SCENE 3
Question 1.
What does Portia say of her past actions?
Answer:
Portia says that she has never repented of doing a good action in the past.
Question 2.
What is her opinion about those friends who spend their time together?
Answer:
Portia thinks that such friends must have similar characterstics of conduct, manner and temperament.
Question 3.
Why does not Portia want to continue the talk about the resemblance between Bassanio and Antonio any more?
Answer:
Portia feels that this kind of talk amounts to self-praise. So she does not want to continue it.
Question 4.
What does she want to do until the return of Gratiano and Bassanio?
Answer:
Portia and Nerissa have pledged to live alone until the return of their husbands. They will spend their time in prayer.
Question 5.
Where will Nerissa and Portia live in the meantime?
Answer:
They will stay in a monastery.
Question 1.
What sort of habit will they have?
Answer:
They will wear male dress. But being women, they will not have manly qualities.
Question 2.
How will Portia try to look more manly?
Answer:
Portia will wear her dagger in a more suitable and dashing manner. She will speak in a sharp voice suiting a lad who is growing from boyhood into manhood. She will take one long step like a man instead of two short steps like a woman.
Question 3.
What kind of lies will Portia tell?
Answer:
She will tell skilful lies. She will tell people how respectable ladies who thought him to be a youngman wanted to fall in love with her but She (now he) rejected their advances.
Question 4.
What other tricks does Portia intend practicing?
Answer:
Portia will practise a thousand crude tricks.
Question 5.
What do you understand by “Raw tricks of bragging Jacks?”
Answer:
They are boyish tricks practised by boastful boys.
Extra Questions
Question 1.
To whom are these words spoken? When? Who else is with the characters? Where are they?
Answer:
These words are being spoken to Antonio, when he requests Shylock to listen to him. Solanio and the jailor are with them. They are in a street in Venice.
Question 2.
In what state of mind is Shylock, now? What has he accused the jailer of, a little while earlier?
Answer:
Shylock is excited and very keen to take his revenge against Antonio. He keeps on repeating, ‘I’ll have the bond’. He has accused the jailor of showing partiality towards Antonio by allowing him to come out of the jail.
Question 3.
Explain ‘I’ll not be made a soft and dull-eyed fool, to shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield to Christian intercessors’. Earlier he tells the listener to be beware of his fangs. Why?
Answer:
The line means that Shylock will not become a soft and stupid fool to shake his head and relent to forgive Christian pleaders. Earlier he says that Antonio had called him a dog and now he must suffer the dog’s bite.
Question 4.
Why and when does the listener say, ‘Let him alone’?
Answer:
When Solanio comments that the Jew is the most heartless dog, Antonio says that there is no use pleading in front of the blood-thirsty Shylock.
Question 5.
Why is Shylock after his life, according to the speaker?
Answer:
According to .Antonio, Shylock is after his life as he had rescued many people from the Jew’s clutches by helping with his money.So Shylock has been deprived of his forfeiture many a time: therefore, the Jew hates him and he is after his life to take revenge.
Question 6.
Why can’t the Duke save the speaker?
Answer:
The Duke can’t save the speaker, as he has to abide by the strict laws of Venice. If he goes against justice, Venice will lose its credibility among foreign traders and this will affect its trade and prosperity.
Question 7.
How does the scene end? Bring out the significance of the scene.
Answer:
The scene ends on a sad note with Antonio losing all hope for his life. His last wish is to meet Bassanio, his best friend. This is the preparation for the trial scene that follows. The audience is prepared for Antonio’s tragedy. This also gives a time gap for Bassanio to reach. The scene emphasizes the theme of friendship in which Antonio without any complaint submits to his fate.
SCENE 4
Question 1.
Who are referred to as ‘bragging jacks’? In what favourable condition will the speaker be to practise tricks” on these bragging Jacks?
Answer:
Portia refers to those boastful young men who often talk of their imaginary adventures in love and war. They are referred to as ‘bragging Jacks’.
Portia will be disguised as a young man. So will be her maid Nerissa. But Portia is confident that she will look smarter. She will be able to play the role of those bragging Jacks with perfection.
Question 2.
Briefly state any three of the Portia’s tricks referred to just before this extract.
Answer:
Portia will wear her dagger in a gallant way. She will speak in a voice that is between a young boy’s and a man’s, which will be a shrill voice. She will tell strange lies about how honourable ladies tried to win his (being dressed as young man) love, but fell sick and died when he refused to reciprocate.
This description of how Portia will behave disguised as a young man, besides revealing her own ingenuity and wit, gives a satirical picture of the typical young gentleman of the period, who was fond of duelling, boasting, of love and leading a fashionable, roving life.
Question 3.
What has Portia told Lorenzo about her plans before her departure?
Answer:
Portia discloses her plan to leave her house along with Nerissa. She has taken a vow to pass her time in prayer and meditation until the return of her husband. Nerissa will be with her, waiting in the same manner for her husband. There is a monastery two miles away, and they will stay there.
Portia hands over the charge of her house and servants to Lorenzo and Jessica. In her absence, they will manage the house. The servants too have been given all instructions, and they will treat Lorenzo and Jessica as master and mistress of the house respectively.
Question 4.
Where does Portia really plan to go? What was the purpose of her mission?
