The arguments for mercy, the quality denied to him in the concentration camp, clash with the arguments for ruthlessness in pursuit of the (implicitly just) national cause.
And at least he wasn't selling perishable goods, which are at the mercy of subjective quality judgments – as farmers and food manufacturers are.
Notice also how this speech, with its violent imagery of blinding, in this case self-inflicted, anticipates the blinding of Gloucester, who is horribly punished for taking pity on Lear - pity and mercy being feminine qualities.
Istanbul — The quality of mercy, famously, is not strained.
The "quality of mercy" speech brought the house down.
Now Unsworth has written a sequel, "The Quality of Mercy," in which that treatment is contested.
Whatever the quality of mercy, there are still those after their pound of flesh.
(Her experiences were noted down in an autobiography, The Quality Of Mercy, in 1981).
And Stephen Paul Johnson's uncluttered performance has an actorly quality of mercy.
Mercy may be the quality in shortest supply in Mr. LaBute's chilly, claustrophobic universe.
