Merchant of Venice: Literary Devices and Techniques: Act I

Device Quotation Explanation and Significance

SIMILE Your mindwere the pageants of the
sea...(1.1.8-11)

ALLUSION Now by two headed Janus,/Nature nath

framd strange fellows in her time (1.1.50-
51)

SIMILE Why should a man whose blood is warm

within/Sit like his gandsire cut in
alabaster? (1.1.83-84)
SIMILE His[Gratiano] reasons are as two grains
wheat hid in two bushels of chaff: you
shall seek all day ere you find them, and
when you have them they are not worth
the search. (1.1.115-118)
ALLUSION but my chief care/Is to come fairly off
from the great debts/Wherein my time,
something too prodigal,/Hath left me
gagd. (1.1.127-130)
SIMILE I owe you much, and like a willful
ANALOGY youth/That which I owe is lostAnd out of
doubt you do me now more wrong/In
making question of my uttermost.
(1.1.144-156)
METAPHOR such a hare is madness of the youth, to
skip oer the meshes of good counsel the
cripple. (1.2.18-20)
PUN It is no mean happiness, therefore, to be
seated in the mean-(1.2.7-8)
ALLUSION I fear he will prove the weeping
philosopher when he grows old, being so
full of unmannerly sadness in his youth.
(1.2.46-48)
Device Quotation Explanation and Significance
SIMILE like a golden fleece,/Which makes her
ALLUSION seat of Belmont Colchos strand,/And
many Jasons come in quest of her.
(1.1.170-172)
SIMILE If I live to be as old as Sibylla, I will die as
ALLUSION chaste as Diana unless I be obtained by
the manner of my fathers will. (1.2.98-
100)
SIMILE How like a fawning publican he looks!
(1.3.36)

ALLUSION When Jacob grazd his uncle Labans

sheep-This Jacob from our holy Abram
was(66-83)

METAPHOR This devil can cite Scripture for his

PERSONIFICATION purpose./ An evil soul producing holy
SIMILE witness /Is like a villain with a smiling
cheek(1.3.93-95)
METAPHOR Why look you how you storm!/I would be
friends with you, and have your
love,/Forget the shames that you have
staind me with,/Supply your present
wants, and take no doit/Of usance for my
monies, and youll not hear me. This is
kind I offer. (1.3.133-138)
PUN Hie thee gentle Jew. (1.3.173)
Merchant of Venice: Literary Devices and Techniques: Act II

Device Quotation Explanation and Significance

ALLUSION Bring me the fairest creature northward born,/Where
Phoebus fire scarce thaws the icicles(2.1.4-5)

ALLUSION If Hercules and Lichas play at dice/Which is the better

man, the greater throw/May turn by fortune from the
weaker hand. (2.1.32-34)
ALLUSION, for the young gentleman, according to fates and
DRAMATIC destines, and such odd sayings, the sisters three, and
IRONY such branches of learning, is indeed deceased, or as you
would say in plain terms, gone to heaven. (2.1.57-60)
IRONY, Father, in. I cannot get a service, no, I have neer a tongue
ALLUSION in my headFather, come, Ill take my leave of the Jew in
the twinkling. (2.2.145-56)

METAPHOR I am sorry thou wilt leave my father so./Our house is hell

(2.2.1-2)

PUN I know the hand; in faith, tis a fair hand,/And whiter than
the paper it writ on/Is the fair hand that writ. (2.4.12-14)
ALLUSION By Jacobs staff I swear/I have no mind of feasting forth
tonight: But I will go.(2.5.35-37)

ALLUSION What says that fool of Hagars offspring, ha? (2.5.1)

METAPHOR he sleeps by day/More than the wildcat. Drones hive not

with me,/Therefore I part with him, and part with him/To
one that I would have him to help to waste/His borrowd
purse. (2.5.45-49)
ALLUSION, O, ten times faster, Venus pigeon fly/To seal bonds new
HYPERBOLE made than they are wont/To keep obliged faith unforfeited.
(2.66-8)
Device Quotation Explanation and Siginificance
SIMILE How like a younger or a prodigal/The scarfd bark puts from
her native bay,/Huggd and embraced by the strumpet
wind?/How like the prodigal doth she return/With
overweatherd ribs and ragged sails,(2.6.15-19)
ALLUSION For if they could, Cupid himself would blush/To see me
thus transformed to a boy. (2.6.39-40)

SIMILE This third dull lead, with warning all as blunt (2.7.8)

METAPHOR Never so rich a gem/Was set in worse than gold. (2.7.54-

55)

SIMILE But like the martlet/Builds in the weather on the outward

wall,/Even in the force and road of casualty./I will not
choose what many men desire,/Because I will not jump
with common spirits...(2.9.27-31)
Merchant of Venice: Literary Devices and Techniques: Act III

Device Quotation Meaning And Significance

SIMILE I would she were as lying a gossip that as ever knapped
ginger or made her neighbours believe she wept for the
death of a third husband. (3.1.8-10)
METAPHOR And Shylock for his own part knew the bird was fledged,a
nd then it is the complexion of them all to leave the dam.
(3.1.26-28)

METAPHOR Let me choose,/For as I am, I live upon the rack. (3.2.24-

25)

