How does Shakespeare reveal character flaws through hypocrisy in The Merchant of Venice Act 2?

Shakespeare reveals the hypocrisy of humans in his play The Merchant of Venice through the choices of his characters, especially in act 2. Let's look at some examples.

In this act, two different princes try to win Portia's hand, the Prince of Morocco and the Prince of Arragon. They both claim to want Portia's hand in marriage, yet they are not able to win it. Portia's father has devised a test. Her suitors must choose the correct chest out of three: one of gold, one of silver, and one of lead. As much as these men claim to desire Portia, they don't really mean it, for they are not willing to choose the chest that challenges them to risk everything to win her. They therefore choose the wrong chest. They are hypocrites. They say they want to marry Portia, and they think they deserve her, but they don't act like it.

We can also see some hypocrisy in Shylock. He pretends to be so righteous and sober, fearing that something will go wrong at his house. Yet he is really a very nasty fellow who is out to get his "pound of flesh" from Antonio.

Jessica pretends to agree to her father's plans, but she is actually planning to run away with Lorenzo that very night. We can't really blame her, but she is not the dutiful daughter she presents herself to be. Further, as much as she wants to go with Lorenzo, she balks at dressing up as a boy and being his torch bearer. She just doesn't want to be seen like that (not that anyone would know her, which is the whole point). There might just be a little touch of hypocrisy in Jessica, too.

What are some examples of hypocrisy in The Merchant of Venice?

Being a hypocrite is pretending to have morals or virtues one does not, in reality, possess.

Portia, even if unwittingly, displays hypocrisy when she tries to persuade Shylock to show mercy towards Antonio. She tells him that mercy is "an attribute of God himself," but does not in the end lean toward mercy for Shylock or try to persuade Antonio to practice mercy. Christians, according to Portia's speech, are implicitly superior to Jews because they put mercy ahead of justice. However, the Christians in the courtroom are willing to treat Shylock quite harshly. Portia is willing to have Shylock forfeit all the money Antonio owes him, and Antonio is hardly less harsh, offering Shylock part of the money only if he makes Lorenzo, the Christian who eloped with his daughter, his heir and himself converts to Christianity, an idea that is odious to Shylock.

Further, even before getting to the courtroom, Antonio's behavior is hypocritical for one who asserts superiority on the basis of being a Christian: Antonio is very unkind to Shylock, showing unChristian behavior in the way he insults him, spits on him, and even strikes him. He also tells Shylock he is not likely to stop this behavior.

Although Christianity preaches both mercy and love of one's enemy, neither Portia nor Antonio seem able to extend that concept to their treatment of Jews. Therefore, both are hypocrites, untrue to their professed beliefs.

The biggest early example of hypocrisy is found in Act I, scene 3. This is when Antonio wants to borrow money and Shylock explodes with anger in an aside, spilling all his bile about Antonio specifically and Christians and their treatment of him in general. That establishes the idea that all interactions between Shylock and others will be tainted with hypocrisy.

I'd say that the extended court scenes and judgment involve a fair amount of hypocrisy. For example, forcing Shylock to become a Christian is hardly an act of acceptance and/or love, and his claim of illness in response is likely a cover for a lack of desire to convert.

Identify three instances of forgiveness and revenge in The Merchant of Venice.

The incidences of revenge far exceed the incidences of forgiveness in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.

Shylock agrees to loan money to Antonio on Bassanio's behalf, and when Antonio falls on hard times financially, Shylock seizes the opportunity to take revenge against Antonio for Antonio's ill-treatment of him. Shylock insists that the court enforce Antonio's "bond" to him, and award him the "pound of flesh" that Antonio owes him for failing to repay the loan.

