"Portia is the most perfect of Shakespearean heroines" Do you

“Portia is the most perfect of Shakespearean heroines” Do you agree with the remark?

“Shakespeare has no heroes-he has only heroines.” Discuss the remark with reference to the characters of Portia in ‘The Merchant of Venice’.

Write an essay on: “The heroine of The Merchant of Venice”. “Portia is both the hero and the heroine of the play, The Merchant of Venice.” Discuss.

“Portia is, indeed, a typical Shakespearean heroine.” Elucidate the remark.

“Which character appeals to you most in ‘The Merchant of Venice’ and why?

“She has a strong sense of honour and justice; yet withal a woman’s true instinct of kindness and mercy.” Discuss the character of Portia in the light of this remark.

“What aspects of Portia’s character are revealed in (a) The casket scene, (b) The Trail scene and (c) The final scene in Belmont with Bassanio?

“Portia has certain degree of affection and pedantry about her.” Discuss.

“There is nothing like conceit or ostentation of intellect in Portia.” Discuss.

Ans.

Portia, undoubtedly, is the heroine of the play, The Merchant of Venice’. She is exquisitely beautiful, immensely rich and very virtuous and talented. Her versatile genius and character make her the darling of all.

She is very young and inherits huge property from her father who is dead. For all practical purpose she is the mistress of her own affairs. But her father had wished that she should marry the person who made the correct choice out of the three caskets of gold; silver and lead. The correct casket contained her picture in it. Portia honours her deceased father’s wish. Suitors from all parts of the world flock to Belmont, the place where Portia lives, in order to win her hand.

Portia has so many qualities so exquisitely blended together that one cannot help marveling at her versatility. Physically she is very beautiful with all the feminine graces of vivacity, tenderness, sympathy and mercy. Intellectually, she is a lady of great wisdom. She is gifted with sound commonsense and very ready, quick and incisive wit. What is more she has the rare gift of exploiting these attributes to the maxim. At a time when all is given up as lost Portia retrieves Antonio’s life from a stony adversary. She too has, like Shylock, the gift and ability of seeing her chance to act, when she finds that her husband’s best and dearest friend Antonio is in mortal danger she immediately sensed the gravity of the situation. She also realize that there is no time to lose and immediately after sending Bassanio to Venice she takes upon herself the task of saving Antonio. And we know that in the court of Venice she proves beyond all doubts, that she is Shylock’s superior in intellectual calibre.. She tenders all the ingenuity of Shylock ineffective and like a seasoned lawyer turns tables on Shylock, the Jew when all seems lost. She does not stop there but proceeds to annihilate Shylock to the the extend nobody can think possible. The Jew was caught in his own vice-grip and agrees to embrace Christianity even. She staggers and dazes Shylock with her intellectual brilliance and the intransigent Jew of moments before catapults and succumbs to the legal adroitness exhibited by her. The entire court, the Jew includes, is bewildered with amazement at ingenuous interpretation of the language of the bond and the application of law. She has a strong sense of justice.

Who, but a person of vision and wisdom, can think of the mission to save Antonio? Portia is a lady of vision and foresight. She has practical wisdom of the world.

She is very human. Her treatment of Nerissa does her great honour she treats Nerissa as her companion and not servant. She is a lady and like an ordinary human being capable of likes and dislikes and also capable of the passion of love. She loves Bassanio and confesses the true feelings of her heart before Bassanio. The earlier efforts of the Princes of Morocco and Arragon had given her the knowledge of the correct casket but it must be said to her credit and it is something very noble and honourable in her character that she does no divulge this to Bassanio. Thus Portia is a lady with a very strong sense of justice and honour. She is also gifted with the ability to keep her passion under her firm control.

While confessing her love for him before Bassanio, Portia shows her humility. She does not pose to be a lady of means as she really is. She is never vain and proud. She is simple but very intelligent.

Her eloquent plea for mercy in the court in Venice give us the glimpses of the noble heart.

So Hazlitt’s suggestion that Portia has affection and pedantry about her is unjustified. There is no ostentation of intellect or conceit in Portia. She is, on the contrary, very unassuming.

Portia’s character is revealed through her actions and speeches, through what other people say about her and lastly the impression she creates on the audience or the readers.

In the Casket Scene with Bassanio, Portia emerges as a true woman experiencing acutely the passion of love and feeling helplessness at being restricted by the eurovision of her dead father’s will. But she also emerges there as lady with a very strong sense of honour. She knows the correct casket but does not consider it honourable to stoop to hint Bassanio about it.

Her intellectual acumen, the grasp of affairs, insight into human nature, faith in the noble and divine qualities of mercy and pity and very wide, deep and thorough knowledge of the law of the land. She has a very strong sense of justice. She does not believe in truncated justice. She pleads that Shylock should be given nothing but justice because he has been demanding justice. She deals with shylock strictly according to the existing law. There is no malice, feeling of revenge or hate against Shylock. But she also has the woman’s true instinct of kindness and mercy. Even when she pronounces death sentence for Shylock, she suggests and advises him to appeal to the duke to spare his life.

Her sense of humour, consideration for people around her and her sense of proposition are revealed in the Ring Episode and in the final scene at Belmont. She enjoys her husbands embarrassment hut does not carry it too far. She readily accepts Antonio’s intervention to save the situation for Bassanio.

Finally, we find Portia standing aloof from the others who are no match for her harmonious fullness of character. She dominates the play as no one else, not even Shylock, does. She may safely be termed as both the hero and the heroine of the play. The paly. The Merchant of Venice’ also confirms the view that Shakespeare has no heroes but only heroine. Here the paly is named after Antonio but he can never be imagined to be the hero of the paly – he is so passive, devoid of all action and initiative. Shylock is the villain. Bassanio is a tiny-toddler before both, Shylock and Portia.

Portia is the most perfect of all Shakespearean heroines. All is virtue. talent and accomplishment-physical, intellectual and moral-about her, no sign of blemish as we see in other heroines of Shakespeare.