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Love in The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice. Choose ONE question. In this extract, Lorenzo and Jessica look at the night sky while waiting for Portia and Bassanio to return to Belmont.
Explore the ways in which Shakespeare presents love in The Merchant of Venice. Refer to this extract from Act 5 Scene 1 and elsewhere in the play.
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Marking points
- 1 Explores Shakespeare's presentation of love in the extract and wider play.
- 2 Uses relevant textual references and quotations.
- 3 Analyses language, form and structure, including the extract's patterning where relevant.
- 4 Uses relevant context about comedy, myth, religion, family or audience response.
- 5 Communicates clearly with accurate SPaG.
Full-mark answer
A strong answer could argue that Shakespeare presents love in The Merchant of Venice as attractive and playful but also compromised by money, faith and betrayal. In the extract, Lorenzo and Jessica use repeated 'In such a night' allusions to famous doomed lovers, so the moonlit romantic atmosphere is shadowed by tragic examples and by Jessica's theft from Shylock. Wider discussion might compare Portia and Bassanio's courtship, the ring plot, Antonio's devotion to Bassanio and the treatment of Shylock. A high-level answer should balance romance with unease and analyse how language, structure and context shape that balance.
Why this answer loses marks
Ignoring the extract and writing almost entirely about elsewhere in the play.
The examiner report states that many responses virtually ignored the extract; the task requires the extract as a springboard as well as wider reference.