Merchant of Venice Monolouge

I am responding to Morocco’s speech in 2.7.13-60. In this part of the play, Morocco is presented with three different caskets. The first one is gold which bears the inscription: “Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire” (5). There is a silver casket bearing the inscription: “Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves” (7). The third casket is made of dull lead with the explicit warning: “Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath” (9). One of these caskets contains a portrait of fair Portia, and if Morocco succeeds in selecting the correct casket, Portia will be his. What follows is a rather comical monologue of Morocco’s in which he is fighting within himself to make the right decision and choose the correct case. Morocco tries to rationalize to the right answer but they all sound so correct to him except for the lead case which, in his opinion would be “too gross/To rib her cerecloth in the obscure grave.” (51,52). This bumbling narrative portrays Morocco as a foolish character who frets much over frivolous things and overexcites himself to the point where he misses the obvious. The theme of doubt is constant in the narrative, deciding which casket to choose is extremely difficult for Morocco. With the lines:

Thou dost deserve enough, and yet ‘enough’

May not extend so far as to the lady.

And yet to be afeared of my deserving

Were but a weak disabling of myself.

As much as I deserve—why, that’s the lady!

Morocco questions whether he should pick the silver casket because he isn’t sure if he deserves Portia, but by questioning whether or not he deserves Portia he is questioning his own worth. Morocco is a very indecisive person indeed. The narrative displays poetic techniques such as alliteration in the line 27: “Thou dost deserve enough, and yet ‘enough’” through the repetition of the “d” sound. Again in line 53 alliteration is used: “Being ten times undervalued to tried gold” with the repetition of the “t” sound.

Personification is used in lines 44 to 47:

The watery kingdom, whose ambitious head

Spits in the face of heaven, is no bar

To stop the foreign spirits, but they come

As o’er a brook to see fair Portia.

The ocean is personified in these lines when Morocco speaks of the great lengths to which princes and nobles from faraway lands would take in order to reach fair Portia.

This monologue is a great example of a comical male monologue and contains many elements common in Shakespeare's work.