Moment 5 - Act 3 Scene 2

“I pray you tarry… pause… forbear… detain...”

“I pray you tarry… pause… forbear… detain...”

I pray you is a very formal way of saying please, as Portia is begging Bassanio and is very anxious so repeats the idea of delaying because she is scared he will choose wrong and does not want him to have to leave.

“For as I am, I live upon the rack”

The rack has connotations of torture, so Bassanio feels as though he is being pulled apart because there is so much tension as there is so much riding on this.

“Tween snow and fire, as treason and my love”

Bassanio uses this simile to show there is as much difference between snow and fire as there is between treason and him love, to try and claim is love is pure and play the role of the courtly lover.

“Bread…head…in the eye, with gazing fed, and fancy dies in the cradle where it lies” “so may the outward show least themselves”

Portia is rigging competition through the song subtly, hinting not to choose a casket based on what is looks like and by using lots of words that rhyme with lead. This shows she is very resourceful as she is able to get what she wants without anyone knowing and without breaking her oath.

“What demigod hath come so near creation” “Golden Mesh”

Bassanio uses hyperbolic language to express the passion of his love for Portia, and in a religious society, calling her a demigod is a very high compliment. However, he seems to have already forgotten the message of the casket that beauty is not everything, which shows his feelings may be more shallow than they seem at this point.

“Severed lips… sugar breath”

Bassanio uses lots of sibilance, as if to show how Portia’s beauty has moved him into talking in such a soft and smooth way.

“Let it presage the ruin of your love”

This is Portia’s way of keeping some of her power with the ring, as in Elizabethan times, in marriages the woman becomes property of the man as well as all her possessions, and loses all power, so by being the one to give Bassanio the ring after having to give away everything else, she puts a condition on their love and takes back some power in their relationship which is very resourceful of her. This also foreshadows comedy as Bassanio will likely lose it at some point.

“We’ll play them for the first boy for a thousand ducats” (structure)

This is the only line in the scene delivered in prose, not verse, by Gratiano, which shows his sexual desires and how out of touch he is with the serious, romantically charged tone of the scene. However, this would have been used to bring comedy to the scene.

“Lorenzo and his infidel”

Infidel is a slur meaning outsider and is derogatory language, which shows how even though Jessica has converted to Christianity, she will always be seen as an outsider.

“Welcome hither”

Lordly language, which shows how Bassanio is already taking control and being confident and authoritative like a lord. He has very quickly adjusted to his new role and power.

“Unpleasant’st words that ever blotter paper… the paper as the body of my friend, and every word in it a gaping wound”

Blotted has very harsh, uncomfortable connotations and the image of the gaping wound is very gruesome, which demonstrates Bassanio’s guilt and distress and also how awful the news of the letter is of Antonio’s shipwreck, especially as Venice was a mercantile society so the most unlucky thing that could happen to a merchant would be a shipwreck, showing how dismal Antonio’s fate is as he will have no money left to pay Shylock back and will lose a pound of flesh.

“Pay him six thousand… before a friend of this description shall lose a hair through Bassanio’s fault”

This shows Portia’s love for Bassanio as she is willing to be this immensely generous to him after only being engaged to him for a few minutes. However, it also highlights her extreme wealth.

Jessica: “He would rather have Antonio’s flesh than twenty times the value of the sum” Portia: “Pay his six thousand… double six thousand then treble that” (structure)

Portia says this right after Jessica’s line, which shows how Portia completely ignored and disregarded what Jessica said, and shows she will likely never be accepted or treated well.

“It will go hard with poor Antonio” (structure)

This line from Jessica is a parallel to when Shylock says his revenge against Antonio will go hard, which emphasises how awful what Shylock does will be for Antonio, as he has lost everything else.

“Sweet Bassanio”

Sweet is a very romantically charged word, which shows Antonio’s love for Bassanio even in a letter.