waiting for Lorenzo to come and take Jessica to a new life as his wife. Lorenzo, late, shows up and calls up to a window of Shylock's house. Jessica comes to the window, dressed in boy's clothes. When Lorenzo swears love for her, she throws down a rich jewelry casket. She is embarrassed by her boy's clothes, but comes down, with more gold coins, and runs away with her love, Lorenzo. Just then Antonio arrives with the news that there will be no party that night; the wind has shifted, and Bassanio is boarding the ship to Belmont. Gratiano is glad to hear this news; he is eager to be gone with Bassanio to Belmont. All rush away.
ACT 2, SCENE 8
(2.8.1) Enter SALERIO and SOLANIO. — Salerio and Solanio are gossiping about Shylock. When he discovered that his daughter had run off with a Christian and taken his money, too, Shylock erupted into a passion, shouting about his daughter and his ducats. The two friends go off to find Antonio, so that they can try to cheer him up.
ACT 3, SCENE 1
(3.1.1) [Enter] SOLANIO and SALERIO. — Solanio and Salerio are alarmed at the news that the good Antonio has lost a ship. Solanio asks Shylock if he has heard any news "among the merchants." Solanio and Salerio are interested in the question of whether or not Shylock has heard about Antonio's loss of a ship, but Shylock is obsessed about his daughter. This scene contains the "I am a Jew" speech, and we learn that Shylock is eager to collect on his bond now that his daughter has eloped.
ACT 3, SCENE 2
(3.2.1) Enter BASSANIO, PORTIA, GRATIANO, [NERISSA,] and all their TRAINS. — Bassanio comes to make his choice of caskets. Salerio brings bad news: all of Antonio's ships have been lost and he has defaulted on his loan from Shylock. Jessica reinforces the idea that Shylock will want his revenge.
ACT 3, SCENE 3
(3.3.1) Enter [SHYLOCK] the Jew and [SOLANIO] and ANTONIO and the JAILER. — Shylock remains firm; he declares, "I will have my bond," and exits. Solanio tries to reassure Antonio that the Duke of Venice will never grant Shylock's demand for a pound of flesh, but Antonio thinks that he will, and only hopes that "Bassanio come / To see me pay his debt."
ACT 3, SCENE 5
(3.5.1) Enter Clown [LAUNCELOT] and JESSICA. — In Belmont, the Clown is teasing Jessica. He says she must be damned because her father is a Jew, or if Shylock isn't her father, she's a bastard, so she's damned that way, too.
______________________________ Scenes About Class vs. Wealth Note: This conflict is literally so present throughout the entire play that it is more productive to say "The Entire Play" rather than listing individual scenes.
(1.3.1) Enter BASSANIO with SHYLOCK the Jew. Antonio agrees to be bound to a contract in which he will literally lose his life for Bassanio's sake if he cannot repay the money.
ACT 2, SCENE 1
(2.1.1) Enter [the PRINCE of] MOROCCO, a Moor all in white, and three or four followers accordingly, with PORTIA, NERISSA, and their TRAIN.— Morocco proclaims his pride in his complexion, and urgently requests that Portia not hold it against him. Portia replies that her hand in marriage goes to the man who chooses the correct casket, and tells him that if a man makes the wrong choice, he must promise never to propose marriage to any other woman. Morocco accepts the terms, and they leave to go to a temple, where Morocco will take his oath to abide by those terms.
ACT 2, SCENE 7
(2.7.1) Enter PORTIA with [the PRINCE of] MOROCCO. — Portia brings in the Prince of Morocco to make his choice of caskets. He asks how he will know if he has chosen the right one, and Portia tells him that the it will contain her picture. The prince studies the inscriptions on the caskets, and chooses the gold, However, when he opens the casket he finds a scroll which tells him that "All that glitters is not gold." Morocco quickly leaves, and Portia is glad to see him go.
ACT 2, SCENE 8
(2.8.1) Enter SALERIO and SOLANIO. — Salerio and Solanio comment on Antonio's kindness, and his deep affection for Bassanio; Salerio describes how Antonio's eyes filled with tears when he said farewell to Bassanio. The two friends go off to find Antonio, so that they can try to cheer him up.
(5.1.1) BASSANIO, ANTONIO, GRATIANO, and their FOLLOWERS. — Portia and Nerissa reveal to Bassanio and Gratiano that they were the lawyer and clerk to whom the men gave away their rings. Portia now holds the cards: Bassanio is "infinitely bound" to her.
______________________________
Scenes about Justice vs. Mercy ACT 2, SCENE 1
(2.1.1) Enter [the PRINCE of] MOROCCO, a Moor all in white, and three or four followers accordingly, with PORTIA, NERISSA, and their TRAIN.— Morocco proclaims his pride in his complexion, and urgently requests that Portia not hold it against him. Portia replies that her hand in marriage goes to the man who chooses the correct casket, and tells him that if a man makes the wrong choice, he must promise never to propose marriage to any other woman. Morocco accepts the terms, and they leave to go to a temple, where Morocco will take his oath to abide by those terms.
ACT 2, SCENE 7
(2.7.1) Enter PORTIA with [the PRINCE of] MOROCCO. — Portia brings in the Prince of Morocco to make his choice of caskets. He asks how he will know if he has chosen the right one, and Portia tells him that the it will contain her picture. The prince studies the inscriptions on the caskets, and chooses the gold, However, when he opens the casket he finds a scroll which tells him that "All that glitters is not gold." Morocco quickly leaves, and Portia is glad to see him go.
(3.1.1) [Enter] SOLANIO and SALERIO. — Solanio and Salerio are alarmed at the news that the good Antonio has lost a ship. Solanio asks Shylock if he has heard any news "among the merchants." Solanio and Salerio are interested in the question of whether or not Shylock has heard about Antonio's loss of a ship, but Shylock is obsessed about his daughter. This scene contains the "I am a Jew" speech, and we learn that Shylock is eager to collect on his bond now that his daughter has eloped.
