Skip to content

Assignments

The Merchant of Venice

In The Merchant of Venice, two words — bond and bound — appear throughout the play and carry very different meanings depending on context. Before working through the passages below, read the definitions carefully.

bond
n. a legal contract or deed, especially one enforceable in court
n. a formal written promise to pay a sum or perform an act
n. a tie of affection, loyalty, or duty between people
n. chains or fetters; physical restraint (often plural: bonds)

bound
adj. under legal or contractual obligation
adj. morally or emotionally obligated to someone
adj. physically tied, confined, or restrained
adj. heading toward a destination; on the way to
adj. certain or destined to happen

Pay attention to prepositions and modifiers — they determine the meaning:

bound to  ·  bound for  ·  bound by  ·  infinitely bound  ·  single bond  ·  in bonds

Read the passage below (Act V, Scene 1):

BASSANIO
I thank you, madam. Give welcome to my friend.
This is the man, this is Antonio,
To whom I am so infinitely bound.

PORTIA
You should in all sense be much bound to him,
For as I hear he was much bound for you.

  1. Identify every sense of bound active in this exchange. For each use of the word, say which sense (or senses) is at work and what effect that creates. Pay attention to Portia's phrase "in all sense" — what is it doing here? Is it just an intensifier, or is she signalling something?

  2. Now search the rest of the play for other moments where bond or bound carries a different meaning from the ones you found above. Find at least two examples. For each, copy the line, note the act and scene, and say which definition applies.

  3. Looking at all the examples your group collected: what does the play seem to be doing with these words? Why might Shakespeare return to bond and bound so often, across such different situations?