Merchant of Venice commentary

1. AHaller
Pound of Flesh
Our legal system suggests an ideal known as justice. Often though the average citizen
discovers scales out of balance. Neither mending nor healing nor compassion nor even
reason results.
In contrast it tears asunder, creates a graver wound and delivers an irreversible severe
vindictiveness. On a civil level, for example a divorce aggravates wounds as children or
assets are wrestled over in a brutal win or lose outcome. Invisible emotional wounds truly
deeper occur with a verdict. The legal remedy makes the offense magnified far greater than
the relief it ought to deliver. Better its injustice than the greater injustice anarchy or
lawlessness brings.
Courthouses can sadly become legalized fight clubs. Little to no relief to all and in the end
greater suffering to all. These are coliseums of raw emotions. Where does the anger go?
Perhaps to others or internally directed to self-injury. Court conflicts are preceded by prior
conflicts – moral remedies disengage from a legal one. Merciless and mechanical without
empathy, the client and lawyer speak two different languages.
In Merchant of Venice Shylock was a supreme villain. A pound of flesh for an unpaid
debt? Legal failure to perform permits enforcement of vile punitive revenge.
In today’s world a legal Pound of Flesh is a legal remedy paid in cash or jail time or
coerced repulsive confession. Another remedy, which is a moral one, becomes an art. Law
has a mechanical quantitative answer. This is what justice is – a number in a book and
ironclad legal renderings that no word merchant dare contest.
A lawyer is a rather poor resource – not to repair – emotively a worse source of
compassion. No wonder their reputation suffers. Paid handsomely to double one’s injuries.
Lawyers practice emotional detachment. Otherwise, an occupational hazard of clinical
depression or substance abuse would be risked. Avoid self-actualizing. Do not touch to
reassure a client. Doctors do so when telling unpleasant news. Have tissue ready for the
tears. Lawyer to your peril, avoid empathy.
The best remedy to a Pound of Flesh comes to us from the statements from Shakespeare’s
play. May any lawyer, jury, or judge be reading this heed this touching request.

2. AHaller
The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'T is mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown:
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea;
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.

3. AHaller
Summary and Analysis of Portia’s ‘The quality
of mercy is not strained’ Speech
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘The quality of mercy is not strained’: this memorable speech from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of
Venice is spoken by Portia, who has disguised herself as a male lawyer in order to defend Antonio – the
title character of the play – from Shylock, the Jewish moneylender who has demanded a ‘pound of flesh’
from Antonio in exchange for an unpaid debt. Portia’s ‘quality of mercy’ speech sees her appeal (or
attempt to appeal) to Shylock’s merciful disposition, although she ultimately fails, because he hasn’t got
one.
Before we analyse the ‘quality of mercy’ speech in more detail, here’s a quick reminder of the
background to the speech.
There are two main plot strands to The Merchant of Venice, both closely intertwined. The first involves
Portia, the wealthy heiress of Belmont, who decides that she will marry whichever suitor picks the right
casket when faced with a choice of three (made of gold, silver, and lead).
The second involves a loan the Jewish moneylender, Shylock, makes to Antonio, the merchant of the
play’s title. These two plot lines are connected because Antonio borrows money from Shylock in order to
help out his friend, Bassanio, who wishes to finance a trip to Belmont to try his hand at Portia’s ‘three
caskets’ trial.
The terms of the loan are as follows: Antonio will repay the money to Shylock when his ships return from
their voyage; if he fails to pay up then, Shylock will be entitled to a pound of Antonio’s flesh.
When Antonio’s ships are declared lost at sea, he cannot repay the debt to Shylock, who promptly
demands his pound of flesh. The phrase ‘pound of flesh’ has, of course, become proverbial and entered
common use, used to refer to an unreasonably high demand made of someone.
These two threads run through the play, becoming united towards the end of the play, when Portia
disguises herself as a male lawyer, Balthazar, in order to defend Antonio against Shylock’s knife. In Act 4
Scene 1, during the courtroom scene, Portia delivers the speech which has become one of the most
famous in all of The Merchant of Venice.
Let’s go through the speech bit by bit, summarising its content and analysing its features.
The quality of mercy is not strained,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

