The Merchant of Venice

The Merchant of Venice: Act IV sc i - Portia

Summary: In this scene Portia is pleading to Shylock for the life of Antonio. Antonio is responsible for the debt that Bassanio owes Shylock. Bassanio is Portia's partner and needed money to be with Portia. When Bassanio borrowed the money the punishment for failure to pay back the money on time was 'a pound of flesh' which would cause certain death. Bassanio didn't pay the debt back in time and now Shylock wants his 'pound of flesh' from Antonio. Portia is trying to get Shylock to change his mind and see the virtue of being merciful.


Find and highlight these techniques in the speech:
metaphor
alliteration
repetition

Answer the following questions using quotes where applicable:
How does Portia describe mercy? How important and powerful is it?

Portia describes  mercy as a virtue and something that is only present in the nicest of people and people with the the most kingly of values. This is very powerful as I make the audience think that they are of kingly values.
What can one achieve through mercy?

One can forgive people for what they have done to you as long as they are sorry and regret doing what they have done and that is when you achieve mercy.
How is religion part of this speech? (You need to do some thinking on this one.)

Religion is in this speech as at the time when it is set religion was a very major part of there lives and the saying of "It is an attribute of god make they believe that they are as good as they can get. That even kings must struggle

 for things that you have already achieved and that god will be happy with you. this makes the audience feel good about them selves and more likely to let Antonio live.

PORTIA

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea;
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.

I had trouble with reading of the word's it didn't make sense 

HW Tuesday

real stories of people helping people and feeling good about it http://www.umm.edu/features/organ-donation.htm
This information is important as it is a real life situation when a real person has saved another person's (even if it was his boss) and he can feel good saving another person's life and there is little long term damage to the donor. it also show's the Audience how good it will feel to be an organ donor.

the average patient who ultimately received an organ waited only three weeks for a heart and three months for a pancreas or liver — but 476 days for a kidney, because demand for kidneys substantially outstrips supply.  (http://www.articlesbase.com/spirituality-articles/the-many-benefits-of-organ-donation-950637.html)
This is important as it makes the patient feel that once they are dead even then they can make an substantial difference to not just one but six to ten different people will have there lives change or even saved buy just giving your organs to the organ donation. This makes the audience feel that they are doing a greater job than "ah, I won't do it as it will only save one life but no it will save six to ten lives.

speech work

Having a high modality is having a strong and obvious opinion in the text

Organ Donor

• The advantage of being an organ donor are massive
• the ability to save people's life
• you won't need them when you are dead
• it makes you feel good about doing something to help people even when you are dead
• it will make other people respect you and your organs
• even if the organ transplant fail's you still have tried but you won't need them if you are dead
• you alone could save 6 to 10 lives on your own
• real stories of people helping people and feeling good about it http://www.umm.edu/features/organ-donation.htm
• you can also keep living through your eye seeing or your heart is still beating
• the average patient who ultimately received an organ waited only three weeks for a heart and three months for a pancreas or liver — but 476 days for a kidney, because demand for kidneys substantially outstrips supply.  (http://www.articlesbase.com/spirituality-articles/the-many-benefits-of-organ-donation-950637.html)

brain storming

Organ Donor

• it saves life's
• when you are dead you don't need them
• gives a chance to less fortunate people 
• small organs like thyroid's and gall bladder
• won't make you life any harder
• if they can't use it it won't effect you
• they don't steal your organ in operates

Diplomacy and terrorist

• no it should not as they are terrorist 
• it would just encourage them 
• they would try worst disaster's
• they would be harder to stop as they would be earning more money

Zoo's and Animal Research

• they are relevant as they help animals by breeding them 
• raise awareness for them
• provide funding for continuing breeding program
• is historical places 
• does advanced research place in zoo's
• a place where people can show behaviour close to home and not have to leave the country.

Assessment Task

Persuasive texts are designed to position a point of view.
 Texts that successfully persuade are usually highly emotive (conveys with emotion) and effectively balance opinions with facts. (research) 
Persuasive texts can make sweeping generalisations  Uniformed conclusion's (be wary), rely on stereotypes and hyperbole and yet still seem credible. (reliable information)
This is because a combination of objective (fact) and subjective (opinion) information is usually used to persuade.
Careful use of repetition and high modality words (persuasion techniques) can emphatically convey the composer’s purpose (subjective)  if it is counterbalanced with the use of statistics, expert evidence and product/idea endorsement from authoritative sources. 
Moreover, effective incorporation of anecdotes (a little story personal), analogies (comparing with two examples) and inclusive language("we") ( language techniques) can personalise the message and help connect the composer and their text with its audience.

Organ donor

Should diplomacy be extended to terrorist's

Are zoo's still relevant for animal preservation

CAS Swimming ( The Must See Event )

CAS swimming is a highly prestige's  event with the best of all the school's around us coming together to fight it out in the swimming pool for the greatly prized CAS swimming Cup. 


Many of you will not want to go to this event as you have more important thing's to do but I ask you, what is more important than cheering and supporting your friend's, your grade, your school. Is TV, is Playstation, is lying around doing nothing more important than winning the cup back from Trinity. 


Trinity has held the cup for to long and we must win it back two thousand and eleven is not an end but a beginning of an era of greatness, an era of wonder, an era of Knox. Many people will say that we can't do it say trinity is to good, to strong but if everyone gives it there heart and soul we can do it we will win back the cup we can and will be victorious. 


Many Knox boys have swum before us and succeed if we can't win back the glory of our school how can we wear our uniform knowing that we let down the pride of our school by not being there and supporting our school in it's time of need.


I have a dream that all the Knox boy's standing together supporting our school
I have a dream that trinity will run back to hiding after win not just win back the cup but take so firmly that all other school's will be scared to verse Knox in anything
I have a dream that all the Knox boy's that came before us will be envious of our support and our victory 
I have a dream that even the headmaster will be surprised by the momentous amount of support that everyone of us can put out.
I have a dream that we will be so loud with our cheers and support that no one will be able to hear the whisper's of trinity and barker and all the other schools that dare to stand before us and try to win our cup.


so if all of you are not with me on the night of CAS you should be ashamed of yourself and regret deciding to stay at home and putting your TV or play station before your school that gives you so much and asks you for so little in return.

I had a dream

HW Due Monday

1. Summarize the thesis of the speech in one sentence. the thesis of the speech is to make black and white's equal

2. Mode of Persuasion? (it is ok to have more than one) Give examples to support your answer/answers. 
he uses many form's of persuasion he start's the speech of with logos then moves on to pathos then logos and then back to pathos some example of this is at the being he is listing facts which make it logos and in the 3rd quarter he is saying we and expressing his expressions witch make it pathos
3. Major techniques (highlight all examples) 
inclusive language and repition
4. What is the historical context of this speech?
 it is the Abraham freeed the slaves from the white slave people "Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. 
5. Do you feel that this is an effective speech? (answer in a paragraph
yes i feel it is a successful speech as he involve all the forms of persuasion and he add's strong reason's and historical evidence he also is against violence and is very personal with his speech which make the audience believe, respect and agree with. "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character."

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back. inclusive language

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."¹

 change of technique to almost ethos.I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."²

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

                Free at last! Free at last!

                Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!³

^{he changes the mode of persuasion from logos to "WE need our right"  (pathos)}

^{he changes from logos to pathos to ethos then pathos}