Merchant of Venice: Literary Devices and Techniques: Act I
Device
SIMILE
Quotation
Your mind…were the pageants of the
sea...(1.1.8-11)
ALLUSION
Now by two headed Janus,/Nature nath
fram’d strange fellows in her time (1.1.5051)
SIMILE
Why should a man whose blood is warm
within/Sit like his gandsire cut in
alabaster? (1.1.83-84)
His[Gratiano] reasons are as two grains
wheat hid in two bushels of chaff: you
shall seek all day ere you find them, and
when you have them they are not worth
the search. (1.1.115-118)
…but my chief care/Is to come fairly off
from the great debts/Wherein my time,
something too prodigal,/Hath left me
gag’d. (1.1.127-130)
I owe you much, and like a willful
youth/That which I owe is lost…And out of
doubt you do me now more wrong/In
making question of my uttermost.
(1.1.144-156)
…such a hare is madness of the youth, to
skip o’er the meshes of good counsel the
cripple. (1.2.18-20)
It is no mean happiness, therefore, to be
seated in the mean-…(1.2.7-8)
I fear he will prove the weeping
philosopher when he grows old, being so
full of unmannerly sadness in his youth.
(1.2.46-48)
SIMILE
ALLUSION
SIMILE
ANALOGY
METAPHOR
PUN
ALLUSION
Explanation and Significance
Device
SIMILE
ALLUSION
SIMILE
ALLUSION
SIMILE
Quotation
…like a golden fleece,/Which makes her
seat of Belmont Colchos’ strand,/And
many Jasons come in quest of her.
(1.1.170-172)
If I live to be as old as Sibylla, I will die as
chaste as Diana unless I be obtained by
the manner of my father’s will. (1.2.98100)
How like a fawning publican he looks!
(1.3.36)
ALLUSION
When Jacob graz’d his uncle Laban’s
sheep-This Jacob from our holy Abram
was…(66-83)
METAPHOR
PERSONIFICATION
SIMILE
This devil can cite Scripture for his
purpose./ An evil soul producing holy
witness /Is like a villain with a smiling
cheek…(1.3.93-95)
Why look you how you storm!/I would be
friends with you, and have your
love,/Forget the shames that you have
stain’d me with,/Supply your present
wants, and take no doit/Of usance for my
monies, and you’ll not hear me. This is
kind I offer. (1.3.133-138)
Hie thee gentle Jew. (1.3.173)
METAPHOR
PUN
Explanation and Significance
Merchant of Venice: Literary Devices and Techniques: Act II
Device
ALLUSION
Quotation
Bring me the fairest creature northward born,/Where
Phoebus’ fire scarce thaws the icicles…(2.1.4-5)
ALLUSION
If Hercules and Lichas play at dice/Which is the better
man, the greater throw/May turn by fortune from the
weaker hand. (2.1.32-34)
…for the young gentleman, according to fates and
destines, and such odd sayings, the sisters three, and
such branches of learning, is indeed deceased, or as you
would say in plain terms, gone to heaven. (2.1.57-60)
Father, in. I cannot get a service, no, I have ne’er a tongue
in my head…Father, come, I’ll take my leave of the Jew in
the twinkling. (2.2.145-56)
ALLUSION,
DRAMATIC
IRONY
IRONY,
ALLUSION
METAPHOR
I am sorry thou wilt leave my father so./Our house is hell…
(2.2.1-2)
PUN
I know the hand; in faith, ‘tis a fair hand,/And whiter than
the paper it writ on/Is the fair hand that writ. (2.4.12-14)
By Jacob’s staff I swear/I have no mind of feasting forth
tonight: But I will go.(2.5.35-37)
ALLUSION
ALLUSION
What says that fool of Hagar’s offspring, ha? (2.5.1)
METAPHOR
…he sleeps by day/More than the wildcat. Drones hive not
with me,/Therefore I part with him, and part with him/To
one that I would have him to help to waste/His borrow’d
purse. (2.5.45-49)
O, ten times faster, Venus’ pigeon fly/To seal bonds new
made than they are wont/To keep obliged faith unforfeited.
(2.66-8)
ALLUSION,
HYPERBOLE
Explanation and Significance
Device
SIMILE
ALLUSION
Quotation
Explanation and Siginificance
How like a younger or a prodigal/The scarf’d bark puts from
her native bay,/Hugg’d and embraced by the strumpet
wind?/How like the prodigal doth she return/With
overweather’d ribs and ragged sails,…(2.6.15-19)
For if they could, Cupid himself would blush/To see me
thus transformed to a boy. (2.6.39-40)
SIMILE
This third dull lead, with warning all as blunt… (2.7.8)
METAPHOR
Never so rich a gem/Was set in worse than gold. (2.7.5455)
SIMILE
But like the martlet/Builds in the weather on the outward
wall,/Even in the force and road of casualty./I will not
choose what many men desire,/Because I will not jump
with common spirits...(2.9.27-31)
Merchant of Venice: Literary Devices and Techniques: Act III
Device
SIMILE
METAPHOR
Quotation
I would she were as lying a gossip that as ever knapped
ginger or made her neighbours believe she wept for the
death of a third husband. (3.1.8-10)
And Shylock for his own part knew the bird was fledged,a
nd then it is the complexion of them all to leave the dam.
