Discuss the significance of Act 4 in the structure of the play as a whole. You should comment on the development of the characters, the themes of the play and anything else you find of interest.

The theme of loyalty to relatives and friends in the play can and cannot be seen by the characters. For example, Jessica's relationship with her father, Shylock. She is ashamed of her father's actions in the play; she steals from him and disobeys him by marrying Lorenzo, a Christian. She does show some form of apology and regret and is later seen mourning the loss of her father by listening to music in Belmont towards the end of the play and says " I am never merry when I hear sweet music." This suggests that the music has made her think of her father and the harsh actions she took.

Bassanio and Antonio's friendship does survive some stressful situations. For example in the first act, loyalty is shown when Antonio loans Bassanio a large sum of money and takes his word that he will repay it. Bassanio says to Antonio, " I owe you much, and, like a wilful youth, That which I owe is lost; but if you please To shoot another arrow that self way." (I/I/146) From these words it suggests that Bassanio has borrowed money off Antonio before and has not repaid his debts, and yet Antonio still loans him money again out of sheer loyalty to his friend. Bassanio shows himself to be a loyal friend to Antonio when he returns to help him escape the forfeiture of the loan from Shylock. He actually offers to give his own life and all of his loved possessions to save Antonio. His loyalty to Antonio is seen as greater than the repayment of the loans he owes to Antonio. In the end he makes the sacrifice of giving the judge, which is Portia in disguise, the ring which his wife gave to him and told him never to remove if he loved her. The ring is a symbol of their love and the sacrifice of it shows his loyalty to his friend. Irony is shown here by the way that he is a loyal towards Antonio but it is also an act of disloyalty to Portia, his wife.

In "Merchant of Venice" the characters seem rather prejudice to one another. For example the theme of hatred between Antonio and Shylock. Antonio spits and kicks Shylock whenever he comes in contact with him. He gives no reason for this but later criticises Shylock for his hatred to him and proves that he is a hypocrite because he hates Shylock without reason and giving Shylock the reason to return the hate.

Shylock is aware of the hypocrisy of the Christians in the play and his argument is purely that the Jews bleed, laugh and die in the same way as Christians. This is mainly shown in the trial scene, Act 4.

In the trial scene Antonio's losses were only temporary while Shylock had lost his riches and a daughter. It seemed that the Christians have given the same revenge on Shylock as he was going to take out on Antonio. The difference lies in the fact that their only reason for punishment to Shylock is that he is a Jew. Antonio seems to over do the punishment and be the most merciless. He adds two more punishments to Shylock. He requests him to become a Christian, taking away Shylock's religious beliefs. Secondly, Antonio makes him give the remaining amount of money he has to his daughter and her new husband. This means he must bless the marriage that took place behind his back and against his will.

Christians call this mercy were the forced Shylock to pay a penalty that is obviously worse than what he had wanted off Antonio. The sentence given to Shylock makes the audience feel sympathetic towards him.

Shylock is last seen in the play as a character who had everything taken from him by the Christians. Shakespeare obviously intended for the audience to eventually feel sorry for Shylock, which suggests the play to not be anti-semetic. If the play were anti-semetic it would not end with the audience pitying the main Jewish character. Instead it suggests that Shakespeare used Shylock's character to reveal the true hypocrites of the Christian characters in the play.

The play remains anti-semetic by Shakespeare's audience having the dramatic tension and the never ending questions which would never had identified a Jewish "hero" and his downfall was never expected to have been pitied by the audience.

The character of Shylock seems to be the villain of the play. He sets up a plan to extract a pound of flesh from Antonio who seems to the audience at the time a good Christian. The play however is much deeper thought out than this. Shakespeare gave reasons for Shylock's actions. For example if they were of hatred or not. It is clear that Antonio had given Shylock ample reason to seek revenge. Later, many of the Christian characters get into the same behaviours, which they take out on Shylock. Seeing Shylock's motives and the actions he took in the play and those of the Christians also, it is not Shylock's religion, which is being criticised, but it is the hypocrisy by the Christian characters.