If the suitor chooses correctly, he will marry Portia. Suitors must choose either a gold casket, a silver casket, or a lead casket.
Meanwhile, at Portia’s Belmont estate, the heiress is forced to pick a husband based on an odd scheme stipulated in her deceased father’s will. Lorenzo and Jessica escape with thousands of ducats worth of jewelry and travel to Belmont, where Bassanio is headed to woo Portia.
Given that Shylock rightly perceives Antonio as his enemy, the moneylender forgoes interest on the loan and instead demands a pound of Antonio’s flesh, should the merchant be unable to repay the loan within three months.Īs Bassanio, Antonio, and Shylock negotiate the terms of the loan, Shylock’s daughter Jessica plots to rob her father, elope with Bassanio’s friend Lorenzo, and convert to Christianity. Expecting a cash infusion once his ships return from their voyages, Antonio borrows the 3,000 ducats from Shylock, a Jewish moneylender he frequently antagonizes with anti-Semitic comments. Antonio, a merchant, has all his assets tied up in ongoing shipping ventures.
With his finances in shambles, he calls on his best friend Antonio to lend him the 3,000 ducats he needs to sail to Portia’s home in Belmont and present himself as a suitor. Citations for this study guide are sourced from the Folger Shakespeare Library.īassanio is a Venetian nobleman seeking to marry a wealthy heiress named Portia.
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