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The Merchant of Venice

by William Shakespeare

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Analysis of dramatic techniques and literary devices in The Merchant of Venice

Summary:

In The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare employs dramatic techniques such as dramatic irony, particularly in the courtroom scene, where the audience knows Portia's true identity while the characters do not. Literary devices include metaphors, such as Shylock's comparisons of his losses to the pound of flesh. The play also uses foreshadowing, evident when Shylock's insistence on the bond hints at future conflicts.

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What are some literary devices in The Merchant of Venice?

As you might expect of Shakespeare, literary devices abound in this play. In Portia's famous speech about mercy, given when she is disguised as a male lawyer, she uses a metaphor, or comparison, likening mercy to a gentle rain that is undeserved but blesses and nurtures what it falls upon. She further uses an aphorism, or short, pithy phrase, to sum up mercy: "It blesseth him who gives and him who takes."

The courtroom scene uses dramatic irony, which is the literary device in which the audience knows something the characters in the play do not. This is a favorite technique of Shakespeare's. Here, the audience knows the lawyer is Portia, but the characters do not. 

If we look at one more quote, we can find more literary devices: 

All that glisters is not gold, Often have you heard that told; Many a man his life hath sold But my outside to behold: Gilded tombs do worms infold (II, vii)

The opening line uses alliteration, which is to use a consonant repeatedly for emphasis. The "g" in glisters and gold helps us remember the contrast between glisters and gold and thus the contrast between outer show (glister) and real worth (gold). The passage also employs rhyme: told, sold, behold and infold, which helps us to remember the important thematic point that money isn't everything. Shakespeare also uses imagery to paint a vivid contrast between a shining, gilded tomb and the worms within it. This imagery also uses the device of juxtaposition of two sharply contrasting images, in this case gilt and worms.

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What are some literary devices in The Merchant of Venice?

  • The three caskets that Portia must put out for the suitors are certainly symbolic.
  • In a sense Shylock is symbolic of the unethical jewish moneylenders and merchants of Venice
  • Portia makes a pun of the word "will" in her conversation to her waiting woman, Nerissa, 

...so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father. (I.ii.24-25).

  • Allusion is used. In Act I, Scene I, for instance, Salerio, a friend of Antonio refers to "two-headed Janus," a Roman god of entrances and all beginnings (l.50) Also, in this scene, Gratiano alludes to a Greek oracle when he says,"I am a sir Oracle."
  • Parallelism is used in Act 2, Scene 6 as Lorenzo declares,

For she is wise, if I can judge of her;
And fair she is, if that mine eyes be true;
And true she is, as she hath prov'd herself;(ll.53-55)

  • Metaphor is used in Act 3, Scene 5 as Lorenzo says, "An army of good words" suggesting how words can be subject to multiple interpretations. 
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What dramatic techniques are used in The Merchant of Venice?

One dramatic technique that Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice absolutely uses is stage directions. This should not come as a surprise as it is a play, and the playwright provides stage directions to let actors know when to exit and enter the stage. This particular play is not as full of stage directions, as many other plays can be. Shakespeare's directions are mainly limited to directing actors to entering and exiting at the correct time. Occasionally, the stage directions include information about a prop.

For example, in act 2, scene 6, the directions tell Jessica to enter in boy's clothes. At another time, the directions announce that a "flourish of cornets" should sound. Finally, the stage directions sometimes tell actors who they are talking to. The stage directions might announce the usage of an aside. An aside is a dramatic technique that has the character making a short comment directly to the audience or themselves while other characters are on stage and apparently can't listen to the person delivering the aside. This play makes usage of asides especially with Shylock. The purpose of an aside is to help show audiences that character's thoughts.

A similar technique is a soliloquy. A soliloquy is usually longer than an aside, and it is generally delivered while that character is alone on stage. The character is essentially talking to himself/herself, and the playwright does this to reveal that person's state of mind and highlight internal conflicts or motives. Shylock has a great soliloquy in which he vents about Antonio in act 1, scene 3.

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What literary devices are used in Antonio's "Fortune shows herself more kind" speech in The Merchant of Venice?

In act IV, scene 4 of The Merchant of Venice, Antonio accepts his punishment for defaulting on a loan to Shylock. Before submitting to sacrificing one pound of flesh, he tells his friend Bassanio not to grieve. In fact, Antonio puts a positive spin on his unlucky fate:

For herein Fortune shows herself more kind
Than is her custom: it is still her use
To let the wretched man outlive his wealth,
To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow
An age of poverty; from which lingering penance
Of such misery doth she cut me off.

Literary devices in this speech include personification, imagery, synecdoche, and pun. He personifies Fortune as “lady luck,” the controller of people’s fate. Antonio stresses that being unlucky (i.e. unable to repay Shylock’s loan) is lucky; Fortune is being uncharacteristically “kind” to him. Unlike most men, he will not be forced to live miserably into old age and poverty.

Shakespeare emphasizes the “wretched” state of advanced age through imagery. The “hollow eye and wrinkled brow” create a picture of a blind and infirm person. In fact, these images are examples of synecdoche: the eye and brow represent the entire body of an old man.

Antonio’s use of the word “cut” is a pun. Fortune prevents or cuts off the chance of Antonio having to endure old age—by having him submit to the probably fatal punishment of having a pound of flesh literally cut from his body.

Later in this speech, Shakespeare uses the literary devices of repetition and juxtaposition when Antonio tells Bassanio,

Repent but you that you shall lose your friend,
And he repents not that he pays your debt.

The repetition of “repent,” “you,” and “he” drives home the idea of remorse, yet Antonio actually stresses that he does not regret his fate. In fact, Shakespeare juxtaposes the idea of repenting with the idea of not repenting. Antonio tells Bassanio to lament only that he will lose his friend (i.e., Antonio himself), not Antonio’s decision to take out a loan for Bassanio. On the other hand, Antonio himself does not have any regrets for helping Bassanio despite the consequences.

The speech ends with Antonio declaring,

For if the Jew do cut but deep enough,
I'll pay it presently with all my heart.

Again, Shakespeare uses synecdoche as well as metaphor. Antonio’s “heart” (which Shylock might cut out) represents his body; if his heart were extracted, he would die, thus paying his debt with his body. “Heart” is also a metaphor for Antonio’s love for Bassanio. He willingly pays the debt by giving up his life for Bassanio out of love.

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