The Merchant of Venice Notebook —Instructions

Note that you may have to add pages to this notebook if the template I give you doesn’t provide enough
space.
1. You may keep a hard copy/handwritten or typed (and then printed) version
of this Merchant of Venice Notebook, to be filled out as we read the play, but the
final version that you turn in must be a hard copy, stapled or bound together
in some way, with an original cover that you’ve created yourself using ink,
colored pencils, markers, paint, collage—any medium except for
downloaded images—that reflects some or all of the following:
· The characters
· The patterns of imagery
· The setting
· Representations of women and/or the “Other”

2. On all (excepting the page for diagrams and the Structure of Comedy) of
The Merchant of Venice Notebook, write down a minimum of five citations
from the play that show the image or literary device that you’re noting.

· The passage that you write down can reveal metaphors and imagery.
· Or the passage can show something rhetorical (a pun shows doubleness, for
example.)
· Or the passage can show something historically significant about Elizabethan notions
of the Other, marriage, commerce, or religion.

3. For each passage that you write down, you must

a. Note which character says this.
b. Note the act, scene, and line numbers. For example, Act II, scene iii,
25-28.
c. Write down a minimum of two poetic devices Shakespeare uses in this
passage, like the following:
o Metaphors (including similes, personification, hyperbole)
o Imagery—say what type of imagery (imagery of babies, for instance)
o Ambiguity (including puns, verbal irony, and double entendres)
o Juxtaposition (including oxymorons and paradoxes)
o Alliteration
o Repetition
o Assonance and Consonance
o Allusion
o Irony (dramatic, verbal, situational)

d. Circle or highlight the words or parts of the passage that show the poetic
devices.
4. For the pages titled “Structure of Shakespearean Comedy,” write
down what actually happens in the story—the events, the plot points—that show
this section of the play’s comic structure. Provide names of characters when
necessary or list events that happen in the development of the comedy.
Grading Guidelines — The Merchant of Venice Notebook
Each item below worth 5 points

______Presentation and Artwork:

· You turn in a hard copy, stapled or bound together in some way, your name
visible and easy to locate.
· Project is complete and organized, showing hard work and effort.
· The images on the cover show that you understand something important about
Merchant.
· Pages are organized and easy to read.
· You try your best to show your knowledge of the play visually.

_______ Knowledge of Shakespeare’s Poetry

· Pages that require citations are complete and contain passages that exemplify
the category.
· You correctly identify a wide range of poetic devices in your citations.
· You highlight or circle correctly examples of poetic devices in each passage.
· Each passage is annotated as directed in the instructions.
· You clearly listened attentively in class, choosing passages we discussed and
dwelled on.

_______Understanding of Story, Themes, and Comedy

· Pages are complete and contain passages/pictures that show characters,
events, and themes in the play.
· You choose apt and meaningful passages for each category.
· Your Structure of Comedy shows that you understand the story of the play and
the comedic elements.
· You provide passages about or discuss all the characters, central and
peripheral.
· You pay particular attention to the ambiguities and layers of meaning in the
characterizations and poetry, noting lines that might show Freudian, Gender, Feminist,
Multicultural, New Historicism, or Post-Modern theories.

________ Originality, Insight, Invention

· Your annotations show individual thought and independent work (you provide
some citations we did not discuss in class).
· Your project does not look like everyone else’s or contain the exact citations of
classmates; you show originality and autonomy.
· Your images, citations, and explanations show insight and literary
understanding.
· You project an understanding of how the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras and
the influence of historical realities influence Shakespeare’s creation of this play.
· You show in your notebook that you listened actively and read with depth,
focus, and care.
The Merchant of Venice
Notebook
Doubleness and Triples (rhetorical,
relational or thematic)
Diagrams of the Triangulated or Circular
Relationships in the Play
Imagery of Precious Metals and Money
Fathers, Husbands, and Rings (connects to
precious metals)
Imagery of Disease, Death, Foulness or
Decay
Animal and “Beast” Imagery
Imagery and References to the Body
Representations of the “Other”
 Structure of Shakespearean Comedy
Structure of Shakespearean Comedy: Lovers are in trouble and cannot be together;
often an “evil” or malevolent character thwarts them and creates confusion; the lovers
contribute to the confusion by transforming themselves into people (or a person) with
different identities; when the confusion reaches a climax, said transformation works to
create a (magical) solution; the evil character is punished or ejected; the lovers marry
(often there are multiple marriages.)

1. Main character(s) are in danger or in pain

2. To alleviate the danger/pain, they go (either by force or choice)

to a new place.

3. Evil or malevolent character introduced and developed.

4. In order to escape more or different danger in the new place,

the character TRANSFORMS HIMSELF/HERSELF (or, in magical
comedies, is transformed by outside forces.)
5. A LOVE INTEREST inspires the transformation or complicates
the transformation.

6. As a result of the character’s transformation, CONFUSION

ensues.

7. The confusion creates COMIC moments of mixed identities,

doubleness, dramatic and situational irony, puns, and double
entendres.

8. Through his/her transformation and ensuing confusion, the

main character gains a deeper understanding of him/herself and,
ironically, becomes more like him/herself.
 9. As the confusion threatens to reach an intolerable pitch and create
tragedy, a mentor, ally, or “magical” trick in the plot intervenes to clear
up the confusion.

10.The malevolent character is punished.

11.The play ends in UNION, HARMONY, and

MARRIAGE/COUPLING, often with the promise that the couple(s)
will go off to a safer, better new place.