The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare (line by Line Explanations)

A Merchant vessel of the earst century

The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare (line by Line Explanations)

Characters 

Shylock
A Jewish moneylender in Venice. Angered by his mistreatment at the hands of Venice’s Christians, particularly the merchant Antonio, Shylock schemes to get revenge by ruthlessly demanding a pound of Antonio’s flesh as penalty for Antonio’s defaulting on a loan. The Christian characters in the play regard Shylock as an inhuman monster, frequently mocking him for being obsessed with money. In person, however, Shylock comes across as far more than a caricature or stereotype. His resentment at his mistreatment, his anger at his daughter’s betrayal, and his eloquent expressions of rage make him a convincing, entirely human character.

Portia
A wealthy heiress from Belmont. Portia’s beauty is matched only by her intelligence. Bound by a clause in her father’s will that forces her to marry whichever suitor chooses correctly among three caskets, Portia nonetheless longs to marry her true love, Bassanio. Far and away the cleverest of the play’s characters, Portia disguises herself as a young male law clerk in an attempt to save Antonio from Shylock’s knife.

Antonio
The merchant whose love for his friend Bassanio prompts him to sign Shylock’s contract and almost lose his life. Antonio is something of a mercurial figure, often inexplicably melancholy and, as Shylock points out, possessed of an incorrigible dislike of Jews. Nonetheless, Antonio is beloved of his friends and proves merciful to Shylock, albeit with conditions.

Bassanio
A gentleman of Venice and a kinsman and dear friend to Antonio. Bassanio’s love for the wealthy Portia leads him to borrow money from Shylock with Antonio as his guarantor. An ineffectual businessman, Bassanio nonetheless proves himself a worthy suitor, correctly identifying the casket that contains Portia’s portrait.

Gratiano
A friend of Bassanio’s who accompanies him to Belmont. A coarse and garrulous young man, Gratiano is Shylock’s most vocal and insulting critic during the trial. While Bassanio courts Portia, Gratiano falls in love with and eventually weds Portia’s lady-in-waiting, Nerissa.

Jessica
Although she is Shylock’s daughter, Jessica hates life in her father’s house and elopes with the young Christian gentleman Lorenzo. Launcelot jokingly calls into question what will happen to her soul, wondering if her marriage to a Christian can overcome the fact that she was born a Jew. We may wonder if her sale of a ring given to her father by her mother isn’t excessively callous.

Lorenzo
A friend of Bassanio and Antonio. Lorenzo is in love with Shylock’s daughter, Jessica. He schemes to help Jessica escape from her father’s house and eventually elopes with her to Belmont.

Nerissa
Portia’s lady-in-waiting and confidante. Nerissa marries Gratiano and escorts Portia on Portia’s trip to Venice by disguising herself as Portia’s law clerk.

Launcelot Gobbo
Bassanio’s servant. A comical, clownish figure who is especially adept at making puns, Launcelot leaves Shylock’s service in order to work for Bassanio.

The prince of Morocco
A Moorish prince who seeks Portia’s hand in marriage. The prince of Morocco asks Portia to ignore his dark complexion and seeks to win her by picking one of the three caskets. Certain that the caskets reflect Portia’s beauty and stature, the prince of Morocco picks the gold chest.

The prince of Arragon
An arrogant Spanish nobleman who also attempts to win Portia’s hand by picking a casket. Like the prince of Morocco, however, the prince of Arragon chooses unwisely. He picks the silver casket, which gives him a message calling him an idiot rather than offering him Portia’s hand.

Salarino
A Venetian gentleman, and friend to Antonio, Bassanio, and Lorenzo. Salarino is often almost indistinguishable from his companion Solanio.

Solanio
A Venetian gentleman, and frequent counterpart to Salerio.

Salerio
A Venetian gentleman and messanger. Salerio returns with Bassanio and Gratiano for Antonio’s trial.

