{"id":26342,"date":"2024-02-23T07:01:36","date_gmt":"2024-02-23T01:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aplustopper.com\/?p=26342"},"modified":"2024-02-23T15:43:08","modified_gmt":"2024-02-23T10:13:08","slug":"merchant-of-venice-act-2-scene-9-short-summary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aplustopper.com\/merchant-of-venice-act-2-scene-9-short-summary\/","title":{"rendered":"Merchant of Venice Act 2, Scene 9 Short Summary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary of Merchant of Venice Act 2, Scene 9 ICSE Class 10, 9 English<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

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Summary Act 2 Scene 9<\/strong><\/p>\n

At Belmont, the Prince of Arragon has arrived to try his luck at choosing the correct casket, and before he decides on one, he promises Portia that he will abide by her father\u2019s rules. First, if he fails to choose the casket containing her portrait, he will never reveal which casket he chose; second, he promises never to court another woman; and last, he will leave Belmont immediately.<\/p>\n

Reviewing the inscriptions, he rejects the lead casket immediately because he thinks that it is not beautiful enough to give and risk all his possessions for. He also rejects the gold casket because \u201cwhat many men desire\u201d may place him on the same level with \u201cthe barbarous multitudes.\u201d He thus chooses the silver casket, which bears the inscription, \u201cWho chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.\u201d Arragon reviews his worth and decides that he \u201cwill assume desert\u201d \u2014 that is, he feels that he rightfully deserves Portia. When.he opens the silver casket, he finds within \u201cthe portrait of a blinking idiot\u201d \u2014 a picture of a fool\u2019s head. He protests the contents; he chose according to what he felt that he deserved: \u201cDid I deserve no more than a fool\u2019s head?\u201d Portia reminds him that no man is permitted to judge his own cause. The scroll in the silver casket reads, \u201cThere be fools alive, I wis [know], \/ Silver\u2019d o\u2019er; and so was this.\u201d Arragon departs then with his followers, promising to keep his oath.<\/p>\n

Portia is dearly relieved and sums up the reason for the prince\u2019s failure: \u201cO, these deliberate fools! When they do choose, \/ They have their wisdom by their wit to lose.\u201d In other words, even fools choose deliberately and believe that they are wise to deliberate; in fact, it is their excessive deliberation which ultimately defeats them.<\/p>\n

A servant announces the arrival of a Venetian ambassador from another suitor and adds that he brings gifts; in fact, in the messenger\u2019s estimation, the man who accompanies this latest suitor is \u201cso likely an ambassador of love\u201d that \u201ca day in April never came so sweet.\u201d Portia is neither impressed nor optimistic, yet she urges Nerissa to bring the man to her so that she can .see for herself this \u201cquick Cupid\u2019s post [messenger] that comes so mannerly.\u201d Nerissa sighs; \u201cLord Love,\u201d she prays, \u201cif thy will it be,\u201d let this suitor be Bassanio!<\/p>\n

Analysis Act 2 Scene 9<\/strong><\/p>\n

This scene focuses on the Prince of Arragon\u2019s choice of the three caskets. The Prince of Morocco\u2019s choice was straightforward and simple. He chose the gold casket; it seemed to be the most obvious, most desirable choice. In contrast, the Prince.of Arragon\u2019s choice is done with more prudence. The prince is a proud man; he seems older than Morocco and almost bloodless, compared to Morocco\u2019s fiery charismatic bearing. Often, Shakespeare makes his characters\u2019 names suggest their primary qualities; here, \u201cArragon\u201d was probably chosen for its resemblance to \u201carrogant.\u201d At any rate, Arragon is arrogant, a temperament befitting a Spanish grandee of noble blood, a familiar and conventional figure on the Elizabethan stage.<\/p>\n

Once again, we hear the ambiguous inscriptions read for us, and we ourselves puzzle over the enigma of the metals and their relationship to the inscriptions. Arragon considers the caskets, but he does not make Morocco\u2019s obvious choice. If gold represents \u201cwhat many men desire,\u201d then Arragon\u2019s powerful belief in his own superiority to \u2019\u2019the fool multitude that choose by show\u201d makes him reject it. We can agree with that logic, but we have to reject his reasoning ultimately because it is based on his absolute assumption of his own superiority to the multitude.<\/p>\n

The silver inscription, \u201cWho chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves,\u201d has an immediate appeal for Arragon. It prompts his observations on \u201cmerit\u201d in which he laments the fact that there is so much \u201cundeserved dignity\u201d in the world ; he means those who are given honor without coming by it legitimately, through the \u201ctrue seed\u201d of noble inheritance. The man is a snob; he has absolutely no doubts about what he deserves, and since his nobility is inherited nobility, he can safely (he thinks) choose the silver casket and \u201cassume desert.\u201d<\/p>\n

A factor that we should be aware of in this entire scene is an absence of any evidence that Arragon has any love, or even any affection, for Portia. Portia is \u201cdeserved.\u201d Nowhere can we discern even an inkling of any craving for her. As was noted, the prince is rather bloodless.<\/p>\n

In the suitors\u2019 choice of the caskets, we have yet another variation of the illusion-reality theme: Gold and silver appear to be the obvious choices to the first two suitors, whose motives for choosing are in some way flawed; neither of them is truly in love with Portia, for example. Yet Bassanio, who does love Portia, will choose the casket which appears to be the least valuable; in reality, it will turn out to be the most valuable. Thus the ability to choose and to distinguish between what appears to be valuable and what really is valuable depends not so much on intelligence \u2014 Shylock is far more intelligent than Antonio or Bassanio \u2014 but on something deeper and more intangible. In this play, that certain intangible something is love; it is not glory (Morocco), nor nobility of social position (Arragon), nor wealth (Shylock), but love for another human being, which Bassanio and Portia clearly offer to one another. At this point, the love plot in the play becomes very much like a fairy tale \u2014 the beautiful princess is won by love, not by wealth or rank or by calculation; we are reminded of Nerissa\u2019s comment in Act I, Scene 2: The proper casket will never be chosen by any rightly but one who you shall rightly love.\u201d We now know which casket is the right one, and thus we can relax and enjoy the drama of Bassanio\u2019s momentous choice. His approach (preceded by \u201can ambassador of love\u201d) is now announced by a messenger, and the fulfillment of the play\u2019s love story is clearly anticipated in Nerissa\u2019s comment: \u201cA day in April never came so sweet \/ To show how costly summer-was at hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

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