My understanding of Portia in “The Merchant of Venice”
Fair and Fairer than That WordAs the heroine of the play “The Merchant of Venice”, Portia is a wealthy and beautiful woman, who is desired by many. Portia also has a witted mind, which enables her to marry her true love, Bassanio, and saves Antonio from dying at the hand of Shylock. Her appearance as a man of law brings the play to its climax.
Key words: Portia, intelligence, three caskets, the law, court, cross-dressing,
Two important plots involving Portia
1. At the beginning of the play, we find she is nearly a prisoner, feeling herself totally bound to follow her father’s dying wish. As a wealthy but unmarried heiress living in Belmont, she watches a stream of suitors pass her by, happy to see and judge them with her maid, but sad that she has no choice in the whole thing, because her father decides that all suitors must first select one among three caskets in order to win her hand. The caskets, either of gold, silver, or lead, all contain different messages and only one of them contains a picture of Portia. The suitor who picks the right casket will be permitted to marry her. Portia welcomes the princes of Morocco and Aragon, but both of them make a wrong choice. Then there arrives Bassanio, whom Portia remembers as the soldier she fell in love with years ago. Though she requests that he wait before choosing, Bassanio immediately picks the correct casket.
2. In the court of the Duke of Venice, Portia disguises as a lawyer recommended by a professional cousin as Doctor Balthasar and informs the Duke that she has studied the case and will preside over it. Portia asks Shylock to show mercy but in vain. Then she examines the contract and grants Shylock his pound of flesh. However, when Shylock was ready to cut into Antonio’s breast, Portia reminds him that he must do so without causing Antonio to bleed or the Venice can take away his lands and wealth according to the law. She then informs Shylock that he is guilty of conspiring against the life of a Venetian citizen, which means he must turn over half of his property to the state and the other half to Antonio.
The law
Anybody can break the laws, but Portia’s intelligence comes from her ability to make the law work for her. The Merchant of Venice depends heavily on laws and rules ---- the laws of Venice and the rules in contracts and wills. They can be manipulated for evil purposes, but they can also be used to produce good results when executed by the right people.
Portia’s imprisonment by the game of caskets seems to be a questionable rule at first, but it works perfectly in the end. The game keeps the suitors at bay and of the three who try to choose the right caskets, only the man Portia really loves succeeds. Bassanio’s choice of the casket, which warns that the person must give and risk anything he has, shows that he knows that he may not deserve his good fortune but is willing to risk everything on a gamble, which just meets Portia’s father’s wish: the proper suitor must gives and risks everything for the spouse. The choice seems like a human character indicator which works efficiently.
As to the event occurred on the court, one can see clearly that until Portia’s arrival, Shylock is the law’s complete supporter, and most possibly of all, the city’s faithfulness in contracts will end in tragedy. While when Portia arrives and skillfully manipulates the law, the result is a happy ending: Antonio is saved and Shylock is forced to abandon his religion. However, this may also raise some fear in the audience of how the law can be misused. Without proper guidance, it may be hold to do horrible things.
Cross-dressing
She is able to wield the law so that Shylock is punished and Antonio is set free. She is able to save the integrity of the written contract in Venice, the laws of Venice, and Antonio’s life all at the same time. But she can not help at all if she is a woman.
Portia rescues Antonio by cross-dressing as a law clerk of the Venetian court. She reveals that to put on men’s clothes is more than comedy. She says that she has studied “a thousand raw tricks of these bragging Jacks” (Act III, Scene IV), implying that male authority is a kind of performance that can be imitated easily. She feels confident that she can outwit any male competitor, saying “I’ll prove the prettier fellow of the two, And wear my dagger with the braver grace” (Act III, Scene IV). In a word, by wearing the clothes of the opposite sex, Portia enables herself to undertake the power and position denied to her as a woman.
In conclusion, Portia influences the play dramatically. Her strength, intelligence, and generosity are all tools she employs to show to the world that as just a woman, she will not be subordinate to anybody else - except when she chooses to be. Though just a woman, she possesses the beauty to attract men, the wit to manipulate words, and the soul that stands above many others.
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