act-4 scene 1 line 432-438 where are the speakers? what offer was made to portia by bassanio on winning the case
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Answer:
Act IV, scene i, lines 397–453; scene ii
By the end of Act IV, Shakespeare has resolved the play’s two primary plots: the casket game has delivered to Portia her rightful suitor, and the threat presented by Shylock has been eliminated. Structurally, this resolution makes The Merchant of Venice atypical of Shakespeare’s comedies, which usually feature a wedding as a means of dispelling evils from and restoring rightness to the world. Here, however, the lovers are already wed, and the aftertaste of Shylock’s trial is rather bitter, especially to modern audiences. In order to sweeten his story, returning us to the unmistakable province of comedy, Shakespeare launches a third plot involving the exchange of the rings. Perhaps Shakespeare recognized the ambivalence with which we would greet Shylock’s demise and felt the need to reassert simple joy over the dark dramas of Venice. Life in blissful Belmont depends upon it.
Many critics have noted that the character of Shylock necessitates this rather forced return to the comedic. As one of Shakespeare’s most powerful and memorable creations, Shylock looms large over the play, and though he is not seen again after exiting the court, he remains lodged in our memory. In order for the lovers to enjoy a typically unadulterated happy ending, the angry, potentially victimized specter of Shylock must first be exorcised from the stage. The ring game is Shakespeare’s means of reasserting levity. Many critics consider Shylock a character who “ran away” from the playwright. Shylock may have started out as a familiar character: a two-dimensional villain in the red fright wig that European Jews were once required to wear. However, he emerges as an extremely intelligent man who has suffered profound mistreatment. Shakespeare provides Shylock with motivation for his malice, which raises Shylock above the level of evildoing bogeyman and makes his passions, no matter how terrible, at least comprehensible. For this reason, few modern audiences cheer when the Venetian court destroys Shylock. Our response to the Jew’s demise is likely to be much more complicated and ambivalent. The lovers’ exchange of the rings helps reposition the play as a comedy.
In devising the game in which Bassanio sacrifices his wedding ring, Portia once again proves herself cleverer and more competent than any of the men with whom she shares the stage. The ring game tests the boundaries of the homoerotic relationship between Antonio and Bassanio, for Antonio claims that his friend’s love for him should “[b]e valued ‘gainst your wife’s commandment” (IV.i.447). Bassanio’s willingness to part with the ring might signal a form of infidelity to his wife, but we feel little anxiety over it. Once Shylock makes his way offstage, the mood of the play is decidedly light. In other words, boundaries are tested, but they are not crossed. As the comedy genre demands, whatever wrongs have been committed will be forgiven summarily. When, at the end of Act IV, scene ii, Portia tells Nerissa that “we shall have old swearing / That they did give the rings away to men. / But we’ll outface them, and outswear them too,” we anticipate a frolicsome display of Portia’s wit, not an untimely and costly battle of irreconcilable differences
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