AQA GCSE · Question 04 · Shakespeare and the 19th-Century Novel

SOURCE TEXT:
Read the following extract from Act 1 Scene 1 of The Merchant of Venice and then answer the question that follows.

At this point in the play, Bassanio explains to Antonio that he is in debt and has been foolish with his money.

BASSANIO To you, Antonio,
I owe the most in money and in love,
And from your love I have a warranty
To unburden all my plots and purposes
How to get clear of all the debts I owe.
ANTONIO I pray you, good Bassanio, let me know it,
And if it stand as you yourself still do
Within the eye of honour, be assured
My purse, my person, my extremest means
Lie all unlocked to your occasions.
BASSANIO In my schooldays, when I had lost one shaft,
I shot his fellow of the selfsame flight
The selfsame way, with more advisèd watch
To find the other forth; and by adventuring both
I oft found both. I urge this childhood proof
Because what follows is pure innocence.
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
Which you did shoot the first, I do not doubt,
As I will watch the aim, or to find both
Or bring your latter hazard back again
And thankfully rest debtor for the first.
ANTONIO You know me well, and herein spend but time
To wind about my love with circumstance;
And out of doubt you do me now more wrong
In making question of my uttermost
Than if you had made waste of all I have.
Then do but say to me what I should do
That in your knowledge may by me be done,
And I am prest unto it: therefore, speak.

QUESTION:
Starting with this conversation, explore how Shakespeare presents ideas about loyalty in The Merchant of Venice.

Write about:
• how Shakespeare presents the loyalty between Antonio and Bassanio in this conversation
• how Shakespeare presents ideas about loyalty in the play as a whole.