The Merchant of Venice Cover Image

The Merchant of Venice

by William Shakespeare

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The Merchant of Venice Reading Guide

by Wesley Matlock

  • Released July 18, 2022
  • Literature subject
  • 59 pages
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Grade Levels

Grade 10

Grade 11

Grade 12

Grade 9

undergraduate

Excerpt

After reading this play and using this guide, you should be able to describe the primary conflict each main character faces in the play, identify examples of dramatic devices such as asides, active monologues, and dramatic irony and explain their significance in the play...

About

We’ve designed this eNotes Comprehensive Reading Guide for you to use in numerous ways to give you different approaches to understanding the play The Merchant of Venice.

Reading Guide:

  • The Reading Guide is organized for a chapter-by-chapter study of the novel. Reading Guide pages may be approached individually and completed at your own pace.

  • Reading Guide pages may be used as pre-reading activities to preview the vocabulary words you encounter in reading each chapter and to acquaint you generally with the chapter’s content, or they may be used to check your reading comprehension after finishing a chapter.

  • Reading Guide vocabulary lists include words from the novel that vary in difficulty.

Essay and Reflection Questions:

These questions vary in degree of difficulty. Some questions require higher levels of critical thinking; others engage you with less challenging inquiry. All can be engaged with either individually or in conversation with your teacher and classmates.

After reading this play and using this guide, you should be able to

  • describe the primary conflict each main character faces in the play

  • identify examples of dramatic devices such as asides, active monologues, and dramatic irony and explain their significance in the play

  • identify examples of literary devices such as metaphor, simile, and allusion and explain their significance in the play

  • describe the logic behind the lottery of the caskets devised by Portia’s father, and explain how this element of the play relates to the theme of marriage and money

  • discuss the role of gender in the play, as well as the functions of cross-dressing

  • compare and contrast Bassanio’s relationship with Antonio with his relationship with Portia

  • compare and contrast Antonio and Shylock as outsiders in the play

  • identify and discuss examples of humor used to assert power and humor based on cruelty

  • discuss whether or not the play endorses racism and/or anti-Semitism

  • define “tragicomedy,” and explain how The Merchant of Venice exemplifies the genre