character sketch of Portia in merchant of Venice
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Portia is the romantic heroine of The Merchant of Venice, William Shakespeare's tragicomedy. As The Merchant of Venice opens, Portia's father has passed away, leaving her with a stunning inheritance. This beautiful, wealthy woman is now the sought-after prize for many a young suitor, including those who travel from other countries to win her hand in marriage.
Portia loves a young Venetian gentleman named Bassanio and hopes he will pursue her; however, her interest comes with a hitch. As dictated by her father, the suitor who wins her hand must pass a test and choose from among three chests filled with gold, silver or lead.
Each chest has an inscription:
•The gold box says, 'Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.'
•The silver box says, 'Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.'
•The lead box says, 'Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.'
Only one of the chests contains a picture of Portia, and if the suitor chooses wisely, he will win her hand in marriage. Portia's maid and confidant, Nerissa, assures the young woman that her father was a good man with her best interests at heart. However, Portia may not love the suitor who chooses the right chest, leaving her with no say over her personal happiness.
She explains her dilemma to Nerissa in this monologue:
'If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches and poor men's cottages princes' palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions. I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching. The brain may devise laws for the blood, but a hot temper leaps o'er a cold decree. Such a hare is madness the youth - to skip o'er the meshes of good counsel the cripple. But this reasoning is not in the fashion to choose me a husband. O me, the word 'choose!' I may neither choose whom I would nor refuse whom 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 understands the difference between knowing and doing what's right. Her deepest frustration lies in her inability to choose her own suitor due to her loyalty to her father.
Portia loves a young Venetian gentleman named Bassanio and hopes he will pursue her; however, her interest comes with a hitch. As dictated by her father, the suitor who wins her hand must pass a test and choose from among three chests filled with gold, silver or lead.
Each chest has an inscription:
•The gold box says, 'Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.'
•The silver box says, 'Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.'
•The lead box says, 'Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.'
Only one of the chests contains a picture of Portia, and if the suitor chooses wisely, he will win her hand in marriage. Portia's maid and confidant, Nerissa, assures the young woman that her father was a good man with her best interests at heart. However, Portia may not love the suitor who chooses the right chest, leaving her with no say over her personal happiness.
She explains her dilemma to Nerissa in this monologue:
'If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches and poor men's cottages princes' palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions. I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching. The brain may devise laws for the blood, but a hot temper leaps o'er a cold decree. Such a hare is madness the youth - to skip o'er the meshes of good counsel the cripple. But this reasoning is not in the fashion to choose me a husband. O me, the word 'choose!' I may neither choose whom I would nor refuse whom 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 understands the difference between knowing and doing what's right. Her deepest frustration lies in her inability to choose her own suitor due to her loyalty to her father.
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Portia is one of Shakespeare's heroines who turns out to be the hero of the play. Dressed in men's clothes and playing the part of a young lawyer in the courtroom where Antonio's life hangs in the balance, Portia gives an heroic speech that saves the day.
Portia's primary qualities are a love of delicacy, goodness, compassion and mercy. As suitor after suitor comes to try for her hand according to the guidelines in her father's strange will, she mercifully finds ways of dismissing them with the truth, but the truth compassionately disguised so that it doesn't have a painful knife's edge to it. She doesn't tell them she dislikes them, she tells them that they have as fair a chance at winning her hand as any other she has seen.
In private, her great reasoning power and witty facility with words prepares us for the role she later plays as a lawyer. She must have wit and wisdom to win in a court of law and this is precisely what she does have. She elaborates for Nerissa and us on her disdain for the imperfections of the suitors, a disdain that she delicately hid from their knowledge.
Finally, it is Portia's plea for mercy on Antonio's behalf that saves him from Shylock's exacting knife of justice and revenge. It is mercy that we have seen at work as Portia turns away unwanted suitors. In both cases, Portia with her suitors and Shylock's court case, the facts and the truth are clearly known. In court, Shylock presents the facts; at her estate, Portia presents the facts. Portia's wisdom sets the precedent for Shylock to extend mercy regardless of the truth of the facts.
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