Questions and Answers

Frank

Make analysisof the “quality of mercy” speech by Portis in The Merchant of Venice, andtry to explain why it is regarded as the

most famous speech in the play.

In the court scene Shylock has emphasized the justice and legality to his claim to Antonio's flesh. Now, Portia insists that mercy is a higher good than justice, for it ennobles the giver and the receiver. SHe puts forward a familiar Elizabethan argument on justice veraus mercy, if God himself insisted on strict justice, no one would be forgiven for their sins andd thus be able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. But as God shows mercy to mankind, man can therefore be redeemed. What is most admirable in a king is not his power but the humanity with which he exercises this power. This speech of Portia is undoubtedly the most famous in the play and justly so, for in lyrical verse that is beautiful in itself it clearly states the moral and implies the doctorinal themes of the play: that courtesy teaches the heart to be gentle, that the gentle heart secures salvation, that the stern justice of the Old law must give way to the mercy of the new.

caiyun

哇，这题也会考啊，完全不知道。周末继续看书。