Merchant of Venice Workbook Answers Act 3, Scene 1 – ICSE Class 9 & 10 English

Read the above passage and answer the following questions

Question 1.
Where are Salarino and Shylock? Is there anyone else there?
Answer:
The scene is set in Venice. Salanio, Salarino and Shylock are engaged in conversation.

Question 2.
Who used this phrase ‘flesh and blood’? Was it misunderstood by anyone?
Answer:
Shylock used this phrase to describe his daughter, Jessica. He was sorry to say that his own flesh and blood rebelled. He was thus referring to Jessica’s elopement. It is unbearable for Shylock that his own daughter should run away with a Christian and show her disregard for her father.
This remark was misunderstood or deliberately misinterpreted. Shylock uses the phrase flesh and blood in the usual sense, that Jessica is his natural daughter. He refers to the biological relationship between father and child. But Salanio/Salarino make fun of him, asking him if his physical desires are roused even in hid old age.

Question 3.
Explain the comparisons made by Salarino between

(a) Jet and ivory,
(b) Red wine and rhenish

Answer:
Salarino is quick to point out that there is hardly any similarity between Shylock and his daughter Jessica.

(a) If Jessica is ivory which is white and beautiful, Shylock is jet black and unattractive.
(b) Jessica is rehnish (white wine) while Shylock is red wine. There can be no confusion between the two.

Question 4.
In what sense is Antonio a prodigal? Is he a bankrupt? Explain Shylock’s views. Give your comments.
Answer:
When Salarino talks about Antonio’s losses, Shylock speaks impatiently. He had given a loan of three thousand ducats against this man’s security. Shylock calls Antonio a bankrupt who has no money to spend. All he had has been lost.
The Shylock charges Antonio for being a prodigal. He has wasted his money thoughtlessly. According to Shylock, Antonio has ruined himself by taking a loan for his extravagant friend. This is a culpable prodigality. We may not, however, agree with Shylock in blaming a self- sacrificing gentleman like Antonio.

Question 5.
Why is Antonio not seen at the Rialto?
Answer:
Now that Antonio is a bankrupt, with many debts and loans yet to be cleared, he does not come to Rialto, the stock exchange. This remark of Shylock shows that of late Antonio had stopped visiting Rialto where merchants generally gather to do business.

Question 6.
Shylock gives the warning, “let him look to his bond”. What are his reasons?
Answer:
Shylock gives the warning to be conveyed to Antonio to take care of his bond. He must repay the money within the prescribed limit of time. Shylock complains that Antonio used to call him a despicable money-lender charging high interest. He also used to lend money to people without interest to show his Christian generosity.

Question 7.
What substance is meant to bait fish?
Answer:
Flesh is meant to bait fish.

Question 8.
Who is responsible for harming Shylock?
Answer:
Antonio is the man who is responsible for this.

Question 9.
Point out in what all ways the Christians and Jews are alike?
Answer:
Christians and Jews are alike in whishes, desires, feelings and emotions. The Jews have hands, organs, limbs and senses like the Christians. They eat the same type of food : they are wounded with the same weapons laible to suffer from the same diseases and cured By the same medicines. They feel heat and cold like to Christians.

Question 10.
How does’ a Christian behave when he is insulted by a Jew?
Answer:
A Christian takes revenge.

Question 11.
How will Shylock match the villainy of the Christians.
Answer:
He will also practise villainy. He would try his best to improve upon the lesson he has been taught by the Christians. Shylock believes in a policy of tit-for-tat.

Question 12.
About whom are SALARINO and Shylock talking?
Answer:
SALARINO and Shylock are talking about Antonio.

Question 13.
Is Shylock justified in his complaint?
Answer:
Shylock certainly seems to be justified in his complaint against Antonio. Judging the case by Shylock’s version of the facts, Antonio has always been most unjust to him. According to Shylock’s account, Antonio has been insulting and humiliating Shylock, and also been ridiculing and mocking at him. Antonio has, furthermore, been hindering Shylock’s transactions and been instigating Shylock’s enemies against him.

Question 14.
Explain the last sentence in Shylock’s speech.
Answer:
Shylock says that the Christians have been treating the Jews in a most wicked and cruel manner, and that now he too would follow the example of the Christians and would treat the Christian Antonio in the same cruel manner. Nay, Shylock would treat the Christian Antonio in a more cruel manner than the Christians have been treating the Jews.

Question 15.
Does Shylock really “better the instruction”?
Answer:
Shylock certainly tries to better the instruction. He certainly tries to cause the death of Antonio who is a Christian, while the Christian Antonio had limited his cruelty towards the Jew only to the extent of disgracing him and ridiculing him, thwarting his bargains, and otherwise harassing him. However, Shylock does not succeed in his purpose. He exerts himself to the utmost and comes very close to achieving his object but at the last moment he is deprived of the opportunity which had-come his way.

Question 16.
Why has this speech by Shylock become famous?
Answer:
This speech by Shylock has become famous because it contains a factual account of how the Christians of the time were treating the Jews, and because this kind of inter-racial prejudice and hostility exist even today between certain communities and between certain religions, though the antagonism between the Jews and the Christians does not exist and longer. In fact, this speech is a classic account of the persecution which the Jews have been suffering for centuries at the hands of the Christians. We have here a succinct account of the injustice which the followers of one religion have been suffering at the hands of the fanatical followers of another religion. The wording of the account and the logical reasoning behind the account are really superb. And the speech is an excellent example of rhetoric and oratory.