Shylock's revenge against Antonio is thwarted when Portia (disguised as a doctor of laws) finds a technicality in the loan agreement that permits Shylock to take a pound of flesh from Antonio, but "no jot of blood" (4.1.314):

PORTIA. The words [in the loan agreement] expressly are, a pound of flesh:
Take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh;
But, in the cutting it, if thou dost shed
One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods
Are, by the laws of Venice, confiscate
Unto the state of Venice. (4.1.315-320)

Portia then relies on another technicality to threaten Shylock's wealth and his life:

PORTIA. The law hath yet another hold on you.
It is enacted in the laws of Venice,—
If it be proved against an alien
That by direct or indirect attempts
He seek the life of any citizen,
The party 'gainst the which he doth contrive,
Shall seize one half his goods; the other half
Comes to the privy coffer of the state;
And the offender's life lies in the mercy
Of the duke only... (4.1.359-368)

As for forgiveness, Old Gobbo forgives his son, Launcelot, and Portia and Nerissa ostensibly forgive Bassanio and Gratiano for giving away their rings, although it's fairly clear that Portia and Nerissa intend to hold it over Bassanio and Gratiano for the entirety of their married lives together.

Otherwise, there is little forgiveness in The Merchant of Venice, even from those who preach "mercy" to Shylock and expect him to forgive and forget all of the degradation he's suffered at their hands, and which they continue to inflict on him during the play and particularly during the trial scene.

Portia's famous "The quality of mercy is not strained" speech (4.1.187–208) rings hollow in the context of the Christians' behavior towards the Jew, Shylock.

The Duke magnanimously takes "mercy" on Shylock and spares his life for attempting to kill Antonio by taking a pound of his flesh, but there's a catch:

DUKE. That thou shalt see the difference of our spirits,
I pardon thee thy life before thou ask it:
For half thy wealth, it is Antonio's;
The other half comes to the general state,
Which humbleness may drive unto a fine. (4.1.380–384)

Shylock must forfeit half of his wealth to Antonio, and half to the state of Venice, and humble himself to the court and grovel to those on whom Shylock intended to take his revenge.

Portia asks Antonio "What mercy can you render him?" (4.1.390), but before Antonio can answer, Gratiano shouts that he can give Shylock a noose so Shylock can hang himself (4.1.390).

Antonio takes "mercy" on Shylock and declines to take half his wealth if Shylock recognizes Lorenzo as his heir and bequeaths the other half of his wealth to Lorenzo and Jessica—who eloped with Shylock's money and a ring given to him by his deceased wife—and if Shylock becomes a Christian (4.1.399):

DUKE. He [Shylock] shall do this; or else I do recant
The pardon that I late pronounced here. (4.1.403-404)

This is hardly mercy or forgiveness when the penalty for failing to agree to the conditions is death.

Shylock is straightforward in his revenge against Antonio, whereas the Duke, Antonio, and Portia are utterly hypocritical in their revenge against Shylock. The Duke, Antonio, and Portia affect their revenge on Shylock in the guise of mercy and forgiveness, when in fact they offer Shylock neither, but take their own figurative "pound of flesh" from Shylock by taking everything he has.

As a final act of revenge against Shylock, Portia asks Shylock to humble himself—still under pain of death—and to essentially thank the Christians for debasing him and destroying his life:

PORTIA. Art thou contented, Jew? what dost thou say?

SHYLOCK. I am content. (4.1.405–406).

Shylock leaves the courtroom a broken man, humiliated and in disgrace, and everyone immediately forgets about him and starts making plans for dinner:

DUKE. [to Portia, still disguised as a doctor of law] Sir, I entreat you home with me to dinner. (4.1.415)

This is truly cold-hearted behavior, and shows all of the triumphant characters in the play to be devoid of any of those sensibilities of mercy and forgiveness towards Shylock that they demanded the he show towards them.

What are three incidents of hypocrisy in The Merchant of Venice?

There are lots of hypocrites in The Merchant of Venice. I’ll start with Portia. At the trial, Portia (pretending to be a lawyer named Balthazar) gives a speech about how Shylock should show “mercy.” According to Portia, mercy “is an attribute of God himself.” Yet Portia and the other Venetians don’t show Shylock mercy. They make him convert to Christianity and give his assets away to his rebel daughter. Portia and the Venetians want Shylock to show some compassion for Antonio, yet they don’t demonstrate much compassion for Shylock—that’s hypocrisy.