The Duke of Venice
The ruler of Venice, who presides over Antonio’s trial. Although he is a powerful man, the state he rules depends on respect for the law, and he is unable to bend the law to help Antonio.

Gobbo
Launcelot’s father, also a servant in Venice.

Tubal
A wealthy Jew in Venice and one of Shylock’s friends.

Doctor Bellario
A wealthy Paduan lawyer and Portia’s cousin. Although Doctor Bellario never appears in the play, he gives Portia’s servant the letters of introduction needed for Portia to make her appearance in court.

Balthazar
Portia’s servant, whom she dispatches to get the appropriate materials from Doctor Bellario.

Stephano
A messenger who works for Portia.

Leonardo
One of Bassanio’s servants.

Act 1 Scene 1

Original Shakespearian text 

Enter ANTONIO, SALARINO, and SOLANIO
ANTONIO In sooth, I know not why I am so sad. It wearies me; you say it wearies you. But how I caught it, found it, or came by it, What stuff ’tis made of, whereof it is born, I am to learn. And such a want-wit sadness makes of me, That I have much ado to know myself.
SALARINO Your mind is tossing on the ocean, There, where your argosies with portly sail, Like signors and rich burghers on the flood— Or, as it were, the pageants of the sea— Do overpeer the petty traffickers That curtsy to them, do them reverence As they fly by them with their woven wings.
SOLANIO Believe me, sir, had I such venture forth, The better part of my affections would Be with my hopes abroad. I should be still Plucking the grass to know where sits the wind, Peering in maps for ports and piers and roads. And every object that might make me fear Misfortune to my ventures out of doubt Would make me sad. SALARINO     My wind cooling my broth Would blow me to an ague when I thought What harm a wind too great at sea might do. I should not see the sandy hourglass run, But I should think of shallows and of flats And see my wealthy Andrew docked in sand, Vailing her high top lower than her ribs To kiss her burial. Should I go to church And see the holy edifice of stone And not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks, Which, touching but my gentle vessel’s side, Would scatter all her spices on the stream, Enrobe the roaring waters with my silks, And, in a word, but even now worth this, And now worth nothing? Shall I have the thought To think on this, and shall I lack the thought That such a thing bechanced would make me sad? But tell not me. I know Antonio Is sad to think upon his merchandise. ANTONIO Believe me, no. I thank my fortune for it— My ventures are not in one bottom trusted, Nor to one place, nor is my whole estate Upon the fortune of this present year. Therefore my merchandise makes me not sad. SOLANIO Why then, you are in love. ANTONIO     Fie, fie! SOLANIO Not in love neither? Then let us say you are sad Because you are not merry—and ’twere as easy For you to laugh and leap and say you are merry Because you are not sad. Now, by two-headed Janus, Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time. Now in plain English the explanation text  ANTONIO, SALARINO, and SOLANIO enter. ANTONIO To be honest, I don’t know why I’m so sad. I’m tired of it, and you say you’re tired of it too. But I have no idea how I got so depressed. And if I can’t figure out what’s making me depressed, I must not understand myself very well. SALARINO You’re worried about your ships. Your mind is out there getting tossed around on the ocean with them. But they’re fine. They’re like huge parade floats on the sea. They’re so big they look down on the smaller ships, which all have to bow and then get out of the way. Your ships fly like birds past those little boats. SOLANIO Yes, believe me, if I had such risky business ventures in other countries, I’d be sad too. I’d worry about it every second. I’d constantly be tossing blades of grass into the air to find out which way the wind was blowing. I’d be peering over maps to figure out the best ports, piers, and waterways. Everything that made me worry about my ships would make me sad. SALARINO I’d get scared every time I blew on my soup to cool it, thinking of how a strong wind could wipe out my ships. Every time I glanced at the sand in an hourglass I’d imagine my ships wrecked on sandbars. I’d think of dangerous rocks every time I went to church and saw the stones it was made of. If my ship brushed up against rocks like that, its whole cargo of spices would be dumped into the sea. All of its silk shipments would be sent flying into the roaring waters. In one moment I’d go bankrupt. Who wouldn’t get sad thinking about things like that? It’s obvious. Antonio is sad because he’s so worried about his cargo. ANTONIO No, that’s not it, trust me. Thankfully my financial situation is healthy. I don’t have all of my money invested in one ship, or one part of the world. If I don’t do well this year, I’ll still be okay. So it’s not my business that’s making me sad. SOLANIO Well then, you must be in love. ANTONIO Oh, give me a break. SOLANIO You’re not in love either? Fine, let’s just say you’re sad because you’re not in a good mood. You know, it’d be just as easy for you to laugh and dance around and say you’re in a good mood. You could just say you’re not sad. Humans are so different.

