explain all the six suitors characters who come to Belmont to meet Portia of Venice...
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Portia's disgruntlement with being compelled to select a suitor from the young men that her late father has arranged to come to Belmont produces some uproarious effects. Shakespeare uses his plot as an opportunity to satirize the noblemen of England and its neighboring countries of France, Scotland, and Germany. Portia's description of six of her suitors in act 1, scene 2 provides comic relief for the tragicomedy The Merchant of Venice.
The first six suitors come to Belmont, and after they depart, Portia speaks with Nerissa about them.
1. The Neapolitan Prince: Portia, who calls him a "colt" [meaning a stallion] describes this man as obsessed with his horse and its sterling qualities. He boasts of his skills in shoeing his horse himself. Drolly, Portia says that she suspects that the prince's mother must have "played wrong [had an affair] with a [black]smith" (1.2.42), implying that she was a mare.
2. The Count Palatine: Portia describes this man of royalty as perpetually frowning. His gloomy nature permits him no joy. For instance, "[H]e hears merry tales and smiles not." (1.2.46) Portia adds that if she marries such a melancholy man, it will be like living with "the weeping philosopher"; that is, another Heraclitus, a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, who perceived all things as one.
3. Monsieur Le Bon: Portia cannot identify any real personality in this man: " . . . he is every man in no man."
4. Falconbridge: Portia says that this young baron from England speaks none of the languages that she knows. She describes the Englishman as having no real identity, either, since his manner of dress indicates nothing about him. He wears a doublet from Italy, his round hose [a lower garment that functions both as stockings and breeches] from France, and his "bonnet" from Germany. Portia adds that his behavior also comes from everywhere.
5. The Scottish lord: With Portia's description, Shakespeare satirizes the Scots. Portia tells Nerissa that when the Scotsman was boxed on the ear by the Englishman, he promised to pay the Englishman back with the aid of the Frenchman. (This is a sarcastic remark directed toward the French who failed on several occasions to provide promised assistance to the Scots against the English.)
6. The young German, a nephew of the Duke of Saxony: Portia indicates the German's inclination for drinking as she finds him to be inebriated all day long. She says that she hopes to find a way to live without him.
After Nerissa informs her that all six noblemen have left because they do not wish to abide by the command of her father that if they make the wrong choice of casket, Portia concludes with obvious relief and irony,
In fact, Portia has nine suitors for her hand in marriage in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.
In act 1, scene 2, Portia describes six of the suitors to Nerissa, Portia's "waiting woman."
NERISSA. But what warmth is there in
your affection towards any of these princely suitors that
are already come?
PORTIA. I pray thee, over-name them; and as thou namest
them I will describe them; and according to my description
level at my affection. (1.2.30-35)
These six suitors don't appear in the play, but Portia paints a very clear picture of each of them.
Portia describes the Neapolitan prince as a man who "doth nothing but talk of his horse" and that "he can shoe him himself" (1.2.37-38).
The Palatine count "doth nothing but frown...being so full of unmannerly sadness" (1.2.41- 45).
The French lord, Monsieur Le Bon? "God made him, and therefore let him pass for a man" (1.2.50).
As for Falconbridge, the English baron, Portia finds it impossible to converse with him in any of the languages that she knows. He also dresses poorly, in mismatched clothes from Italy, France, and Germany. (1.2.61-67)
The Scottish lord appears to lack courage, runs from a fight while threatening retaliation, and borrows money that he doesn't repay. (1.2.70-73)
Portia's opinion of the Duke of Saxony's nephew is that he behaves "Very vilely in the morning, when he is sober; and most vilely in the afternoon, when he is drunk" (1.2. 76-77). At his best, she says, "he is a little worse than a man," and at his worst "he is little better than a beast" (1.2.78-79).
Nerissa also mentions Bassanio, not as a suitor, but as a visitor to Portia's home when Portia's father was still alive.