METAPHOR Then if he lose he makes a swan-like end,/Fading in

music

ALLUSION Than young Alcides when he did redeem/The virgin

tribute paid by howling Troy/To the sea monster, I stand
for sacrifice. (3.2.55-57)

METAPHOR But, being seasond with a gracious voice,/Obscures the

show of evil? (3.2.76-77)

ALLUSION The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars,/Who inward

searchd have livers white as milk,/And these assume but
valours excrement/To render them redoubted. (3.2.85-
88)

ALLUSION Therefore thou gaudy gold,/Hard food for Midas, I will

none of thee. (3.2.102-103)
Device/Technique Quotation Explanation and Significance
SIMILE
I come by note to give, and to receive. Like one of two
contending in a prize/That thinks he hath done well in
peoples eyes(3.2.140-145)

PERSONIFICATION Only my blood speaks to you in my veins(3.2.176)

SIMILE Here is a letter, lady,/The paper as the body of my

PERSONIFICATION friend,/And every word in it a gaping wound/Issuing
ANALOGY lifeblood. (3.2.261-263)

SIMILE with a reed voice, and turn two mincing steps/Into a

manly stride; and speak of fraysLike a fine bragging
youth(3.5.67-69)
Merchant of Venice: Literary Devices and Techniques: Act IV

Device Quotation Meaning And Significance

ALLITERATION And pluck commiseration of his state/ From brassy
METAPHOR bosoms and rough hearts of flint,/ From stubborn Turks,
and Tartars never traind to offices of tender courtesy.
(4.1.30-33)

METAPHOR What, wouldst thou have a serpent sting thee twice?

(4.1.69)

HYPERBOLE You may as well go stand upon the beach / And bid the
main flood bate his usual height; You may as well do
anything most hard/ As seek to soften/ His Jewish
heart. (4.171-79)

PUN Not on thy sole, but on thy soul, harsh Jew,Can no

prayers pierce thee? (4.1.123-126)

METAPHOR O be thou damnd, inexorable dog, / And for they life let
ALLUSION justice be accusdInto trunks of men. (4.1.128-133)
Device/Technique Quotation Explanation and Significance
SIMILE The quality of mercy is not straindThe throned
monarch better than his crown. (4.1.182-188)

ALLUSION A Daniel come to judgement; yea a Daniel!/O wise young

judge, how I do honour thee! (4.1.221-222)

ALLUSION For herein Fortune shows herself more kind/ Than is her
custom:/from which lingring penance/ Of such misery
doth she cut me off. (4.1.165-270)

DRAMATIC Antonio, I am married to a wife/Here to this devil, to

IRONY deliver you. (4.1.280-285)

DRAMATIC I have a wife who I protest I love;/ I would she were in

IRONY heaven, so she could/ Entreat some power to change this
currish Jew. (4.1.288-290)

DRAMATIC I pray you know me when we meet again. (4.1.417)

IRONY

DRAMATIC Theres more depends on this than on the value./The

IRONY dearest ring in Venice will I give you,/ And find it out by
proclamation. /Only for this I pray you pardon me.
(4.1.432-435)
Merchant of Venice: Literary Devices and Techniques: Act V

Device Quotation Meaning And Significance

ALLUSION The moon shines bright. In such a night as this,/
PERSONIFICATION When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees, / And
they did make no noise in such a night/ Toilus
methinks mounted the Troyan walls/ And sighd his
soul toward the Grecian tents/ Where Cressid lay
that night. (5.1.3-6)

PERSONIFICATION How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!/

Here we will sit, and let the sounds of music / Creep
in our ears; soft stillness and the night? Become the
touches of sweet harmony. (5.1.54-57)

PUN Let me give light, but let me not be light, /For a light
wife doth make a heavy husband, / And never be
Bassanio so for me-/ But God sort all! (5.1.129-132)

DRAMATIC IRONY Now by this hand, I gave it to a youth,/ A kind of

boy, a little scrubbed boy/ No higher than thyself,
the judges clerk, A prating boy that beggd it as a
fee;/ I could not for my heart deny it him. (5.1.161-
165)

DRAMATIC IRONY I gave my love a ring, and made him swear/ Never
to part with it, and here he stands. (5.1.170-171)

DRAMATIC IRONY If you did know whom I have the ring,/If you did
know for whom I gave the ring,/ And would conceive
for what I have the ring..You would abate the
strength of your displeasure. (5.1.193-198)
DRAMATIC IRONY Let not that doctor eer come near my house./ I
will become as liberal as you;/ Ill not deny him
anything I have,/ No, not my body, not my
husbands bed:/ Know him I shall I am well sure of
it. (5.1.223-229)

DRAMATIC IRONY I had it of him; pardon me, Bassanio,/ For by this

ring the doctor lay with me./For that same
scrubbed biy the doctors clerk,/ In lieu of this did lie
with me. (5.1.257-262)

SIMILE Why , this is like the mending of highways/ In

summer where the ways are fair enough! (5.1.263-
264)

METAPHOR Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way / Of starved

people
(5.1.294-295)

PUN Well, while I live Ill fear no other thing/ So sore as

keeping safe Nerissas ring. (5.1.306-307)