When Bassanio correctly chooses the casket with "Fair Portia's counterfeit" enclosed, Portia expresses her consent to marry him when she states (in the third person), "Happiest of all, is that her gentle spirit / Commits itself to yours to be directed / As from her lord, her governor, her king" (3.2.67-69). These words suggest a traditional marriage arrangement in which the husband is in charge and the woman is submissive. Yet, one act later, she sneaks off to Venice, dressed in men's garments, to save Bassanio's dear friend Antonio from almost certain death. She masterfully takes charges of the trial and cleverly sets a legal trap for Shylock. Furthermore, she tests Bassanio's fidelity by demanding her ring in the person of the young clerk Balthasar -- a test he fails. She even teases him with the prospect of infidelity when he can't produce the ring:
I will become as liberal as you:
I will not deny him anything I have,
No, not my body nor my husband's bed.
Know him I shall, I am well sure of it (5.1.242-5)
Her thinly veiled threat of adultery is hardly part of a conservative notion of marriage. So what is going on in this play? Is her consent to a traditional marriage and submission to Bassanio insincere? Is she using subterfuge and trickery as women's weapons in a man's world? Does she change her mind? What is it saying about marriage and male-female relationships? Who is really wearing the pants in this relationship?
Portia is a tricky character in the play. She seems to be this out of the box character, who does not really listen, but at the same time she breaks the rules and sneaks around, i.e. the trial and the testing of the ring. Although, she does wish to follow her father's last dying wishes and tries to keep within tradition and find a suitable husband. After turning away, and making fun of countless suitors, Portia talks to Nerissa about everything.
ReplyDelete"O, me, the word 'choose'! I
may neither choose who I would nor refuse who I
dislike. So is the will of a living daughter curbed by
the will of a dead father. Is it not hard, Nerissa, that
I cannot choose one, nor refuse none?"(1.2.22-26).
Even though Portia seems to break the rules, and not want to listen, she still wishes to follow her father's will. Portia is not exactly submissive though. As soon as Portia and Bassanio are to be married, and they are happy and in love, she goes against the first thing he asks her to do, stay behind. This could create problems later on in their marriage and really show who is in charge.
Portia first enters the play entertaining suitors at her home in Belmont. Due to her deceased father’s wishes, she will be wed to the man who correctly chooses from three caskets of gold, silver, and lead. Following his death, this proviso prevented her from marrying anyone, regardless of if she loved him or not. Women in this time period were supposed to be submissive and in either their husband or father’s control, but due to her father’s death and wishes, no man was in control of her for a considerable time. During this period she was able to do whatever she wished so long as it didn’t interfere with her father’s wishes. This freedom and control allowed her to grow as a person and break away from the normal societal constraints. She expresses this after Bassonio chooses the correct casket suggesting that “the full sum of [her] / Is sum of something, which, to term in gross, / Is an unlessoned girl, unschooled, unpracticed” (3.2.161-3). She recognizes that the absence of a male figure in her life has led her to be less than ideal, but she voices a willingness to learn. She loves Bassonio and is willing to change who she is to be with him. During their vows, she offers herself to Bassonio as an act of tradition, but the freedom she experienced following her father’s death isn’t easily forgotten. As newlyweds, Bassonio leaves for Venice to save Antonio. Portia wants to help and doesn’t see why she should stay behind. She is an independent woman who has functioned by herself for too long to need a man to direct her. Portia does this to help her husband and his friend and doesn’t fully recognize the consequences of her actions. She is simply acting as she always has. In the case of the trial of the rings, she begins to doubt Bassonio’s loyalty to her because, “life, [his] wife, and all the world / Are not with [him] esteemed above [Antonio’s] life” (4.1.296-7). In order to test how much she is worth to him she asks for her ring disguised as the Doctor Balthazar. Antonio fails this relationship and she looses all trust in him. She loved him and he let her down leaving their marriage in shambles. The freedom that Portia gained from her father’s death is unique among women of that time, so her actions, while with good intentions, did not fit into predefined gender roles. Due to this freedom, Portia is more active in her marriage than Bassonio and comes across as sneaky and conniving.
ReplyDelete