ACT 3, SCENE 2 OVERVIEW OF ACT 3, SCENE 2


KEY SCENE OF LOVE Part 1 (lines 1–185) – Bassanio makes his selection.


l


This is the climax of the theme of love and marriage in the play. The hero Bassanio has arrived to make his choice. From the outset, it is clear that Portia favours Bassanio and she makes no effort to conceal this fact. She asks Bassanio to delay making his choice as he will have to leave immediately if he chooses incorrectly and she will lose him forever:


I would detain you here some month or two Before you venture for me. (lines 9–10)


l


Portia also suggests that she would be willing to reveal the correct casket to Bassanio, only that she has made a promise to her dead father not to. She admits that she has been enchanted by Bassanio and this is the source of her inner conflict:


Beshrew your eyes, They have o’erlooked me and divided me. (lines 14–15)


Portia is ‘divided’ between remaining loyal to her father’s wishes and revealing the casket to Bassanio so that she never has to lose him.


l


Bassanio, however, would rather make his choice immediately, claiming he is in torture and cannot bear to wait any longer:


Let me choose, For as I am, I live upon the rack. (lines 24–25)


This exchange between Portia and Bassanio adds tension and suspense to the scene. Next, Portia and Bassanio engage in some playful banter (conversation) which helps to ease the tension somewhat.


l


Portia directs Bassanio to the caskets to make his choice. She gives instructions for music to be played, saying that if the outcome is sad, the music will be like Bassanio’s swansong and her tears will create a stream. If he is successful, however, the music will be like a fanfare celebrating his win.


l Consider the first three lines of the song:


Tell me where is fancy bred, Or in the heart, or in the head? How begot, how nourishèd? (lines 63–65)


Is it a coincidence that the last word of the first three lines of Portia’s song all rhyme with ‘lead’? Is Bassanio getting a clue after all?


l


Before he chooses, Portia compares Bassanio to Hercules who went to save the Trojan princess Hesione who was being sacrificed to a sea-monster. Unlike Hercules, who undertook this epic quest for reward (Hesione’s father gave Hercules horses as a reward), Bassanio is undertaking his challenge for love. Portia can hardly bear to look at Bassanio as he is making his choice, commenting:


With much much more dismay I view the fight than thou that mak’st the fray. (lines 61–62) l


This suggests the sense of anxiety and terror that she feels looking helplessly on. It is immediately clear from his words that Bassanio is going to choose the lead casket:


So may the outward shows be least themselves: The world is still deceived with ornament. (lines 73–74)


130 The Merchant of Venice


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