Trail scene in The Merchant of Venice
The Trail scene in The Merchant of Venice is one of the greatest
scenes in the whole range of Shakespearean drama. Here Shylock who first seems to have succeeded in his
revengeful desire for a pound of Antonio’s flesh to be cut off from his bosom,
is subsequently thwarted in his purpose
by the sagacity of Portia’s who is a woman disguised as a man.
Antonio borrowed money
for his friend Bassanio from Shylock on the condition that if Antonio fails to
repay the money within three months;
Shylock would have the right to cut off a pound of flesh from any part of
Antonio’s body he likes. Antonio has forfeited the bond and Shylock is now
demanding he pound he pound of flesh. The case is at last brought before the
Venetian court of law.
At first the Duke
arises to melt Shylock heart to show mercy to Antonio referring to the heavy
losses of Antonio. Assanio offers Shylock “twice the sum” to show mercy to
Antonio. But Shylock rejects the appeal and is relentlessly demanding the pound
of flesh. So, here Antonio is in such a condition that he tells Bassanio:
“I am tainted wether of
the flock.
Meetest for death: the
weakest kind of fruit
Drops earliest to the
ground; and so let me ”
Then comes the turn of
Portia. She also asks Shylock to show mercy to Antonio. But Shylock asks why he
will show mercy. Then Portia makes a famous “Quality of Mercy” speech, one of
the celebrated passages in Shakespearean drama. A few of these lines are:
“The quality of mercy
is not strained
It droppeth as the
gentle rain form heaven
Upon the place beneath;
it is twice blessed.
It blesseth him that
gives and his that takes:
‘Tis mightiest in the
mightest”
But Shylock remains
unmoved to the appeals for mercy. He wants the law to be enforced. Portia now
says that Shylock is entitled to a pound of Antonio’s flesh and Shylock is
delirious with joy and calls the judge a Daniel. But when Shylock gets ready to
cut off the flesh, Portia plays her trump card by bidding Shylock:
"Take then the bond,
take thou the pound of flesh
But in the cutting it,
if thou dost shed
One drop of Christian
blood, thy lands and goods
Are by the laws of
Venice confiscate
Unto the State of
Venice."
Thus Shylock cannot have the pound of flesh.
Even when he is going to leave the court Portia says that of a foreigner plots
against the life of a Venetian citizen the foreigner forfeits all his
possessions, the one half of them going to the victim, the other half to the
state while his life things on the mercy of the Duke. Shylock is now
completely caught in his own net. Though
the duke pardons his life, he is compelled to turn a Christian.
Thus the punishment
which Shylock receives at the end of The trail scene is very excessive. It
proves that precise legal justice is often gross injustice. The Trail scene is
the climax of The Merchant of Venice. It is a “drama within a drama.”
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