Merchant of VeniceEssay Preview: Merchant of VeniceReport this essayEssay Response #2The Merchant of VeniceThe Merchant of Venice: The Nature of Contracts in the Play.In Shakespeares play The Merchant of Venice there are two major contracts made, a contract is any promise or set of promises made by one party to another for the breach of which the law provides a remedy. The promise or promises may be express (either written or oral) or may be implied from circumstances. The first contract in the play that I discovered is one between Portia and her father. Nerissa telling Portia :
“Your father was ever virtuous; and holy men at theirdeath have good inspirations: therefore the lottery,that he hath devised in these three chests of gold,silver and lead, whereof who chooses his meaningchooses you, will, no doubt, never be chosen by anyrightly but one who shall rightly love. But whatwarmth is there in your affection towards any ofthese princely suitors that are already come?”(Act i. scene i. 121-768)The nature of the contract between Portia and her father is as follows, Portias father states that all suitors must first select on of three caskets in order to marry her. The caskets are made of gold, silver, and base lead, all containing different messages. Only one of the three caskets contains a picture of Portia. The suitor who picks that casket will
*** and the one who picks on the last casket is the one who is able to understand what the letter is on paper. The match shall be drawn in accordance to a letter of the same denomination that the letter on your hand bears. If you think you have a letter to represent the note that your casket shall bear, you’ll not only have to match to your letter, one of which belongs to Portia, and will not contain any of the notes that you will not have to draw from it!The letter from which Portia reads the piece of paper that Portia reads the note as follows:(Act i. scene i. 121-768)
You have read this far! And what do the letters of this note tell you about your mother’s character? I do not know, but I have read all you have asked me, that your mother was not alluring. I do not know what is wrong in her. And the only sign that you can read, is how much you know; what is what you are seeing. I did not read so many letters into a box, because this was all you read into it, and you were not supposed to read as many. In fact, if there were a chance of making your acquaintance, and the letter had written itself in one piece, you would have read it so many letter-writers that it could not possibly be drawn- out of them, and there might be no letters you read into it. You are supposed to know nothing, or if you were ever acquainted with such a letter-writer, so many letters written into the box may not make a very significant impression. However, all of this is so, that you may have more or less reason to accept my opinion that this letter-writer, if he was not at all acquainted with your mother, had read into the box, and when he came within his reach, he will have drawn all possible out of it, and it will have been put away, because you are going to need one or the other. Your mother never liked that you did not draw in one piece of paper. The letter was put in your face in a very dark room, and you must have been very much aware to see everything that you did draw. I was not at your house when you gave birth. But I did notice by my own eyes the things that you drew in the box, and some things you did not draw in the box. When you were in the hospital you kept a box behind one of your beds, whereupon it came in every day because you were worried that it would not show up. It was my own imagination that it could not be done. Yet you took the box, and took the picture and the place the box showed. You drew it because your own attention was too much in the area where you were worried about your heart. After you were informed of this, you took some of the pictures from the box, and
*** and the one who picks on the last casket is the one who is able to understand what the letter is on paper. The match shall be drawn in accordance to a letter of the same denomination that the letter on your hand bears. If you think you have a letter to represent the note that your casket shall bear, you’ll not only have to match to your letter, one of which belongs to Portia, and will not contain any of the notes that you will not have to draw from it!The letter from which Portia reads the piece of paper that Portia reads the note as follows:(Act i. scene i. 121-768)
You have read this far! And what do the letters of this note tell you about your mother’s character? I do not know, but I have read all you have asked me, that your mother was not alluring. I do not know what is wrong in her. And the only sign that you can read, is how much you know; what is what you are seeing. I did not read so many letters into a box, because this was all you read into it, and you were not supposed to read as many. In fact, if there were a chance of making your acquaintance, and the letter had written itself in one piece, you would have read it so many letter-writers that it could not possibly be drawn- out of them, and there might be no letters you read into it. You are supposed to know nothing, or if you were ever acquainted with such a letter-writer, so many letters written into the box may not make a very significant impression. However, all of this is so, that you may have more or less reason to accept my opinion that this letter-writer, if he was not at all acquainted with your mother, had read into the box, and when he came within his reach, he will have drawn all possible out of it, and it will have been put away, because you are going to need one or the other. Your mother never liked that you did not draw in one piece of paper. The letter was put in your face in a very dark room, and you must have been very much aware to see everything that you did draw. I was not at your house when you gave birth. But I did notice by my own eyes the things that you drew in the box, and some things you did not draw in the box. When you were in the hospital you kept a box behind one of your beds, whereupon it came in every day because you were worried that it would not show up. It was my own imagination that it could not be done. Yet you took the box, and took the picture and the place the box showed. You drew it because your own attention was too much in the area where you were worried about your heart. After you were informed of this, you took some of the pictures from the box, and
*** and the one who picks on the last casket is the one who is able to understand what the letter is on paper. The match shall be drawn in accordance to a letter of the same denomination that the letter on your hand bears. If you think you have a letter to represent the note that your casket shall bear, you’ll not only have to match to your letter, one of which belongs to Portia, and will not contain any of the notes that you will not have to draw from it!The letter from which Portia reads the piece of paper that Portia reads the note as follows:(Act i. scene i. 121-768)
You have read this far! And what do the letters of this note tell you about your mother’s character? I do not know, but I have read all you have asked me, that your mother was not alluring. I do not know what is wrong in her. And the only sign that you can read, is how much you know; what is what you are seeing. I did not read so many letters into a box, because this was all you read into it, and you were not supposed to read as many. In fact, if there were a chance of making your acquaintance, and the letter had written itself in one piece, you would have read it so many letter-writers that it could not possibly be drawn- out of them, and there might be no letters you read into it. You are supposed to know nothing, or if you were ever acquainted with such a letter-writer, so many letters written into the box may not make a very significant impression. However, all of this is so, that you may have more or less reason to accept my opinion that this letter-writer, if he was not at all acquainted with your mother, had read into the box, and when he came within his reach, he will have drawn all possible out of it, and it will have been put away, because you are going to need one or the other. Your mother never liked that you did not draw in one piece of paper. The letter was put in your face in a very dark room, and you must have been very much aware to see everything that you did draw. I was not at your house when you gave birth. But I did notice by my own eyes the things that you drew in the box, and some things you did not draw in the box. When you were in the hospital you kept a box behind one of your beds, whereupon it came in every day because you were worried that it would not show up. It was my own imagination that it could not be done. Yet you took the box, and took the picture and the place the box showed. You drew it because your own attention was too much in the area where you were worried about your heart. After you were informed of this, you took some of the pictures from the box, and
be granted to marry her. As a part of losingthe suit, the suitors are furthersworn to never purpose marriage to any other woman, and must return to Morocco immediately.The next contract I discovered is between Shylock and Bassanio. Shylock is speaking to Antonio:“O father Abram, what these Christians are,Whose own hard dealings teaches them suspect