"The Merchant of Venice": A Fun Fill It Quiz

Answer:

"The Merchant of Venice" by William Shakespeare is about Shylock, a Jew, and his protest against anti-Semitism. Antonio was "the merchant" and Bassanio was a friend of his. Bassanio was a suitor and the eventual husband of a beautiful heiress named Portia. Bassanio needed money to woo Portia so he turned to Shylock the money lender and made Antonio the guarantor. The guarantee was a pound of Antonio's flesh. After Bassanio was unable to pay back, Antonio needed to give up a pound of his flesh. Portia disguised herself as a male lawyer and argued that Shylock could only take the flesh if he didn't spill any blood. Impossible. Meanwhile, his daughter Jessica eloped with a Christian man, Lorenzo. During the trial, Bassanio and his friend Gratiano turn up with the money. However, as Shylock was about to accept, the disguised Portia referred to him as an "alien" and nullified the whole business, forcing Shylock to convert to Christianity and bequeath his whole estate to Jessica and Lorenzo.

The passage you have just filled in is Shylock's famous speech, which he spoke during part of the trial attacking his religion in Act 3, Scene 1. The significance of the first sentence, "If you prick us, do we not bleed?", not only conveys that Christians and Jews are equal, but also that Jews aren't witches. Plainly, back in those days, the test for determining whether you're a witch or not is pricking your skin and seeing if it bleeds or not. As the myth goes, if it doesn't bleed, you're a witch.

In the 2002 film "The Pianist", which is about WW2 and the persecution of Jews, Wladyslaw Szpilman's brother Henryk read part of this passage right before he was sent to a concentration camp.