4. AHaller
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
Portia (disguised as Balthazar) tells Shylock, and the court, that mercy is an essential human quality.
Being kind and forgiving towards those over whom we have some power is a noble pursuit. Note
Shakespeare’s clever use of ‘strained’ here: mercy is ‘not strained’ in that it is doesn’t need to be forced,
but nor is it constrained (or, indeed, restrained) in most of us. It is as natural as rainfall – which, of course,
falls from ‘heaven’, where God resides.
There is something noble about being merciful, because you treat those ‘beneath’ you – those over whom
you have power – kindly when you could easily do others. Mercy is ‘twice blessed’ because the person
you are merciful towards is thankful for your mercy, but the one bestowing the mercy is ‘blessed’ too –
by God.
It’s also true that we often feel better about ourselves if we are kind towards others and show them mercy.
At the same time, of course, there is something ironic in Portia’s rhetorical recourse to Shylock’s innate
sense of mercy. If mercy is such a natural quality within us, why does he need to be reminded of it? If it is
‘not strained’ but freely given, why is the court case happening at all?
The answer, of course, is that Portia is cleverly – and rhetorically – hinting to Shylock that mercy is a
natural human impulse which mirrors God’s mercy towards us. So if he refuses to act mercifully towards
his debtor, Antonio, then Shylock is not only suggesting he is unnatural or abnormal, but also not
following God’s example.
’Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The thronèd monarch better than his crown.
When the most powerful people in society – such as kings and queens – show mercy, it is even more
significant, because it would be so easy for a monarch not to show mercy towards their subjects. But
again, Portia cleverly suggests to Shylock that mercy in a monarch is a natural and becoming quality,
suiting them even more than the crown upon their head.
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway.
Similarly, a king’s sceptre – the ornamental staff which he carries with him on ceremonial occasions –
may symbolise his power here on earth (‘temporal power’ as distinct from spiritual or divine power), and
this makes people ‘dread’ and go in ‘awe’ of their king; but mercy is an even higher and nobler attribute
than power.

5. AHaller
It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings;
It is an attribute to God Himself;
Continuing the throne-king motif, Portia argues that God, too, shows the power of mercy. He is willing to
forgive us for our sins, so he is merciful towards us.
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this:
When justice is ‘seasoned’ or accompanied by mercy here on Earth, we are most like God in our ability to
be just but also merciful. Shylock has claimed that he wants ‘justice’ – his pound of Antonio’s flesh – but
where is the evidence of his mercy?
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation. We do pray for mercy,
If this ‘course of justice’ – i.e. justice without mercy – is followed, then nobody involved in the verdict
deserves to be given God’s salvation, because they are failing to follow his (merciful) example.
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea,
Which, if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence ’gainst the merchant there.
Portia reminds Shylock, a Jew, that Christians (‘We’) pray to God for mercy, and through doing so,
Christians realise the importance of practising mercy towards others in their own lives.
She (as Balthazar) sums up her speech by saying that she has tried to temper Shylock’s requested ‘justice’
(he wants that pound of flesh!) with mercy, but if he insists on justice (without mercy) the ‘strict court’ of
the city state of Venice will have to find in Shylock’s favour and condemn Antonio, the merchant of
Venice, to give up his pound of flesh in order to fulfil Shylock’s wishes.
Of course, giving up a pound of his flesh would involve Antonio’s almost certain death. Shylock doesn’t
care, and Portia’s plea that he show ‘the quality of mercy’ falls on deaf ears.
In the end, she manages to defend Antonio from Shylock’s knife by bringing up a legal technicality:
although Antonio agreed to pay up a pound of his flesh if he defaulted on his debt, the bond said nothing
about his giving Shylock his blood, and Shylock would be unable to remove the merchant’s flesh without
drawing blood.