The Merchant of Venice: Plot Summary

Act 1 - The bond

• Antonio, a Venetian merchant, is gripped by an unexplained sadness; all his wealth is tied up in ships still at sea.
• His friend Bassanio needs money to court Portia, a rich heiress at Belmont, so Antonio pledges his credit for a loan.
• They borrow three thousand ducats from Shylock, a Jewish moneylender. Shylock resents Antonio, who has spat on him and called him a dog, and who himself lends money to others for free, undercutting Shylock's own trade of lending at interest.
• Shylock's terms are grim: if the loan goes unpaid for three months, he may cut a pound of flesh from Antonio's body. Antonio, sure his ships will return first, agrees.
• At Belmont, Portia must marry whichever suitor rightly picks among three caskets - gold, silver and lead - as her father's will demands.

Act 2 - Caskets and elopement

• At Belmont two suitors fail the casket test: the Prince of Morocco chooses gold and the Prince of Aragon silver, each finding only a mocking message.
• Shylock's daughter Jessica, ashamed of her father, escapes disguised as a boy to marry the Christian Lorenzo, taking a casket of his gold and jewels.
• Shylock's servant Launcelet also deserts him for Bassanio.
• Bassanio sails for Belmont to take Portia's marriage-casket test himself, while Shylock rages through Venice at the loss of his daughter and his ducats.

Act 3 - The forfeit

• News reaches Venice that Antonio's ships are wrecked, so he cannot repay the loan.
• Embittered by Jessica's flight, Shylock is now set on his pound of flesh, defending his right to revenge in the "Hath not a Jew eyes?" speech.
• At Belmont, Bassanio rejects the showy gold and silver caskets for the plain lead one, and wins Portia, who gives him a ring he must never remove.
• A letter brings word that the bond is forfeit; Portia gives him gold to clear it and marries him before he hurries to Venice.
• Antonio is arrested, but Shylock refuses every offer of money - he wants only the flesh.

Act 4 - The trial

• In court the Duke urges mercy, but Shylock sharpens his knife and holds to his bond.
• Not even the Duke can overrule him: Venice's trade depends on its courts honouring every contract, so the law is on Shylock's side.
• Portia arrives disguised as a young lawyer, with Nerissa as her clerk; she pleads that "the quality of mercy is not strained", then admits the bond is lawful.
• As Shylock moves to cut, she springs the trap: the bond allows flesh but not one drop of blood, and he must take exactly a pound or die.
• Beaten, he asks instead for the money, but Portia refuses; as an outsider who plotted a citizen's death, he forfeits his wealth and is spared only by the Duke.
• Antonio's terms force Shylock to turn Christian and leave his fortune to Jessica and Lorenzo. Still disguised, Portia tricks Bassanio out of his wedding ring.

Act 5 - The rings

• Back at Belmont by moonlight, Portia and Nerissa slip home before their husbands, pretending they have been at prayer.
• When the men return, the wives accuse them of giving their rings to other women and threaten revenge.
• After teasing them, the wives reveal the truth: they were the lawyer and the clerk, so they held the rings all along.
• A letter tells Antonio that three of his ships have come safely home, and the play closes in harmony at Belmont.