Portia

As we all know, “The Merchant of Venice” is the only satirical comedy of Shakespeare, and it is a world-renowned satirical comedy. It has been charming and profound not only because it reflected deeply some important issues of the society but also represented the sharp conflicts between humanism and feudalism. In the comedy, there are two immortal typical images: the miser Shylock and attractive female image of Portia. Put that the fourth scene “court struggle” is the climax of the play, and then the image of Portia is perfectly shaped in this scene.

As a wealthy heiress from Belmont, Portia is more than that. She is also quick-witted and beautiful. At the beginning of the play, under the force of her father to marry the suitor who chooses the right casket among three, Portia is fortunate to marry her true love, Bassanio. In this part, we can’t even see the shadow of the Portia in court. On one hand, she is a spirit desiring for freedom, on the other hand, she has to abide by her father’s rules. What a contradiction! Later, Portia disguises herself as a man, assumes the role of a lawyer and saves Bassanio’s friend, Antonio.

For her marriage, she strives. Rather than ignoring the stipulations of her father’s will, she watches a stream of suitors pass her by, happy to see these particular suitors go, but sad that she has no choice in the matter. When Bassanio arrives, however, Portia proves herself to be highly resourceful, begging the man she loves to stay a while before picking a chest, and finding loopholes in the will’s provision that we never thought possible. This is the evidence that Portia never resigns herself to her fate. In order to peruse her own happiness and love, she makes use of her wisdom obeyed her father’s will as well as marry with the Mr. Right.

For justice and axiom, she strives. Despite that Portia follows her father rigidly, she embodies the virtues that are typical of Shakespeare’s heroines—intelligent, educated, civilized and brave. In court, she prevails by applying a more stringent standard than Shylock himself. When she argued with Shylock to act defense as a means of attack on the court, and consolidate at every step.  Shylock thought he encountered bosom friend at beginning. And later, suddenly he realized he has lost his preponderance. She admits that Shylock’s contract very much entitles him to his pound of flesh while forbidding any loss of blood. This effectiveness comes from her ability to make the law work for her. In a society that men decide everything, Portia has been a different woman, she struggles for what she thinks right, regardless of any other factors. Portia’s brilliance talent and Shylock’s weakened defense, both make people cannot help laughing. Considered her attitude towards love and the performance she acts on court. There is no doubt that she is a remarkable humanist.

Portia is undoubtedly beautiful and gentle. In the eyes of Bassanio, she is virtuous and intelligent. Of course the world didn’t ignore her benefits, a great variety of suitors from all directions flood in. It is a game based on luck, and those suitors swear that if they choose the wrong box, they will return home immediately without marrying any woman lifelong. This part is the reflection of Portia’s beauty.

What’s more, Portia is generous. When she heard her husband’s friend is in trouble because of debt, she said without hesitation: “ Return him six thousand pounds, twice or triple. However, a friend can’t be in trouble just because of Bassanio’s faults.” Then she rushed to court personally to save Antonio.

Portia was beloved for she is humor and cute. After the judge, Portia played a joke on Bassanio by asking for their token of love—the ring. Actually, Portia’s success in court only used the appearance of man, there’s still a long way to reach a era when women equal men.

But, behind her immortality, the thought of women’s hard lives seem to occur to me. Portia, a outstanding member of society, can not enter the court aboveboard unless she appeared as a man.

What a tragedy. It turns out that the so-called era of humanism, equality and fraternity only reflects the hopes and requirements of bourgeois circles that treat men as the centre. It is man who achieves liberation, woman has nothing to do with liberation.

It can be inferred that the gender discrimination caused by gender differences will be an inevitable social problem in an open era. For a long time women are subordinate and they have no choice to get out of the trough of their subjective character.

In this play, the character of Portia is fulfilled with wit and warmth. Though the women of Renaissance are unwilling to succumb to men, they failed to be completely independent. Portia is the representative of this kind of contradictive image. Hence, she is both gentle and intellectual.

She can help get rid of her husband’s troubles as well as bring friends good luck. Eventually, she is the one who delivers the good news that Antonio’s ship is safe. Anyway, no matter how capable and knowledgeable she is, her given role and destiny in society as a female can not be changed.

We have talked many virtues of Portia, but every coin has two sides. Portia is not merely a positive character, but rather a multiplicity of three-dimensional image: love, generosity while there are some cold, narrow sides. For support, we’d better come back to court. In that scene, we can also see her cruelty, cunning side and religious bigotry. And her weakness as a woman compromising with men is obvious.

Though the marriage of Portia and Bassanio enhance the social status of the latter, it is impossible to make her escape the fate of being a subsidiary. Pitifully, she just took some alternative measures but not even expect to break the shackles of that unfair, unequal society. And Portia was unconscious about the suppression on women from the dominant forces—men. To a certain extent, by changing her gender—disguising as a man, Portia participated in the power of repression, at least she admitted the dominant status of men unconsciously, showing her obedience naturally.

The scene is the climax of the play, and it is the focal point of conflict, not only conflict between good and evil, but also ethnic conflict. Besides her intelligence, Portia exposed her character weakness as cruelty, selfishness and so on. She kept saying “Jewish”, “gentiles” like other Christians which shows her racial discrimination. The purpose of Portia is not justice, but to save Antonio. When Gratiano insulted Shylock in court, she turned a blind eye to this. She has stressed that the law cannot be changed repeatedly, dealing with Shylock, thus setting a trap for him.

One of the successes of “The Merchant of Venice” is the three-dimensional image of Portia. Her beauty and intelligence make her outstands the crowd, but her character inevitably carries some limitations of that time. Unable to take off the shackles of feudal morality and to shake the inner Christianity, Portia can only be subservient to the feudal society.

What discussed above present us a Portia from multi-angles. Leave alone her virtues and disadvantages, Portia is not overshadowed by her limitations, she is a person in reality, a person not perfect.