Notes, summary on Daffodils by WilliamWords worth for Class IX ICSE

Complete Summary of Daffodils by William Wordsworth

Here’s a brief summary of daffodils: Once the poet was wandering pointlessly beside a lake, he was all alone to wander freely akin to a patch of clouds floating in the sky, over the valleys and the hill. Suddenly he could view the large number of daffodils gathered by the side of the lake. They were sheltered under a growing tree. The Daffodils resembles the color of gold(1) (according to the poet)and the airy breeze made them wave and dance, rejoice and play. The poet however could not estimate their number as they spread along extensive sides of the lake.

(1)Daffodils is a commonly grown flower.The line: ‘A host, of golden daffodils;’ needs a special mention since it unveils the poet’s thoughts. Wordsworth associated the colour of richness: Gold; to his common flower.

They resemble akin to innumerable shining stars that one could see in the night sky in the form of Milky Way. As the poet made an instant glance, he could see myriad of daffodils waving their heads, as if they were rejoicing and dancing out of alacrity. Seeing this, the waves of the lake accompanied dancing along with these daffodils , but their lustrous dance was in no way comparable to the delight and gaiety of the flowers the poets seems to have frenzied with; an ecstasy of delight.

He realized that a poet who was susceptible to natural grace could not help but feel happy in the presence of such gay and beautiful flowers. He gazed at them, hardly knowing what enormous treasure he was accumulating in his mind.
That vista was impregnated in the poet’s mind for an everlasting time. In future, when the poet lied down on his couch, either in a lonely or a pensive mood, the entire panorama that he saw in the woods beyond the Gowbarrow Park appeared before his mind’s eye. In solitude, when his mind is unrestrained by disturbing elements of the real world, he revives the memories of the daffodils. When the memory of that sight comes into view of the poet, he was able to derive ecstatic pleasure which he had enjoyed actually.

Analysis of Daffodils by William Wordsworth:

I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high o’er vales and hills / For oft, when on my couch I lie, in vacant…..with pleasures fills. In the starting of the poem, the poet was floating high but was morally low. As we come to the end of the poem, the poet, in spite being on the couch (low) was morally high.

Mood of the Poem Daffodils:

The poem goes through a gradual shift..from wandered lonely (line 1) to but be gay (line 15) and pleasures fill (line 23). This in actual reflects Wordsworth’s life. The feeling of loneliness was marked by the death of his brother John. Dorothy had been a great sister to Wordsworth and also Wordsworth got married in the same year 1802 (his second marriage). These life events were actually responsible for Wordsworth’s actually happiness in his life and thus correlates with Daffodils.

Wordsworth’s Style:

Daffodils analysis will be incomplete without illustrating the tone of the poem. This poem is typically Wordsworthian. Its portray Nature at its best and encompasses her grace to the pinnacle which every poets cannot reach. It projects Wordsworth’s extraordinary delight in understanding and exploring common place things (key point). Emotions recollected in tranquility are the distinct factor which differentiates Wordsworth from other poets. The emotions associated with Wordsworth in this poem, Daffodils is not ephemeral but rather permanent and everlasting. The poet derives the same bliss from his thoughts about the daffodil when he actually saw them.