Answer:
Portia is actually planning to go to Venice to try to save Antonio’s life. Her mission is to seek advice from Dr. Bellario of Padua who Is an authority on the Venetian law. Then she will appear jn the Duke’s court when Antonio’s comes for trial.
Question 5.
Why has she to “haste away”? What does this extract tell us about Portia’s character?
Answer:
Portia has a very urgent reason to haste away to Venice Antonio’s case is coming for hearing in the court. She wants to be there to defend the good merchant before it is too late. She has no time to lose.
Portia is quick in taking decisions and she has a perfect clarity of vision. She knows that she herself cannot go to Padua to get her cousin, Dr. Bellario’s legal advice. So she deputes her very dependable servant, Balthazar, to rush to Padua with her, letter. After getting some notes and garments (Lawyer’s robes), Balthazar is a meet her at the ferry which plies to and from Venice. From there she will proceed to Venice.
Extra questions :
Question 1.
To whom is Portia replying in this manner? What has that person just said to Portia?
Answer:
Portia is talking to Lorenzo in this manner. Lorenzo has just praised Portia’s decision to send Bassanio to Antonio. He says she has a good understanding of spiritual friendship. That is why she willingly bears the absence of her husband; but if she knew the person whom she has shown this kindness and honor, how good a man and a good friend of her husband, she’ll feel proud of her action. In fact, this action is more valuable than her other generous actions so far.
Question 2.
Explain the meaning of ‘companions that do converse and waste the time together’. What is meant by ‘equal yokes of love’ and ‘lineaments’?
Answer:
‘Companions that do converse and waste the time together’ means friends who spend time talking to each other. ‘Equal yokes of love’ means bound to each other like a pair of oxen and ‘lineaments’ mean characteristics.
Question 3.
What makes Portia come to the conclusion that Antonio and Bassanio are similar?
Answer:
Portia feels when two friends spend their time together and interact with each other, bearing equal respect and love for each other in their souls, there is bound to be some similarity in face, manners and disposition.
Question 4.
What does Portia tell Lorenzo about her plans in the next few days, till Bassanio returns?
Answer:
Portia tells Lorenzo that she has made a solemn vow to live in prayer and meditation, with no other attendant but Nerissa, till their husbands return. They are going to live in a monastery two miles away.
Question 1.
Who is Portia talking to? What had they wished her?
Answer:
Portia is talking to Lorenzo and Jessica. Lorenzo wished Portia pleasant thoughts and happy hours. Jessica wished her the fulfillment of all the desires of her heart.
Question 2.
Who is Balthazar? What is Portia’s estimation of him?
Answer:
Balthazar is Portia’s trusted servant. Portia has always found him honest and trustworthy and she is sure that he’ll continue to be so and will do the present assignment with utmost sincerity and responsibility.
Question 3.
What job has Balthazar been entrusted with?
Answer:
Portia entrusts Balthazar with the job of taking a letter to her lawyer cousin Bellario to Padua. He has to do this fast and bring the papers and dresses given by the lawyer and reach the landing place of the ferry bound for Venice.
Question 4.
Give the meaning of ‘imagined speed’ and traject’. What reply does Balthazar give to these instructions?
Answer:
‘Imagined speed’ means quickly, with the speed that imagination takes and ‘traject’ is the landing place for the ferry. Balthazar replies that he will fulfill all the instructions as fast as possible.
Question 5.
What does Portia tell Nerissa just after this?
Answer:
Portia tells Nerissa. she has work in hand which Nerissa need not know for the present. The only thing she should know now is that they will see their husbands sooner than they think.
Question 1.
To what question of Nerissa, does Portia give this reply? Who are the ’they’ mentioned? Where are ‘they’?
Answer:
When Portia tells Nerissa that they will see their husbands before they get time to think of them, Nerissa asks her whether they’ll be able to see them, before time. To this question, Portia says, they will. ‘They’ mentioned here are Bassanio and Gratiano. They have gone to Belmont.
Question 2.
Explain ‘but in such a habit that they shall think we are accomplished with what we lack’.
Answer:
Portia says that their husbands will see them in such a dress that they will think they are equipped with qualities of men which they actually lack.
Question 3.
For what does the speaker laid a bet with Nerissa? How does the speaker intend to behave to justify their disguise?
Answer:
Portia bets that being dressed as a man, she would be the smarter of the two (Portia and Nerissa). She claims that she would wear her dagger more gracefully and would speak like a man. She would convert her lady like steps into manly strides. For her to brag and lie like a youth would be easy and she would claim to have caused many women to faint at the sight of this youth. She would very easily learn a thousand tricks of these boasting fellows.
Question 4.
What lies will Portia say to make people think that he is only twelve months out of his school? What else does she have in her mind?
Answer:
Portia will tell lies like how noble ladies sought his love but being rejected fell sick and died. Then she would wish she had not done that and regret her behaviour. She has thousand raw plans in her mind, which brew in the minds of boastful school boys.
Question 5.
What question does Nerissa ask thereafter? What reply does she get?
Answer:
Nerissa is confused so she asks Portia whether they are going to dress as men? Portia pretends to think that Nerissa means ‘take men for lovers’ so she ridicules Nerissa for asking such a question. She further says that someone with a dirty mind would feel that they are ready to fall into the arms of men. She then assures Nerissa that she will disclose her entire plan to Nerissa on their way to Venice.
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