(3.1.26-28)
METAPHOR
Let me choose,/For as I am, I live upon the rack. (3.2.2425)
METAPHOR
Then if he lose he makes a swan-like end,/Fading in
music
ALLUSION
Than young Alcides when he did redeem/The virgin
tribute paid by howling Troy/To the sea monster, I stand
for sacrifice. (3.2.55-57)
METAPHOR
But, being season’d with a gracious voice,/Obscures the
show of evil? (3.2.76-77)
ALLUSION
The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars,/Who inward
search’d have livers white as milk,/And these assume but
valour’s excrement/To render them redoubted. (3.2.8588)
ALLUSION
Therefore thou gaudy gold,/Hard food for Midas, I will
none of thee. (3.2.102-103)
Meaning And Significance
Device/Technique
SIMILE
Quotation
I come by note to give, and to receive. Like one of two
contending in a prize/That thinks he hath done well in
people’s eyes…(3.2.140-145)
PERSONIFICATION Only my blood speaks to you in my veins…(3.2.176)
SIMILE
Here is a letter, lady,/The paper as the body of my
PERSONIFICATION friend,/And every word in it a gaping wound/Issuing
ANALOGY
lifeblood. (3.2.261-263)
SIMILE
…with a reed voice, and turn two mincing steps/Into a
manly stride; and speak of ‘frays—Like a fine bragging
youth…(3.5.67-69)
Explanation and Significance
Merchant of Venice: Literary Devices and Techniques: Act IV
Device
ALLITERATION
METAPHOR
Quotation
And pluck commiseration of his state/ From brassy
bosoms and rough hearts of flint,/ From stubborn Turks,
and Tartars never train’d to offices of tender courtesy.
(4.1.30-33)
METAPHOR
What, wouldst thou have a serpent sting thee twice?
(4.1.69)
HYPERBOLE
You may as well go stand upon the beach / And bid the
main flood bate his usual height; …You may as well do
anything most hard/ As seek to soften…/ His Jewish
heart. (4.171-79)
PUN
Not on thy sole, but on thy soul, harsh Jew,…Can no
prayers pierce thee? (4.1.123-126)
METAPHOR
ALLUSION
O be thou damn’d, inexorable dog, / And for they life let
justice be accus’d…Into trunks of men. (4.1.128-133)
Meaning And Significance
Device/Technique Quotation
SIMILE
The quality of mercy is not strain’d…The throned
monarch better than his crown. (4.1.182-188)
ALLUSION
A Daniel come to judgement; yea a Daniel!/O wise young
judge, how I do honour thee! (4.1.221-222)
ALLUSION
For herein Fortune shows herself more kind/ Than is her
custom:…/from which ling’ring penance/ Of such misery
doth she cut me off. (4.1.165-270)
DRAMATIC
IRONY
Antonio, I am married to a wife/…Here to this devil, to
deliver you. (4.1.280-285)
DRAMATIC
IRONY
I have a wife who I protest I love;/ I would she were in
heaven, so she could/ Entreat some power to change this
currish Jew. (4.1.288-290)
DRAMATIC
IRONY
I pray you know me when we meet again. (4.1.417)
DRAMATIC
IRONY
There’s more depends on this than on the value./The
dearest ring in Venice will I give you,/ And find it out by
proclamation. /Only for this I pray you pardon me.
(4.1.432-435)
Explanation and Significance
Merchant of Venice: Literary Devices and Techniques: Act V
Device
Quotation
ALLUSION
The moon shines bright. In such a night as this,/
PERSONIFICATION When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees, / And
they did make no noise in such a night/ Toilus
methinks mounted the Troyan walls/ And sigh’d his
soul toward the Grecian tents/ Where Cressid lay
that night. (5.1.3-6)
PERSONIFICATION How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!/
Here we will sit, and let the sounds of music / Creep
in our ears; soft stillness and the night? Become the
touches of sweet harmony. (5.1.54-57)
PUN
Let me give light, but let me not be light, /For a light
wife doth make a heavy husband, / And never be
Bassanio so for me-/ But God sort all! (5.1.129-132)
DRAMATIC IRONY
Now by this hand, I gave it to a youth,/ A kind of
boy, a little scrubbed boy/ No higher than thyself,
the judge’s clerk, A prating boy that begg’d it as a
fee;/ I could not for my heart deny it him. (5.1.161165)
DRAMATIC IRONY
I gave my love a ring, and made him swear/ Never
to part with it, and here he stands. (5.1.170-171)
DRAMATIC IRONY
If you did know whom I have the ring,/If you did
know for whom I gave the ring,/ And would conceive
for what I have the ring..You would abate the
strength of your displeasure. (5.1.193-198)
Meaning And Significance
DRAMATIC IRONY
Let not that doctor e’er come near my house./… I
will become as liberal as you;/ I’ll not deny him
anything I have,/ No, not my body, not my
husband’s bed:/ Know him I shall I am well sure of
it. (5.1.223-229)
DRAMATIC IRONY
I had it of him; pardon me, Bassanio,/ For by this
ring the doctor lay with me./…For that same
scrubbed biy the doctor’s clerk,/ In lieu of this did lie
with me. (5.1.257-262)
SIMILE
Why , this is like the mending of highways/ In
summer where the ways are fair enough! (5.1.263264)
METAPHOR
Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way / Of starved
people
(5.1.294-295)
PUN
Well, while I live I’ll fear no other thing/ So sore as
keeping safe Nerissa’s ring. (5.1.306-307)