An Exploration of Shakespeare’s Presentation of the Character of Portia in the Merchant of Venice.

Throughout the course of this essay I aim to explore the character of Portia and how she is presented by Shakespeare in his play The Merchant of Venice. I feel she is a very strong female character, which went very much against the standing of women at the time the play was written. However, taking into account the fact that Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne, arguably the strongest women in England’s history, the strong female character seems less out of place. I will consider Portia’s role in the play by analysing what I consider to be key scenes which reveal her true character, by exploring her attitudes to, and relationships with, other characters, and comparing her with the other women featured in the play.

The reader’s very first impression of Portia is one we gain from Bassanio. He tells us of her affluence and beauty and also of her many suitors, and he likens them to Jason and the Argonauts seeking the golden fleece, with the fleece in this case being her ‘sunny locks’. This leads the audience to expect her to be a traditional, weak female character, when Bassanio says things like ‘and she is fair, fairer than that word.’ Incidentally, Portia is always spoken about in verse (a high flown kind of language) showing she is of high social class. However, this preliminary description is shown to be superficial, because in the very next scene, we are shown a more complex and deeper side to Portia’s character which Bassanio doesn’t acknowledge, or perhaps just doesn’t notice because he is so preoccupied with her physical beauty.

The casket plot offers many insights into the character of Portia, although I don’t believe it illustrates the full extent of her intelligence. Her treatment of the suitors can be interpreted as callous and cruel, but I see it as more of an indifferent attitude than an outright unpleasant one, and in my opinion this indifference shows her independence. She describes each of her suitors faults, and all are stereotypical to...