Write the character sketch of Jessica.

Ans.

JESSICA

Jessica is a richly borne lady of great wisdom, virtue and beauty. She is a Jewess-the only daughter of Shylock. As she has said herself, she is a daughter to his blood but not to his manners and thoughts.

She is a faithful lover and the heroine of the Lorenzo. Jessica story one of the four stories of The Merchant of Venice. Lorenzo-Jessica team reminds us of Romeo and Juliet and Jessica is like Juliet in being the stronger force that “directs”. her character has been delineated slightly because there is little scope for it in the minor story. But her character has been drawn suggestively and not exhaustively. She creates the impressions of beauty. impulsiveness and lack of scruples. Being fed up with and ashamed of being her father’s daughter, she decides to elope with a Christian, Lorenzo and when she actually leaves, she does so in boy’s clothes and with much of her father’s wealth which she foolishly squanders.

Being a motherless daughter and also not enjoying the love of the father she has a very dim sense of natural ties and filial obligations. She severs her relationship with her Rather and makes it absolute without any remorse or compunction.

She leaves her father, it appears, with a vengeance. It is the strongest point against her, Her father, cruel and wicked he may he stands alone against all condemned even by his own daughter and this makes him more pathetic and less detestable.

‘She is her father’s child in self-reliance, defiance and stubbornness reflected the way she plans, secretly but very shrewdly, and executes her elopement. Nobody can get the slightest inkling of her thoughts or feelings.

By nature she seems to be romantic and lover of adventure. Her conduct at Belmont does her great credit-she keeps herself in the background.

There is a vein of fancy and poetry. She has a genuine admiration of Portia. All in all Jessica is a lovable character.