They flashed upon the inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude:
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dance with the daffodils.

About Wordsworth:

Wordsworth stands supreme as a nature poet. Born at Cockermouth in the year 1770, he spent his childhood amidst nature. He was sent to St. John’s College, Cambridge, 1787. After his return from France he stayed with his sister and Coleridge. He got married in 1802.

STANZA 1 SUMMARY

Lines 1-2

I wandered lonely as a Cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and Hills,

• The speaker describes how he walked around and felt as lonely as a cloud. He doesn’t say, "walked around," but uses the much more descriptive word "wandered."
• "Wandered" means roaming around without a purpose, like when you explore something. So it’s not necessarily a bad thing. But in its metaphorical use, "wandered" can mean feeling purposeless and directionless in general. As in, you have questions like, "What’s the meaning of my life?"
• The first concept that we want to take a look at is that the cloud is "lonely." Asking questions about what this means will help us get into the poem.
• Are clouds lonely? Well, maybe the ones that float about valleys ("vales") and hills are lonely. It's more likely, the speaker is projecting his own loneliness on the clouds. But that still doesn’t explain the strange image, because clouds usually travel in groups. (Except in cartoons where you can have a single rain cloud following Wiley E. Coyote around just to ruin his day.)
• Maybe a cloud is lonely because it is so far above the rest of the world. Its thoughts are just so "lofty," and maybe the speaker’s thoughts are, too.
• Also, the cloud could be lonely because it floats over a natural landscape with no people in it. Maybe the speaker has thought of hills and valleys because he happens to be "wandering" through such a landscape.
• These are some of the questions we’re hoping the poem will help us sort out after this mysterious beginning.

Lines 3-4

When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden Daffodils;

• Suddenly ("all at once"), the speaker sees a group of daffodil flowers. We tend to think of daffodils as "yellow," but he uses the more majestic-sounding "golden."
• He calls them a "crowd," so they must be packed tightly together. Then he elaborates on "crowd" by adding the noun "host." A host is just a big group.
• Yes, "host" and "crowd" mean pretty much the same thing. Ah, but that’s where the connotations come in, those vague associations that attach to certain words. A "crowd" is associated with groups of people, while "host" is associated with angels, because people often refer to a "host of angels." Coupled with the description of their angelic "golden" color, we seem to be dealing with some very special daffodils.

Lines 5-6

Beside the Lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

• He sees the daffodils beside a lake and underneath some trees. It’s a breezy day, and the flowers "flutter" and "dance" on their stems.
• Maybe now is a good time to step outside the poem for just a second to note that Wordsworth lived in a part of England known as the Lake District, which is filled with lots of hills, valleys and, of course, lakes. We can assume he’s walking in a fairly remote and wild part of the countryside.
• Now, back to the poem. "Fluttering" suggests flight, which could bring us back to the angels or even birds or butterflies. "Dancing" is something that usually only humans do. The daffodils are given the qualities of humans and also of some kind of otherworldly creatures, perhaps.

STANZA 2 SUMMARY

Lines 7-8

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,

• The emphasizes the point that there are a whole lot of daffodils. More daffodils than he has probably ever seen before. After all, these are flowers that usually grow in scattered groups in the wild or in people’s well-tended gardens.
• The flowers stretch "continuously," without a break, like the stars in the Milky Way galaxy, each one gleaming like a star.
• The comparison to stars provides new evidence that the speaker is trying to make us think of angels or other heavenly beings.

Lines 9-10

They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:

• Like the Milky Way galaxy, the flowers are roughly concentrated in a line that seems to stretch as far as the eye can see ("never-ending"). They flowers line the shore ("margin") of a bay of the lake, which must be a relatively large lake.
• If you’ve ever seen the Milky Way (or the photo in the link above), you know that the galaxy appears to be a band that has more stars and a brighter appearance than the night sky around it. It’s not a perfectly clear line, but more like a fuzzy approximation of a line. We imagine the same effect with the flowers. It’s not as if there are no flowers outside the shore of the lake, but most are concentrated on the shore.

