Scene seven Merchant of Venice

Scene Seven

Which casket does the Prince of Morocco think is worthy to contain Portia’s portrait. Use evidence of the text to justify your answer.

The gold one. He says “One of these three contains her heavenly picture. Is ’t like that lead contains her? 'Twere damnation To think so base a thought. It were too gross To rib her cerecloth in the obscure grave. Or shall I think in silver she’s immured, Being ten times undervalued to tried gold? O sinful thought!” Meaning that thinking that the lead and silver caskets were worthy of having Portia’s portrait in them was a really bad thing.

How is Portia feeling in A2S7 -at the beginning, -while the Prince is making his choice, at the end

At the beginning she’s partly nervous, while he’s making his choice, she’s annoyed with the process. At the end, she’s relieved.

What was Portia’s father trying to achieve by the use of the caskets. Does this seem to be working?

To see who is worthy of Portia. It’s not really working, because Portia doesn’t like any of them...