The Merchant of Venice

by William Shakespeare from c. 1596–97

About

Merchant Antonio borrows money from the Jewish moneylender Shylock to help his friend Bassanio woo the heiress Portia, pledging a pound of his own flesh as bond. When Antonio's ships are lost and Shylock demands his forfeit, Portia intervenes in disguise as a lawyer to save Antonio's life and expose the bond's fatal legal flaw.

The Merchant of Venice

Characters: 21
Words: 19.8k
Acts: 5
Duration: ~2 hr 28 min

Characters

#CharacterPlayerLines

1

PORTIA

PORTIA

—

126

2

SHYLOCK

SHYLOCK

—

86

3

BASSANIO

—

77

4

LANCELET GOBBO

—

65

5

ANTONIO

—

49

6

GRATIANO

—

49

7

LORENZO

—

48

8

NERISSA

—

36

20 sections

19.8k words

#TitleWords

Act 1

1

Act 1 Scene 1

1.5k11:00

2

Act 1 Scene 2

1.1k8:31

3

Act 1 Scene 3

1.4k10:27

Act 2

4

Act 2 Scene 1

3632:43

5

Act 2 Scene 2

1.6k12:16

6

Act 2 Scene 3

1140:51

7

Act 2 Scene 4

2571:56

8

Act 2 Scene 5

4303:14

9

Act 2 Scene 6

5133:51

10

Act 2 Scene 7

6144:36

11

Act 2 Scene 8

4113:05

12

Act 2 Scene 9

6624:58

Act 3

13

Act 3 Scene 1

1k7:39

14

Act 3 Scene 2

2.3k17:04

15

Act 3 Scene 3

2922:11

16

Act 3 Scene 4

5724:17

17

Act 3 Scene 5

7255:26

Act 4

18

Act 4 Scene 1

3.5k26:11

19

Act 4 Scene 2

1581:11

Act 5

20

Act 5 Scene 1

2.3k17:00

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Photos by Henrique Ferreira, Kit Suman on Unsplash