Question

write an essay on the casket episode and the role it plays in this play "The Merchant
Of Venice."

Answer 1

  The choice of the caskets is the method by which Portia's husband would be chosen, created by her deceased father. There are three caskets lined up: one is gold, another is silver, and the third is lead. Each suitor picks one, and if the correct one is chosen, they win Portia's hand in marriage. There is a catch however; if they choose wrong, they can never marry again. Still, this catch does not stop a few suitors from pursuing Portia. The three suitors in the play choose each of the three caskets, and their decisions are based partly on their character. The gold casket symbolizes greed and falling for appearances, the silver casket symbolizes empty-headed fools and proud men, and the lead casket symbolizes one who will risk all for worthy things.
             The first casket is gold, chosen by the Prince of Morocco, a dark-skinned man who right from the beginning is very focused on appearances. When he first meets Portia, his first words to her are "Judge me not for my complexion" (II. i. 1) because he does not want her to deny him due to his skin colour. When the prince reads the inscription on the gold casket, which is "Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire," (II. vii. 5) he thinks it means that since many men travel from distant lands to court Portia, that she is what many men desire. What is actually meant by this is that by desiring gold, many men choose death because greed for more possessions, such as gold, often leads to violence and death. Inside the casket is a symbol of death, a skull, showing that this is what many men desire. This shows that the Moroccan prince is a very proud and boastful man who falls for appearances easily.