Question 17.
What is Shylock’s predicament as reflected in this passage?
Answer:
Shylock is in a sad state because of the loss of his money and his jewels. Of course, he is feeling grieved also on account of the disgrace which his daughter has brought on him by running away from home, and more particularly by running away with a Christian.

Question 18.
In what light do you see Shylock on this occasion?
Answer:
Shylock here appears to be a pathetic figure. Any father would experience similar feelings of grief and degradation at the gross misconduct of this kind on the part of his daughter. Shylock’s grief is natural. But he also appears here in a comic light. The manner in which he laments his loss has a touch of absurdity. In fact, he is more grieved by the loss of his ducats and his jewels than by the loss of his daughter and by a sense of disgrace. He appears as a comic figure also because he is magnifying his personal loss by giving it the dimensions of a national loss. “The curse never fell upon our nation till now”, he says.

Question 19.
Why does Shylock want his daughter dead at his foot and the jewels in her ear?
Answer:
Shylock wants his daughter dead at his foot because his daughter has not only brought him , disgrace and dis honour by running away from home but has also caused him a heavy financial loss by stealing his money and his jewels. He would not mind his daughter’s having the jewels in her ears if he can have the satisfaction of seeing his daughter dead before him. Death would be the only adequate punishment for her misconduct. He would feel tortured if his daughter remains alive and goes about in Genoa, flaunting the jewels which she had stolen from him. If she lies dead before him with the jewels in her ear, he can gloat over the sight. Death is the minimum punishment that the thinks his daughter should receive and he would then not mind the loss of his jewels. Actually these would be the feelings of any father in Shylock’s situation.

Question 20.
What consolation does Tubal offer to Shylock?
Answer:
Tubal tells Shylock that he (Shylock) is not the only man who has suffered bad luck, and that there are other men also in this world who become victims of bad luck. He then mentions the case of Antonio. It is a well-known fact that we feel our own losses much less when we learn that other people have also suffered losses. And our grief over our losses is further diminished if we are told that our enemies have suffered heavy losses. On being told that Antonio has lost his ships on the seas, Shylock feels greatly consoled in his distress.

Question 21.
Does Shylock get any satisfaction or revenge afterwards?
Answer:
Shylock does get some satisfaction afterwards though this satisfaction proves to be short-lived. He comes very close to getting his revenge “upon Antonio when the judge tells him that he is entitled to a pound of Antonio’s flesh. Shylock feels exultant and jubilant at this time, and he had even begun to sharpen his knife. But then the judge tells him that, in the process of cutting the flesh, he must not shed any blood because no blood has been mentioned in the bond. Thus Shylock is unable to get any real satisfaction because he is deprived of the opportunity to take his revenge upon his enemy.

Question 22.
Who showed Tubal a ring? What did he tell him about this ring? How does it concern Shylock?
Answer:
Some of the creditors of Antonio who came with Tubal to Venice, told him something about Shylock’s daughter. One of them showed him a ring that he got from Jessica in exchange for a monkey. This ring had been stolen by Jessica from her father’s house.

Question 23.
Why is Shylock touched to the quick? Why was this painful and angry reaction on hearing the news about the ring?
Answer:
It is a piece of painful news for Shylock that his daughter not only stole away the ring from his house, but gave it up in exchange for a monkey.
Shylock reacts sharply to the news because the ring had a turquoise studded in it. It was particularly dear to Shylock because it had been given do him by his wife when he was still courting her. He is touched to the quick to hear that his daughter has given up so heartlessly her father’s bridal present from his late, much lamented wife.

Question 24.
Why does Tubal say that Antonio is undone? What makes Tubal say with certainty that Antonio is undone?
Answer:
Tubal tells Shylock that Antonio has been ruined. He says so on the authority of Antonio’s creditors who travelled with him to Venice. They are supposed to posses authentic information about the financial status of the merchant whom they had given loans.

Question 25.
What was Shylock reaction on hearing of Antonio’s misfortunes? Why is he anxious to get Antonio out of Venice?
Answer:
Shylock is happy to hear that Antonio has been ruined. It is a source of great consolation to this man who considers Antonio his enemy. Shylock is anxious to get Antonio out of Venice. In his absence he can do good business in lending money to people charging high rates of interest. So long Antonio is in the city, he will advance loans that are interest-free. This harms Shylock’s money-lending business.

Question 26.
Why, Shylock plans to go to a Synagogue? Give your opinion.
Answer:
Shylock is going to his Synagogue. He asks Tubal to meet him there. His purpose, perhaps, is to present his case before other Jews and win their sympathy and support for his cause.

Question 27.
Explain, “fee me an office ; be speak him a fortnight before.”
Answer:
Shylock instructs Tubal to engage an officer even a fortnight before the expiry of the bond. He should be ready to get Antonio arrested on the forfeiture of the bond. Shylock is certain that Antonio will not be able to repay three thousand ducats loaned to Bassanio against Antonio’s security.