The Game Show Within Merchant of Venice

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In Act 2 Scene 7 of Merchant of Venice, we see the Prince of Morocco choosing between caskets to see if he will be able to marry Portia. If he does not choose the casket that has her image, then he will not be allowed to marry again in his life. While reading this scene I pictured it almost like a game show.

If you've ever seen the show Let's Make a Deal with Wayne Brady, you have seen where he offers people more money to choose if they want to see what is behind a curtain. This made me think of the idea of Portia's father having these caskets. They get to choose based on the sayings of the caskets (which we will get to later) and what the caskets are made of. It is no surprise that the Prince of Morocco would choose the gold casket because it is the most expensive one. That relates to Wayne Brady giving people money to try to get them not to choose what is behind the curtain. In the Prince of Morocco's case, he was Zonked, and did not get any prize meaning he will spend the rest of his life as a single man.

If we look the engravings on the caskets, they all have different meanings as to why they would be chosen. The gold casket, chosen by the Prince of Morroco, says "Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire" (2.7.5). If you read this first, you immediately think "Well, many people desire this, and many men desire Portia so this could be correct." After opening it though, the Prince of Morocco finds a skull and realizes that the best looking casket was the not thee option to choose. The silver casket's inscription says "Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves" (2.7.7). The Prince of Aragon chooses this casket without even reading the inscription on the lead casket. He seems almost cocky thinking that this means he should deserve Portia. When he opens the silver casket he is presented with an image of an idiot. The last casket which is lead has the inscription "Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath" (2.7.9). Bassanio ends up choosing this casket. If you think about it, when you get married you must give up a lot, so it makes sense for Portia's image to be in the lead casket.

Overall, Bassanio chose correctly and he gets to live it up being married to Portia while the princes of Morocco and Aragon both have to go home and be single forever.


Shakespeare, William, et al. The Norton Shakespeare: Histories. Third ed., W.W. Norton & Company, 2016.

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