Another type of hypocrisy comes toward the end. Remember, the trial and the punishment of Shylock had to do with Shylock and Antonio’s lawful deal. If the loan wasn’t paid back, Antonio would hand over a pound of his flesh. While Antonio went back on that agreement, he does freely offer his soul to Portia in order to assure her that Bassanio will not be unfaithful again.

It seems kind of hypocritical for Antonio not to give Shylock a pound of his flesh but to give Portia his own soul. For me, it’s quite confusing. I don’t know if Antonio is against giving away parts of his body or if he's pro handing out parts of his body. Maybe he just didn’t want to give a part of his body to Shylock.

Another incident of hypocrisy comes with how Venetians apply their own laws. Regardless of how strange or odd it might seem, Antonio consented to the deal in which he would give Shylock a pound of his flesh. It was a legal, lawful agreement. Yet as Portia/Balthazar points out, it is also against the law for an “alien” to “seek the life of any citizen.” If Shylock draws blood, he could be punished by death.

Of course, it’s the “alien” law that’s heeded. The law that harms Shylock takes precedent over the law that helps Shylock. Portia declares, “The Jew shall have justice.” Yet it seems more like hypocrisy than justice. The Venetians accuse Shylock of breaking the law when they themselves are overriding the legal agreement between Shylock and Antonio.

Identify three incidents showing love and friendship in The Merchant of Venice.

The most obvious example of love and friendship in the play comes in Antonio's selfless decision to get himself into debt with Shylock to provide funds for his good friend Bassanio. If Bassanio can't pay back the loan, then it's Antonio who'll be in trouble, not him. By agreeing to forfeit a pound of flesh, Antonio is making a big sacrifice, the kind that one can only make for a very close friend. And to lay down one's life for a friend is about the most loving act that anyone can perform.

As well as his close friendship with Antonio, Bassanio's life is also enriched by his love for Portia. That Bassanio and Portia's relationship is based on love can be seen in the famous casket test scene, when Portia ever so subtly rigs the game in Bassanio's favor, ensuring that he, not the other suitors, chooses the correct casket.

Then we have the forbidden love between Shylock's daughter, Jessica, and Lorenzo. As Jessica is Jewish and Lorenzo Christian, Shylock is strongly opposed to this relationship. But the young lovebirds share true feelings for each other, as can be observed when they elope together, blithely indifferent to the enormous scandal this will generate.

Identify three incidents showing appearance versus reality in The Merchant of Venice.

Appearance vs. reality is a very important theme in The Merchant of Venice. Very little of what we see can be accepted at face value, and this makes the play a good deal more interesting. The first example of the theme that we're going to consider is Bassanio's pretending to be a wealthy young man. Though Bassanio is upper-class, he's far from wealthy, and even when he does have money it quickly disappears. So he needs a steady stream of cash if he's to convey the impression of a rich young man about town. This is crucial to his chances of successfully wooing the rich and eligible Portia.

In lending Bassanio the money he needs, Shylock presents himself as a kind man who just wants to help out a young man in trouble. To listen to him speak, you'd think he was only lending Bassanio money out of the goodness of his heart. As he says to Antonio:

I would be friends with you and have your love,
Forget the shames that you have stained me with,
Supply your present wants and take no doit
Of usance for my moneys—and you'll not hear me!
This is kind I offer.
(act 1, scene 3, lines 136–140).

Shylock is even prepared to lend money at no interest, which greatly impresses Bassanio. But it's all just a front. Shylock is out for revenge and intends to have his pound of flesh. Quite literally.

The most important illustration of the appearance vs. reality theme comes in the casket test. Portia's late father set up the test to prevent any gold diggers from marrying his daughter. Each suitor must choose one of three caskets: a gold, a silver, or a lead one. The gold diggers naturally choose either the gold or the silver one. However, the most valuable is that made of lead, because once a suitor has chosen it, they get to take Portia's hand in marriage.

This is yet another fine example of the old maxim that “all that glitters is not gold.” Because the gold-digging suitors are obsessed with appearances, they are unable to see the reality and so end up losing Portia to Bassanio, who makes the right choice of the lead casket.