Lines 11-12

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

• The speaker takes in "ten thousand" dancing flowers at once. That’s a lot of daffodils.
• Wow, he’s fast at counting if he knows the number after only a quick glance. But, of course, the speaker is not actually counting, but just guessing. (It's like when you try to guess the number of gumballs in a jar.)
• The flowers "toss their hands" while dancing to the wind. By "heads" we think he means the part of the flower with the petals, the weight of which causes the rest of the flower to bob.
• "Sprightly" means happily or merrily. The word derives from "sprite," which refers to the playful little spirits that people once thought inhabited nature. "Sprites" are supernatural beings, almost like fairies

STANZA 3 SUMMARY

Lines 13-14

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

• The waves also dance in the breeze, but the daffodils seem happier than the waves. We know from Dorothy Wordsworth’s journal (see "In a Nutshell") that the day that inspired this poem was a stormy one, so the waves on this medium-to-large sized lake must have been larger than usual. Maybe they were even cresting into whitecaps.
• The point is that the entire scene has suddenly been invested with a joyful human-like presence. Since waves do not bring as much joy as the yellow flowers, the flowers "out-did" the water with their happiness.
• The waves "sparkle," which creates yet another association with the stars. Everything seems to be gleaming and twinkling and shining and sparkling.

Lines 15-16

A Poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:

• The speaker reenters the poem. (We’ve haven’t seen you since the first line, buddy.) Except he refers to himself in the first person, by his vocation, "a poet."
• Despite his earlier loneliness, the speaker now can’t help but feel happy, or "gay," with such a beautiful vision to look at.
• Or, as he puts at, with such joyful and carefree ("jocund") "company" to hang out with. The flowers and waves feel like companions to him. They are all pals. Group hug!

Lines 17-18

I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

• The repetition of "gaze" tells us that he kept looking at the flowers for a long time. It's as if the speaker enjoys looking at these daffodils at the time, but doesn’t realize exactly how great of a gift he has just received with this vision.
• Apparently, the speaker doesn't think that he fully appreciated the vision at the time. This is a bit odd, because he seems to be really enjoying those daffodils.
• The word "wealth" expresses a more permanent kind of happiness. It also carries a hint of money that does not quite fit with the supernatural language that has come before.

STANZA 4 SUMMARY

Lines 19-20

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,

• Now the speaker explains why the daffodils were such a great gift to him. He moves suddenly into the future, back from the lake and the windy day. He’s describing a habitual action, something he does often.
• First, he sets the scene: he often sits on his couch, kind of feeling blah about life, with no great thoughts and sights. Sometimes his mind is empty and "vacant," like a bored teenager sitting on the sofa after school and trying to decide what to do. At other times he feels "pensive," which means he thinks kind-of-sad thoughts. You can’t be both "vacant" and "pensive" because one means "not thinking," and the other means "thinking while feeling blue." But he groups the two experiences together because both are vaguely unpleasant and dissatisfying.

Lines 21-22

They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;

• So, often when our speaker gets in these downer moods, the image of the daffodils "flashes" through his mind.
• The "inward eye" expresses what Wordsworth felt to be a deeper, truer spiritual vision. A person cannot share his or her own spiritual vision completely with others, and so it is a form of "solitude." But its truth and beauty make it "blissful."
• Why does the speaker think of daffodils in exactly these moments? Maybe it's because the contrast between their joy and his unhappiness is so striking. Nonetheless, the vision is spontaneous, like a crack of lightning.

Lines 23-24

And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the Daffodils

• When the memory of the flowers and the lake flashes into his head, he feels happy again. It’s almost like the same experience he had while "wandering" through nature at the beginning of the poem, when the real daffodils pushed the loneliness out of his head.
• The memory of the daffodils is as good as the real thing.
• His heart is set to dancing, just like the flowers. He dances along "with" them – they are his cheerful companions once again.