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Or is your gold and silver ewes and rams?

The Merchant of Venice - Language

Explore Shakespeare’s language in The Merchant of Venice and practise spotting imagery, key phrases and loaded insults so you can write sharper, more precise GCSE English Literature answers.

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Fascinating Fact:

Shakespeare uses animal imagery, such as calling Shylock a “dog”, to reveal deep prejudice and to reduce him symbolically to something less than human.

In GCSE English Literature, questions on The Merchant of Venice often focus on Shakespeare’s language. Analysing his imagery, insults, legal terms and repeated words helps you explain how prejudice, power and mercy are presented throughout the play.

Key Terms

Imagery: Descriptive language that creates strong pictures or ideas in the reader’s mind.
Pejorative language: Words or phrases used to insult, belittle or show strong disapproval of someone.
Connotation: The extra ideas and feelings suggested by a word, beyond its basic dictionary meaning.

Frequently Asked Questions (Click to see answers)

How does Shakespeare use language to show prejudice in The Merchant of Venice?

Shakespeare uses insults, animal comparisons and repeated slurs to show how characters dehumanise Shylock and others. These choices highlight the everyday nature of prejudice in Venetian society.

What is animal imagery and why is it important in this play?

Animal imagery means comparing people to animals through language. In this play, it exposes how characters see Shylock as less than human and makes the audience question their attitudes.

How can I write about language effectively in a GCSE essay?

Choose short quotations, name specific techniques such as imagery or repetition, then explain how the words link to themes like justice, mercy or revenge and affect the audience’s response.

Try These Related Quizzes

1 .

At the beginning of the play, when Antonio tells Salerio of his sadness, Salerio assumes that he is worried about his ships, saying, "Your mind is tossing on the ocean". What makes this an effective phrase?

The phrase is effective because Salerio's view turns out to be incorrect

The use of imagery makes the phrase effective

The phrase is effective because it uses a metaphor

The metaphor emphasises how thoroughly Antonio's mind is present with his ships, at least in Salerio's view

Remember that it's important to explain what imagery accomplishes, what its effect is, rather than to just state that it is present. Here the implied metaphor is that Antonio's mind is another ship, or perhaps a passenger on one of his ships, and is at the mercy of the waves

2 .

BASSANIO: Or is your gold and silver ewes and rams?
SHYLOCK: I cannot tell. I make it breed as fast.
What is significant about Shylock's use of the word "breed"?

Ewes and rams breed

Gold and silver cannot reproduce themselves

Breed is an archaic word

All of the above

Shylock compares his ability to make money to an animal's capacity to reproduce, boasting that he can increase his fortune as quickly as sheep give birth to more sheep

3 .

ANTONIO: ...for when did friendship take / A breed for barren metal of his friend?
What is the significance of the word "barren"?

Antonio reiterates the point that money cannot create more money

The use of the word "barren" hints that Shylock has no friends

Antonio believes that money is as valuable as life

All of the above

Antonio states the Christian position on usury; it is unnatural in its pretence that money can give birth to more money (something that is barren cannot reproduce or give life). Yet his own activities as a merchant involve a similar reliance on the growth of wealth. His comparison might also give rise to Shylock's request for living flesh rather than barren metal

4 .

Speaking of the men who hope to marry her, Portia says, "For there is not one among them but I dote on his very absence; and I pray God grant them a fair departure." What does she mean by this?

She loves them each dearly

She hopes they go away quickly

She is worried they will not have safe journeys home

She wishes they would hurry up and choose one of the caskets

Although she is using the most polite language, Portia wishes nothing more than that her unwanted suitors would leave her alone

5 .

"For aught I see, they are as sick that surfeit with too much as they that starve with nothing." What does Nerissa mean by this?

Those who are rich are in danger of starvation

It can be just as bad for people to be too rich as to be too poor

Those who are poor are in reality much better off than those who are rich

It is better to starve than to overeat

Nerissa is mocking Portia for her complaint that she is "aweary of this great world", but she does so by acknowledging that too much wealth can be bad for people

6 .

"My ships have all miscarried." What does "miscarried" mean here?

The ship has failed in its purpose

The ship has lost the cargo it was carrying

The ship was intended to reproduce and now cannot

All of the above

This is another example of the idea that wealth can reproduce wealth in a similar way to animals giving birth

7 .

Which one of the following statements does not logically follow the others?

"If you prick us do we not bleed?"

"If you wrong us shall we not revenge?"

"If you tickle us do we not laugh?"

"If you poison us do we not die?"

Shylock presents vengeance as a natural consequence similar to the involuntary physiological consequences of tickling, poisoning and pricking

8 .

Which of the following phrases implies that a person can be a possession?

"The gentleman that lately stole his daughter"

"The offender's life lies in the mercy / Of the Duke"

"I am married to a wife / Which is as dear to me as life itself"

"Repent but you that you shall lose your friend"

Lorenzo "stole" Jessica from Shylock, as if she were one of his possessions

9 .

"Here in her hairs / The painter plays the spider, and hath woven / A golden mesh t'untrap the hearts of men." What does Bassanio mean in these lines?

The portrait painter has not painted Portia very beautifully

The portrait painter resembled a spider

Portia's hair in her portrait is like a spiderweb, meant to catch unwary men

Portia is wearing a golden mesh on her head

Despite the use of the phrase, "golden mesh", the image is not very flattering!

10 .

I should think of shallows and of flats,
And see my wealthy Andrew, decks in sand,
Vailing her hightop lower than her ribs
To kiss her burial.
How does Salerio speak of his ship in these lines?

As if it were indestructible

As if it were alive

As if it were supernatural

All of the above

The tradition of using feminine pronouns ("her") to speak of ships, the name "Andrew", and the depiction of the ship as kissing the spot where it becomes wrecked give the impression that Salerio values his ship as a living being

Author: Sheri Smith (PhD English Literature, English Teacher & Quiz Writer)