THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.
An Action-Drama.
Scheme of Actions.
| Main Plot. | |||
| First Main Cross Nemesis Action:Story of the Jew: complicated and resolved. | |||
| { | Sub-Action to First Main, also Link Action: Jessica and Lorenzo: simple movement. | } | Underplot. |
| Comic Relief Action: Launcelot;stationary[7]. | |||
| Sub-Action to Second Main: Episode of the Rings: complicated and resolved. | |||
| Second Main Problem Action: Caskets Story: simple movement. | |||
External Circumstance[8]: The (rumoured) Shipwrecks.
Economy.
Two Main Actions connected by Common Personage [Bassanio] and by Link Action [Jessica].
General Interweaving.
Balance. The First Main Action, which is complicated, balances the Second, which is simple, by the additions to the latter of the Jessica interest transferred to it, and the Episode of the Rings generated out of it. [Pages [82], [88].]
Movement.
Action-Movement: with Contrary Motion between the two Main Actions. The First Main complicated and resolved by the Second Main [hero of Second, Bassanio, is Complicating Force; heroine of Second, Portia, is Resolving Force], the Complication assisted by the External Circumstance of the Shipwrecks—in process of resolving the First generates a Complication to the Second in the form of the Episode of the Rings, which is self-resolved. [Pages [66], [282].]
Passion-Movement in the background: Wave-Line of Strain and Relief by alternation of the two main Stories; the Episode of the Rings is Final Relief to the Final Strain of the Trial.
Turning-points.
Centre of Plot: Scene of Bassanio's Choice (iii. ii.) in which the Complicating and Resolving Forces are united and all the Four Actions meet. [Pages [67]-[8].]
Catastrophe: Portia's Judgment in the Trial (iv. i, from 299).