Explaination with standard english words :-
• Write the brief character sketch of Nerissa and indicate the importance of her role in the play
• Give your estimate of Portia's performance at the trial of Antonio
Answers
Answer:
Nerissa is Portia's confident, friend and an advisor (sometimes). She is very intelligence and witty. She follows her mistress as when Portia marries Bassanio she also marries Gratiano. ... This shows that she had a great importance in Portia's life.he trial scene in The Merchant of Venice is important in several ways. Its resolution offers the characters in conflict, Shylock and Antonio, a way out of a difficult situation. Had Shylock been allowed to claim his literal pound of flesh, Antonio would have died and Shylock most likely would have been prosecuted and convicted of murder. The scene also provides a vehicle for Portia to shine as an intellectual and as a persuasive speaker. By going to bat for her beloved’s friend in the first place, she demonstrates her commitment to Bassanio and those he cares about.
Formulating a convincing, logical argument and speaking eloquently further demonstrate her personal worth. Portia is not merely a female who follows the law—such as by obeying the terms of her father’s will—but an independent thinker who can interpret the law. Bassanio can clearly see how lucky he will be to be married to such a person, but he must later prove his worth by recovering the ring. Shakespeare also takes full advantage of the scene by giving Portia one of his best monologues. He makes her the mouthpiece for a host of noble sentiments, advocating for a concept of justice that always takes compassion into consideration.
Answer:
Among the heroines created by Shakespeare, Portia occupies a high position. She produces a powerful impression on our minds; and her role in the play is most conspicuous and memorable. When the play the Merchant of Venice is mentioned anywhere, people think of two persons, namely Shylock and Portia; and these two persons are inseparable from each other in our minds because we remember Shylock chiefly as a villain wanting to take the life of his enemy Antonio, and we think of Portia as the person who defeats Shylock’s evil design. And, of course, Portia has other qualities also to impart a measure of greatness to her.
Her Sense of Humour and Her Sparkling Wit
Portia is a lady with a cheerful and optimistic disposition. She has a strong sense of humour and a sparkling, scintillating wit which she shows in the very beginning and then continues to show till the very end. It is only on one occasion in the whole play that she feels melancholy, and even sick of the world. When she is first introduced to us, she tells Nerissa that she is feeling weary of the world. But this melancholy mood lasts only for a few minutes, and is dispelled as soon as Nerissa begins to talk to her about the various suitors who have arrived at Belmont to try their luck at the caskets. Portia has something very amusing to say about each of these four suitors. Her comment on her English suitor is perhaps the most amusing. This comment ends with her saying that the Englishman perhaps bought his doublet in Italy, his round hose in France, his bonnet in Germany, and his behaviour everywhere. Subsequently she shows her sense of humour in setting the Rings story afoot and bringing it to an end which gives rise to plenty of mirth and laughter. Portia’s comments on her various suitors show also her powers of minute observation and her penetrating judgment of human character.
Her Devotion to the Memory of Her Father
Portia is genuinely devoted to the memory of her father who, while dying, had devised a kind of lottery for the purpose of her choice of a husband. She is determined to carry out the terms of her late father’s will. Of course, it is possible for her to disregard her father’s will and to marry a man on the basis of her own judgment. But she has implicit faith in her father’s wisdom, and she is convinced that her father’s will would prove to be the means of her getting the right man as her husband. In this belief she is greatly encouraged by Nerissa who tells her that good men are sometimes divinely inspired when they are dying and that they then take sound decisions. Having fallen in love with Bassanio, Portia could easily have married him without subjecting him to the test laid down by her father in his will, but she does not follow such a course. Even the man, with whom she has fallen in love, must prove his worth by passing the test before she would marry him; nor does she give him any hint as to the casket which he should choose.
Her essential Wisdom
Portia shows her wisdom in other ways as well. Her conversation with Nerissa at the very outset of the play contains some valuable remarks which are well-worded maxims. For instance, she says that it is a good divine who follows his own instructions. She also says that she can easier teach twenty what were good to be done than be one of the twenty to follow her own teaching. In fact, her speech to Nerissa on this occasion is a series of aphoristic statements containing gems of wisdom. Later in the play, she again makes similar remarks which show her wisdom and her vast knowledge of the world and of human nature. For instance, she says that a good deed shines in a naughty world just as a candle shines in the darkness of the night. She also says that nothing is good if it is not seen in its proper context. She makes a similar remark when she says that many things appear to be praiseworthy and perfect when they are looked at in the right perspective. But her wisdom appears in a most striking manner in the Trial Scene in the course of which she is able to turn the tables upon Shylock and defeat him with the same weapon with which he wanted to take Antonio’s life.
Her Compassionate Nature
Portia has essentially a compassionate nature. Her famous “Quality of Mercy” speech is a proof of that. This speech depicts mercy as a sublime quality which is twice blest: it blesseth him that gives, and him that takes. Mercy, she says, is