We find the mention of the duke at the time he had come to
the harbor to search the ship in which Bassanio had set sail for Belmont. He
had been roused to action by Shylcok who clamoured for justice as a Christian
by the name of Lorenzo had run away with his daughter along with his jewels and
money. The Duke did not ignore the pleas of the Jew and sought to take action
immediately. Here he shows his sense of duty to stand by a man who is otherwise
despised by the majority of people on account of his hard dealings. In the same
way he does not fail to persuade the Jew when he insists on cutting a pound of
Antonio’s flesh on the basis of his forfeiture. Besides being humane in his own
efforts, he seeks to enlist the support of other merchants and noble men for
Antonio in his utter crisis.
Even when the duke
fails to make the Jew lenient, he makes another attempt to play on his emotions
in the open court. He tells him that people have a very positive opinion about
him despite the show of cruelty he has put on. He wants to arouse sympathy in
him by telling him that people including him believe that though he is now bent
on exacting his penalty, that is, a pound of Antonio’s flesh he will turn
around in an amazing manner at the end when the time for the execution of the
bond ripens by acting in manner of generosity. Out of his sympathy for the
Merchant presently bowed down by his heavy losses he will not only give up his
demand for the pound of his flesh but also forgive him a small portion of the
principal amount of three thousand ducats.But the persuasive words of the duke
influenced by his compassion for Antonio did not have any effect on Shylock.
When the vindictive Jew told him that he had sworn by their
holy day of prayer and meditation that he would end up cutting a pound of
Antonio’s flesh, the Duke reacted with his sense of shock. He asked him how he
could expect to get mercy from others without doing acts of charity. This prompted
the Jew to cut the Duke short with his hard hitting words that eventually
defined his deep rooted aversion for Antonio the merchant. Later when the Jew
had been pinned down with the charge of trying to murder a Christian and faced
severe punishment, the duke was the first one to show him mercy even before he
had asked for it. That the duke had an intrinsic sense of courtesy was evident
from the way he had made a suggestion to Bassanio at the end of the trial to
give her a token of thanks.