(3.3.1) Enter [SHYLOCK] the Jew and [SOLANIO] and ANTONIO and the JAILER. — As he enters, Shylock says, "tell not me of mercy; / This is the fool that lent out money gratis." Shylock is followed by Antonio, in the custody of a Jailer, and by Antonio's friend Solanio. Apparently Solanio has said something about granting Antonio mercy, but Shylock doesn't want to hear it, even though Antonio's tone has changed. Earlier in the play, Antonio referred to Shylock as a devil, but now he pleads, "Hear me yet, good Shylock." Despite the change in tone, Shylock remains firm; he declares, "I will have my bond," and exits.
ACT 3, SCENE 4
(3.4.45)— Portia tells Nerissa they will dress like men and that she has a plan to save Antonio.
(5.1.1) BASSANIO, ANTONIO, GRATIANO, and their FOLLOWERS. — Portia and Nerissa reveal to Bassanio and Gratiano that they were the lawyer and clerk to whom the men gave away their rings. Portia now holds the cards: Bassanio is "infinitely bound" to her.
Step Three: Teaching the Text
Laying the Groundwork
Essentially, everyone wants to know what the game plan of a particular activity happens to be. What are we doing? What are we doing next? Where is this going? How dopes this fit into the larger picture? Telling the students the essential routine helps them understand the answers to those questions, and more to the point, it focuses you as a teacher and makes the purpose of your discussion clear -- not just "Let's get through the text."
A. The General Game Plan = 3 Levels of Reading Reading #1: Read At Home This step is crucial unless you want to spend a lot of time in silent reading, which is not the most useful or productive way to spend students' precious class time. Assign students a portion of the text to read and annotate using annotation symbols and fully-developed responses such as those found here.
Reading #2: "You Are Here" The second reading takes a pass through a particular section of the reading you assigned the night before. The purpose of this reading is to familiarize student with the basic events of the play -- the characters, plots, motifs, famous words, ideas, and other issues that are dealt with in the reading you assigned and for which they did annotations.
For example, if you assigned students to read act I of The Merchant of Venice at home, then reading #2 might begin by asking students to reread the portion of the text in which the bond between Antonio and Shylock is laid out. You could say, "Okay, we're going to read just this part, and when we do, look out for the following information:"
What does Shylock give as his reason for disliking Antonio?
Does Antonio confirm anything that Shylock says?
Why does Shylock agree to the bond?
Why does Antonio agree to it?
Why does Bassanio object?
What are the terms of the bond?
Tell the students to look for those issues. Then read just that one section, pointing out anything of note. Then, in small groups or pairs, tell them to answer the questions and then discuss them.
Reading #3: The Big Issues The big issues of the play will focus on any of those major focuses you decided to make your special interest during this play -- religion, money, class, gender, etc. . Here's where the groundwork of Reading #1 and #2 will come into play. It's not until they've done #1 and #2 that they're really ready to tackle #3.
___________________________________________ Example Let's say that you've chosen to discuss money and love. You've assigned your students to read Act I and annotate it, which they have, and now you're ready to launch into a discussion of two pivotal scenes having to do with money and love Act I, scene i. Bassanio asks Antonio for money so that he can pay court to Portia. To what extent does Antonio benefit from this friendship? Act I, scene iii. Bassanio and Antonio borrow money from Shylock. Why is Antonio willing to sacrifice a pound of his own flesh?
YOU YOURSELF will have to read through the scene first, ideally a week or so before, and focus on the issues of money and love that the scenes raise. Let's say you've done that and you're now very familiar with the strategizing and maneuvering that these scenes involve. You would then assign your kids a SPECIFIC focus for annotation in the scenes. ______________________________________________
B. Specific Annotation Let's take I.3 as an example. One assignment for annotation could be as follows:
ANNOTATION: By yourself, please reread As you read, please annotate. Consider it like a "treasure hunt" where you're on the lookout for certain specific elements. Please mark ALL of the following:
(E) Exclusion- Where do we see characters excluded or made to feel "otherized," as if they do not belong?
(M) Motive- Mark where you see a character explicitly providing a motive for his actions to other characters. Do you believe them or disbelieve them?
C. Discussion Have students discuss in a method I call "the expanding circle" -- first in a small group or pair, then as a whole class. Time them with a timer. Say, "Okay, now that you've annotated, turn to your partner and share. What annotations did you have in common? What did you mark that they didn't? What did they mark that you didn't?
Then, after about five minutes, have them share with the class. Go through the passage annotations and ask, "Where did you first see characters being excluded or made to feel other? In what way did this happen?"
Have students participate by calling on them. If students don't participate or don't know, give them 1-2 minutes to discuss the question with a partner and then come back to you.
Assessment Formative Assessment Examples
Quick stand-up-and-review quiz in which you ask the students basic factual (DOK-level 1) questions such as When did Shakespeare live? What was the primary poetic meter in which this play was written? Where is it set? What are the terms of the contract Antonio makes with Shylock? How much money does Bassanio borrow? Although these are DOK 1 questions, they help remind students of fundamental facts and primary events, and can be a good warmup and review.
Exit Tickets: Any of the discussion questions that aren't resolved in class can be used as exit tickets for formative assessment.
Know/Don't Know: Have students write down one idea that they DO know or understand, and one idea or concept that they DO NOT understand or want to know more about. Again, this can be an exit ticket or a beginning exercise.
Annotation and/or Dialectical Journals
Summative Assessment Examples
Almost any of the major discussion questions below would work well as the basis for a short or more extended essay.