Summary: Act III, scene iii
Shylock escorts the bankrupt Antonio to prison. Antonio
pleads with Shylock to listen, but Shylock refuses. Remembering
the many times Antonio condemned him as a dog, Shylock advises the
merchant to beware of his bite. Assured that the duke will grant
him justice, Shylock insists that he will have his bond and tells
the jailer not to bother speaking to him of mercy. Solanio declares
that Shylock is the worst of men, and Antonio reasons that the Jew
hates him for bailing out many of Shylock’s debtors. Solanio attempts
to comfort Antonio by suggesting that the duke will never allow
such a ridiculous contract to stand, but Antonio is not convinced.
Venice, Antonio claims, is a wealthy trading city with a great reputation
for upholding the law, and if the duke breaks that law, Venice’s
economy may suffer. As Solanio departs, Antonio prays desperately
that Bassanio will arrive to “see me pay his debt, and then I care
not” (III.iii.36).
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Act III, scene iii →
Summary: Act III, scene iv
Lorenzo assures Portia that Antonio is worthy of all the
help she is sending him, and that if Portia only knew the depths
of Antonio’s love and goodness, she would be proud of her efforts
to save him. Portia replies that she has never regretted doing a
good deed, and goes on to say that she could never deny help to
anyone so close to her dear Bassanio. Indeed, Antonio and Bassanio
are so inseparable that Portia believes saving her husband’s friend
is no different than saving her own husband. She has sworn to live
in prayer and contemplation until Bassanio returns to her, and announces
that she and Nerissa will retire to a nearby monastery. Lorenzo
and Jessica, she declares, will rule the estate in her absence.
Portia then sends her servant, Balthasar, to Padua, where
he is to meet her cousin, Doctor Bellario, who will provide Balthasar
with certain documents and clothing. From there, Balthasar will
take the ferry to Venice, where Portia will await him. After Balthasar departs,
Portia informs Nerissa that the two of them, dressed as young men,
are going to pay an incognito visit to their new husbands. When
Nerissa asks why, Portia dismisses the question, but promises to
disclose the whole of her purpose on the coach ride to Venice.
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Act III, scene iv →
Summary: Act III, scene v
Quoting the adage that the sins of the father shall be
delivered upon the children, Launcelot says he fears for Jessica’s
soul. When Jessica claims that she will be saved by her marriage
to Lorenzo, Launcelot complains that the conversion of the Jews,
who do not eat pork, will have disastrous consequences on the price
of bacon. Lorenzo enters and chastises Launcelot for impregnating
a Moorish servant. Launcelot delivers a dazzling series of puns in
reply and departs to prepare for dinner. When Lorenzo asks Jessica
what she thinks of Portia, she responds that the woman is without
match, nearly perfect in all respects. Lorenzo jokes that he is
as good a spouse as Portia, and leads them off to dinner.
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Act III, scene v →
Analysis: Act III, scenes iii–v
Once the play reaches Act III, scene iii, it is difficult
to sympathize with Shylock. Whatever humiliations he has suffered
at Antonio’s hands are repaid when he sees the Christian merchant
in shackles. Antonio may have treated the moneylender badly, but
Shylock’s pursuit of the pound of flesh is an exercise in naked
cruelty. In this scene, Shylock’s narrowly focused rhetoric becomes
monomaniacal in its obsession with the bond. “I’ll have my bond.
Speak not against my bond,” (III.iii.4) he
insists, and denies attempts at reason when he says, “I’ll have
no speaking. I will have my bond” (III.iii.17). When
Antonio tells Solanio that Shylock is getting revenge for his practice
of lending money without interest, he seems to miss the bigger picture.
Shylock’s mind has been warped into obsession not by Antonio alone,
but by the persecutions visited on him by all of Christian Venice.
He has taken Antonio as the embodiment of all his persecutors so
that, in his pound of flesh, he can avenge himself against everyone.
The institution of law comes to the forefront of the play
in these scenes, and we may be tempted to view the law as a sort
of necessary evil, a dogmatic set of rules that can be forced to
serve the most absurd requests. In the thirty-six lines that make
up Act III, scene iii, Shylock alludes to revenge in only the vaguest
of terms, but repeats the word “bond” no less than six times. He
also frequently invokes the concept of justice. Law is cast as the
very backbone of the Venetian economy, as Antonio expresses when
he makes the grim statement that “[t]he duke cannot deny the course
of law. . . . / . . . / Since that the trade and profit of the city
/ Consisteth of all nations” (III.iii.26–31).
Trade is the city’s lifeblood, and an integral part of trade is
ensuring that merchants of all religions and nationalities are extended
the same protections as full-blooded Venetian citizens. In principle,
the duke’s inability to bend the law is sound, as the law upholds
the economy that has allowed Antonio and his friends to thrive.
However, Shylock’s furious rants about justice and his bond make
it seem as if his very law-abiding nature has perverted a bastion
of Christian uprightness.
