Women in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice - Essay Example

Portia in The Merchant of Venice Introduction Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice is a unique play in many aspects and perhaps the most unique aspect of the play is that the women of the play, particularly Portia, behave as heroes while the men have to play the part of individuals who have to be rescued from their perilous situations (Brown, 1981). Of course, as heroes go, Portia shows that she has greater virtue, greater mental abilities and greater moral strength as compared to other characters of the play and she also passes the ultimate test of a hero i.e. overcoming and defeating the plan of the villain of the play. Undoubtedly, Shakespeare is the most famous and well known playwright of the English language and Merchant of Venice is one of his most performed plays even though the focus of the play is often the character of Shylock, the character of Portia remains quite important since she represents the highest values that Christian virtue could appeal to during the times. In this manner, the female characters become significantly more important than their male counterparts who may show weakness and even a defeatist attitude (Sanders, 1968). The Role of Portia Portia outshines the men in the play particularly with regard to virtue since she remains dutiful to the orders of her dead father even though her heart tells her to do otherwise. She is divinely rewarded when the man she loves makes the right choice with regard to the lead, silver and gold boxes. Like many other Shakespearean women, Portia becomes an important character despite the presence of other strong characters such as Anotnio and Shylock. Even though the position of women in shakespeare’s times was not one which could have made this a realistic play, the approach taken by Shakespeare certainly makes Portia the strongest character. Interestingly, Shakespeare was living at a time when the most powerful ruler in Europe was a lady who founded the British Empire as it took shape for centuries to come. While the Christian dogma at the time may have seen women to be fickle, fragile and weak, a ruler as a woman meant that the qualities of Portia were completely natural since she certainly displays kingly virtues of intelligence and mercy. There is certainly some social hypocrisy in this situation since women had little rights in society at the time and even Portia was not the mistress of her own destiny, yet she saves Antonio and even ‘forgives’ Shylock after she has won her case. Portia eloquently describes the qualities of mercy which is a Christian ideal and is something heroes would show to their enemies. In fact, as discussed by Douthat & Hopson (2005) the heroic virtues in the play seem to be connected more with women than men since even a Jewish woman such as Jessica converts to Christianity through the power of love while the male Jew, i.e. Shylock, has to be forcefully baptised. The anti-Semitism of the play remains strong in all of the male Christian characters but Portia focuses on the idea of mercy and forgiveness before she destroys Shylock’s scheme and his life. Comparing Portia to other Characters Additionally, in comparison to Jessica, Portia is certainly closer to the ideal of the hero since she follows the path of Christian virtue by not going against the wishes of her dead father. On the other hand, as disccessed by Opie (2003), Jessica shows her complete lack of virtue by going agsinst the wishes of her living father to the extent that she gives away the family heirloom on a whim. While it may also point towards the independence of Jessica, it certainly places Portia on a higher pedestal of virtue and obedience. In these terms, Portia gives us the prime example of what a feminist hero would have been as seen by Shakespeare and how a strong virtuous woman should act when placed in difficult situations. Her similarities to other Shakespearian heroines include the fact that she is beautiful, intelligent as well as merciful and honest. Moreover, exactly as many other of shakespeare’s heroines had done, she is quite fond of dressing up as a man and playing tricks on her lover but she differs from other heroines of Shakespeare in some ways as well. For example, if we consider the characters of Hermia or Juliet, we see that they would gladly disobey their parents in order to satisfy their need for love. However, Portia is a true chiristian with a noble since she respect the dictates of a father in terms of who she would marry (Mabillard, 2000). In fact, Portia’s heroic deeds become more important when we compare her to the character of Antonio who is considerably weaker in nature and in intellect. In fact, there have been questions about the nature of Antonio since his position as a male Christian is quite weak. He hates Shylock and even spits on him as he walked past yet Antonio does not have the courage to face his enemies when the situation calls for it. He remains quite melancholic throughout the play and even though he tries to remain good to his friends, he is unable to protect his own interests. He does not even want to present his case in a good manner to the duke for and seems to be quite willing to get himself killed by giving Shylock a pound of flesh (Douthat & Hopson, 2005). Moreover, at the end of the play when all is resolved for him he supports the forced conversion of Shylock to add insult to injury which goes to show that he has a vindictive nature as well (Opie, 2003). Of course in Shakespeare’s time, this act might have been seen as an act of mercy since by conversion, the characters of the play have saved Shylock’s soul. However, to the audience today this might not be the act of mercy which a shakesperain audience would have understood it to be. The weakness in the male character of the play is sharply contrasted with the various strengths shown by the female characters that are able to take charge of their situation even though they have no control over it many of the times in the play (Hawkins, 2006). For instance, the women in the play have reversed positions in the play as compared to how they would have functioned in reality with regard to their position in shakesperaen society (Thompson and Thompson, 1987). A female lawyer for example and a female who is able to outsmart all the men certainly puts a heroic shade on the activities and the character of Portia. It is her position as a hero which forces the males to follow her lead and become passive where she remains the active player in the story. However, it must be noted that she has to dress up and pretend to be a male in a society which did not allow women to have the powers of the male figure. Her power of deduction and her power of understanding the contract certainly remained with her, yet it was only in her disguise as a man that she was able to use her abilities of persuasion, deduction and application of the words of the contract that allowed her to save Antonio. While that idea may seem like a blow to the approach of understanding Portia as a female hero, it must be understood that the audience certainly knew that the young lawyer is a female. Additionally, the trick played by Portia concerning the ring also shows that her true identity will be revealed to her husband who can then appreciate how beautiful as well as intelligent his wife really is. Even though this may be unrealistic the need for realism in this play is certainly not there. The very nature of the play in which a woman comes across as the hero of the play makes it unrealistic for the audience even though the hatred for the Jews remained a very real part of life for the age (Thompson and Thompson, 1987). In essence, as with other forms of art, realism within The Merchant of Venice remains an unimportant aspect of the play since the beauty of the play is more invested with how the story progresses and how the Christian characters show mercy where none was deserved. For the audience of the time, and for many audiences today in our politically correct world, the play does not lose its beauty simply because there is a female heroine placed with weaker males who often do not know how to deal with the situations they have been placed in. In fact, the lack of realism makes the play more profound because a female heroine in the shape of Portia shows strengths that other characters lack. Conclusion In conclusion, it becomes easy to see Portia as the heroine of the play simply because she outshines all other players. In comparison to Antonio, she is smarter as well as more determined, in comparison to her lover, she is more virtuous and finally in comparison to shylock, she is like the other characters, more Christian. In fact, instead of The Merchant of Venice, the play could have been easily titled, The Brilliant Cross Dressing Lawyer. Works Cited Brown, J. Discovering Shakespeare, Columbia University Press. 1981. Douthat, R. & Hopson, D. “The Merchant of Venice”. Spark Note. 2005. Drama Study Guides. . Mabillard, A. “Shakespeare's Sources for The Merchant of Venice.” Shakespeare Online. 2000. shakespeareonline.com. Opie, J. “Antisemitism in English Literature, The Shakespeare Case: Which is the merchant here, and which the Jew?” Jewish Christian Relations. 2003. JCrelations.net. . Sanders, W. The Dramatist and the received Idea. Cambridge University Press. 1968. Thompson, A. and Thompson, J. Shakespeare: Meaning and Metaphor. Prentice Hall. 1987 Word Count: 1,588 Read More