“In sooth, I know not why I am so sad.”
Early on in the play, Antonio expresses that he is plagued by a sense of melancholy. Here, he describes the emotion and admits that he does not understand where it comes from – he is, after all, a wealthy merchant at the beginning of the play. Antonio is just one of the multiple characters throughout the play who, though financially secure, feel generally unfulfilled by their lives. In this way, the play suggests that fortune and wealth are secondary compared to one's relationships and social bonds.
“How like a fawning publican he looks!
I hate him for he is a Christian.”
There is, of course, a significant amount of prejudice expressed throughout The Merchant of Venice. The Christian characters detest Shylock because he is Jewish, and Shylock, in turn, detests the Christian characters for their Christianity. Here, he explains in a rather straightforward manner that he hates Antonio simply because he is a Christian, showcasing the play's interrogation of prejudice as a phenomenon that influences people's behavior but has little to no logic behind it.
“But love is blind, and lovers cannot see
The pretty follies that themselves commit.”
In this quotation, Jessica expresses the common trope that love is "blind," meaning that when one is in love, they are too frequently unaware of any faults their beloved may exhibit. Jessica, though, also admits that lovers fancy themselves infallible as well. The play juxtaposes romantic love with one's pursuit of wealth, ultimately suggesting that both tend to "blind" the person who experiences them.
"All that glisters is not gold."
This famous quotation, which is in contemporary popular culture translated to "all that glitters is not gold," conveys they idea that things that not everything that seems precious or true turns out to be so. This quotation comments on the nature of appearances as compared to reality, and cautions anyone who takes appearances at face value.
"If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?”
In his most famous speech in the play, Shylock asks how Jews are any different from Christians, as they are both men. While the speech ultimately ends with Shylock justifying his staunch pursuit of revenge, the speech is more often read as an argument for equality – Shylock interrogates the notion that Jews are subhuman by asking a series of simple questions leading one to the conclusion that Jews are indeed no different from Christians. This speech also showcases Shylock's rhetorical and argumentative skill, which will reappear at the end of the play.
“The quality of mercy is not strained.”
Portia, disguised as the doctor, here cautions Shylock against his fervent pursuit of revenge and his refusal to act mercifully toward Antonio. But Portia also exhibits a distinctly Christian understanding of conflict, which is that mercy should be exhibited above punishment (mercy, as an early modern Christian audience would understand, is associated primarily with Christ).
"So can I give no reason, nor I will not,
More than a lodged hate and a certain loathing
I bear Antonio, that I follow thus
A losing suit against him."
During the trial, when asked why he feels so strongly about receiving his pound of flesh from Antonio, Shylock admits that there is no true reason why he holds Antonio is such contempt. Here, Shylock becomes a representation of all prejudice, suggesting that biases held against others usually hold no footing in reality or reason.
"You will answer
’The slaves are ours.’ So do I answer you.
The pound of flesh which I demand of him
Is dearly bought. ‘Tis mine, and I will have it."
In another example of his skill as a rhetorician, Shylock compares the pound of flesh he is owed to the slaves of Christian slave-owners. He remarks that if Christians were told they had to free their slaves, they would argue that the slaves are their property. Shylock compares that ownership to his contracted ownership of Antonio's own flesh. In this comparison, however, the play subtly acknowledges the preposterous notion of humans owning other humans.
“How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.”
Here, Portia (in disguise) uses an extended metaphor to compare good deeds to a candle in the darkness. She suggests that qualities like mercy and kindness, though they may seem small and insignificant, are in actuality capable of making a major difference in the world (like an illuminating flame in the dark).
"The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stategems, and spoils."
This passage, in which Lorenzo describes the transformative power of music, seems like an innocent expression of appreciation. However, when one considers that earlier in the play, Shylock orders Jessica to shut the windows so he does not hear the music coming in from the streets, Lorenzo's comments imply that it is someone like Shylock (or Shylock himself) who is fit for "treasons, strategems, and spoils." Lorenzo therefore joins the ranks of other characters in comparing Shylock to a subhuman entity who cannot appreciate the power of music.
