Portia…Merchant of Venice — By William Shakespeare

05 Jul, 2015 - 00:07 0 Views

The Sunday News

THIS week our focus is on Portia who later marries Bassanio. Before we meet her in the play, we hear how desirable she is. Bassanio while talking to Antonio, his friend, says, “In Belmont is a lady richly left, and she is fair, and fairer than the word, of wondrous virtues.” Portia is the heiress to her dead father’s fortune. She is rich in property left her by her family.

Bassanio sees Portia as a potential source of regular income (meal ticket). He sees her as an answer to all his financial problems, only if he manages to marry her of course. Bassanio is determined to go to Belmont and woo Portia, but the only snag he has is that he has no money to take him there. He appeals to Antonio for assistance to go and compete with other suitors for Portia. He says his “thoughts foresee success in this venture.”

It is surprising that Bassanio is so confident of winning Portia, yet there is going to be a lottery for Portia’s hand which he does not know of. He is not clear in asking for Antonio’s financial help as he says: “O my Antonio, had I but the means to hold a rival place with one of them”. But he has already made it clear earlier on that he is dependent on Antonio. He said: “To you Antonio I owe the most in money and in love, and from your love I have a warranty to unburden all my plots and purposes how to get clear of all the debts I owe”.

Here is a man who is very much in debt going to woo a very rich lady. Maybe that is where the notion that Bassanio did not really love Portia but was only after her riches comes from. As Bassanio points out he is not the only man who would like to land the heiress, “Nor is the wide world ignorant of her worth, for the four winds blow in from every coast, renowned suitors, and her sunny locks hang on her temples like a golden fleece, which makes her seat of Belmont Colchos’ strand, and many Jasons come in quest of her.”

According to Bassanio all these renowned suitors come all this far willing to risk everything for a chance to marry Portia. Not only is every potential suitor out to get his hand on Portia’s wealth but Portia does not get a chance to choose her husband, because her dead father set up a lottery casket involving three caskets to ensure his little princess married the “right” man. A suitor who chose the right casket automatically married Portia.

It turns out that Portia’s father knew how attractive Portia would be as a rich, single girl, so he did what any father during that time would do. He made sure his only daughter married the man of his choice. However, Portia is not happy at all about the arrangement. She makes her feelings clear. “But this reasoning is not in the fashion to choose me a husband. — O me, the word “choose” I may neither choose who I would, nor refuse who I dislike, so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father. Is it not hard Nerissa that I cannot choose one, nor refuse none?”

Portia is still not independent of her father’s control even if he is dead. She is still expected to obey his wishes. However, Portia shows loyalty to her dead father by sticking to his wishes despite expressing her own feelings about the whole issue. Portia is cunning as demonstrated in the casket contest. She wants to marry Bassanio, an unfortunate choice given that Bassanio wants Portia’s money. I have already stated that in Bassanio’s eyes Portia was a solution to all his financial woes.

To borrow from some critics, the other unfortunate aspect towards her choice is that Bassanio seems to value his bromance (a close, emotionally intense, non-sexual bond between two or more men) with Antonio more than his relationship with her. When Bassanio shows up to try his luck at the casket lottery, Portia has music played in the background. This music is a bone of contention among many readers, with some arguing that the music had hints which directed Bassanio to make the right choice because Portia loved him. He got preferences which were not afforded the other suitors.

Portia for example, asks him to tarry for a while before he makes his choice. Then the playing of music which somehow gave Bassanio proves that Portia is cunning. She helps beat her father’s almost impossible wish. Chances are high that maybe somebody else could have chosen the right casket and married Portia regardless of her feelings toward him. Portia saves Antonio’s life and her marriage. She cross-dresses as a lawyer and saves Antonio’s life during the trial scene.

We are aware that Shylock wanted to cut a pound of flesh from close to Antonio’s heart, and who knows, the results of that could have been catastrophic. But Portia turns the tables against Shylock and puts an impossible condition that in cutting that pound of flesh there should be no drop of blood spilled. Shylock is devastated and wants to reverse the terms of what he wanted. He hits a brick wall and loses everything. Portia therefore is clever to save Antonio, her man’s best friend.

It appears Portia is limited by her circumstances as a woman and has to obey her father. Overall she plays by society’s rules.

 

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