Merchant of Venice Portia Essay - 1793 Words

The Merchant of Venice is a play set in a very male and Christian dominated society where other religions and women rights weren’t very well accepted by the community. However Portia, a rich woman who had previously been controlled by men, triumphs as she manipulates tricks and saves the lives of the men. We see how she is manipulated by men through her father, who though dead, still manages to control who she marries from his will. He states in his will that from three different caskets the suitors will have to chose, in each of which will contain either a letter to the suitor or a picture of Portia. In one of the three caskets, either the lead, silver or gold casket, there will be a picture of Portia the suitor picking the casket†¦show more content†¦He also says that ‘his furnished with my opinion, which, bettered with his own learning’ so Bellario is saying that Balthazar has a great knowledge but with the opinions and thoughts of Bellario’s experience he has a greater knowledge than Bellario himself. By writing ‘the greatness whereof I cannot enough commend’ this is saying that he is speechless when it comes to the amount of knowledge that Balthazar seems to have, this could almost in it self make the Duke want to see Balthazar because to say, for example, that someone was so beautiful that you couldn’t put it into words, you would want to see for yourself just how beautiful this person is. He then repeats flattery at the end of the speech ‘I leave him to your gracious acceptance’ this suggests that he doesn’t want to over-do the whole letter because if he had ended it, for example, with ‘please, please take him I promise you that he will be the best and that if you don’t there’ll be consequences’ which possible makes him think that he’s not that good and that Bellario made it up to get out of the court hearing, but he leaves it in the Dukes hands and lets him make the decision. She adds persuasion at the end by saying that the trial would be better with Balthazar’s presence. Another example of Portia fighting back is when Portia uses trickery to make Shylock stick exactly to the bond causing him to be condemned to Christianity and to giv e half of his belongings to Antonio and the other half toShow MoreRelatedEssay on Portia of William Shakespeares The Merchant Of Venice617 Words   |  3 PagesPortia of William Shakespeares The Merchant Of Venice The merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare in which is a drama, it shows us mercy, love and forgiveness. In this essay I’m going to write about Portia in comparison to the other male characters in the play. Shakespeare has created some very interesting characters in Bassanio, Antonio and Shylock. Bassanio and Antonio are good friends and they like most characters in the play, dislike Shylock the Jew. 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