Portia (The Merchant of Venice)

Portia is the heroine of William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. A rich, beautiful, and
intelligent heiress, she is bound by the lottery set forth in her father's will, which gives potential
suitors the chance to choose between three caskets composed of gold, silver and lead. If they choose
the right casket – the casket containing Portia's portrait and a scroll– they win Portia's hand in
marriage. If they choose the wrong casket, they must leave and never seek another woman in
marriage. Portia is glad when two suitors, one driven by greed and another by vanity, fail to choose
correctly. She favours Bassanio, a young Venetian noble, but is not allowed to give him any clues to
assist in his choice. Later in the play, she disguises herself as a man, then assumes the role of a
lawyer's apprentice (named Balthazar) whereby she saves the life of Bassanio's friend, Antonio, in
court.
Portia is one of the most prominent and appealing of the heroines in Shakespeare's mature
romantic comedies. She is beautiful, gracious, rich, intelligent, and quick-witted, with high
standards for her potential romantic partners. She obeys her father's will, while steadfastly seeking
to obtain Bassanio. She demonstrates tact to the Princes of Morocco and Aragon, who
unsuccessfully seek her hand. In the court scenes, Portia finds a technicality in the bond, thereby
outwitting Shylock and saving Antonio's life when everyone else including Antonio fails. It is Portia
who delivers one of the most famous speeches in The Merchant of Venice:
"The quality of mercy is not strain'd.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes."
The strength of the role of Portia has made it attractive to many notable actresses. Frances
Abington, Sarah Siddons and Elizabeth Whitlock all played Portia in the 18th century when
actresses first started appearing on stage in performances of the play. More recently, the role has
been depicted in the cinema and on television by a number of notable actresses such as Maggie
Smith, Claire Bloom, Sybil Thorndike, Joan Plowright, Caroline John and Gemma Jones.
Despite Portia's lack of formal legal training, she wins her case by referring to the details of the
exact language of the law. Her success involves prevailing on technicalities rather than the merits of
the situation. She uses the tactics of what is sometimes called a Philadelphia lawyer. However, the
concept of rhetoric and its abuse is also brought to light by Portia – highlighting the idea that an
unjust argument may win through eloquence, loopholes and technicalities, regardless of the moral
question at hand – and thus provoking the audience to consider that issue. After a few months,
Portia and Bassanio live together along with Nerissa and her husband, and Antonio. Shylock has his
job back but only half his money and Jessica and Lorenzo are found in Portia's castle.
Portia, the wealthy heiress of Belmont in Shakespeare’s comedy The Merchant of Venice. In
attempting to find a worthy husband, she sets in motion the action of the play. She is one of
Shakespeare’s classic cross-dressing heroines, and, dressed as a male lawyer (a redundant phrase
in Shakespeare’s time), she delivers an eloquent speech, “The quality of mercy is not strain’d” (Act
IV, scene 1), in an attempt to reason with Shylock.

1. Portia and the Casket Contest

Portia clearly wants to marry Bassanio. Yes, we realize this is an unfortunate choice
given that Bassanio a) wants Portia's money and b) seems to value his bromance with
Antonio more than his relationship with her. When Bassanio shows up to try his luck at
the casket lottery, Portia has her band of personal musicians play a little tune (full of
not-so-subtle hints) that helps Bassanio make the right choice (3.2.65-74). You can read
more about this music business in "Symbolism."

2. Portia Saves Antonio's Life and Her Marriage

You remember how Portia cross-dresses as a lawyer and saves Antonio's life during the
big trial scene, right? This means she not only was clever enough to save her man's
BFF, but she also made it so that both men owe her big-time. The next time Bassanio
and Antonio are thinking about spending the weekend playing Xbox together, they'll
probably feel so guilty that Bassanio will decide to hang out with his wife in Belmont
instead.

3. The Ring Trick

We saved the best evidence for last. After Bassanio snags Portia by winning the casket
contest, Portia gives him a ring and makes him promise to never, ever part with it
(3.2.176-178). Being Bassanio, he parts with the ring when Portia (disguised as
Balthazar the lawyer) says something like, "Hey Bassanio, since I just saved your
friend's life, how about you give me that ring you're wearing" (4.1).
Why does Portia do this? Because she knows that Bassanio will give up her ring, with
all it symbolizes, as a gesture of thanks to the "man" who saved his beloved Antonio's
life. (She knows exactly where Bassanio's loyalties are, and they're not with her.) When
Portia later confronts Bassanio about losing her ring, he knows he's busted and feels
guilty about betraying her. Like we said, Bassanio will think twice now about blowing off
Portia to hang with Antonio.
So Portia is limited by her circumstances as a woman and has to obey her dad and
navigate relationships with men (like Bassanio) who want her for her money. But she
manages to play by society's rules (mostly) while having a lot of fun twisting said rules
to her own advantage. In the end, Portia outsmarts everyone and winds up on top.
Portia is an extraordinarily rich heiress of Belmont constrained by her father’s will to accept in
marriage whichever suitor successfully passes the test of the three caskets.

Luckily, as an unsuccessful suitor must swear to never marry, most of them refuse to go as far as
the ordeal, but she is still not overly glad of her circumstances. She has no taste for dark-
complexioned men, though she is tactful enough not to say so directly to the Prince of Morocco. She
is highly hopeful that Bassanio will succeed, but worried enough that she begs him to wait a few
days before attempting the task, as she does not want him to leave as he will have to if he fails. By
this point she definitely knows which casket is the successful one, and she has a song sung during
his meditations that contains many words rhyming with "lead." On being won, she is somewhat
uncertain as to what she is, now that all her wealth has passed to Bassanio. She is either wildly
generous or has no actual sense of money, offering a massive fortune to Bassanio to help Antonio
with Shylock. She is also highly intelligent and trained in law, and knows enough that she quickly
conceives a plan to secretly save Antonio’s life disguised as a man. With the help of instructions
from her father’s old friend Bellario, she is able to do so, though she drags it out unconscionably,
giving Shylock multiple opportunities to stop, but letting him get to the point of killing Antonio before
revealing that he cannot and stripping him of his wealth. As thanks for saving Antonio’s life, she
receives the ring that she gave Bassanio that he had sworn never to part with. Not best pleased by
this, especially as he has earlier sworn he’d give her up to save Antonio, she leads him a merry
dance on his return to Belmont, refusing to listen to his protestations of good faith and swearing that
she would sleep with the lawyer who had the ring should he come along. Having properly panicked
Bassanio, she reveals the trick, to his evident relief. She is also able to let Antonio know that he is
not ruined after all, one of his ships having made it to shore, though she refuses to say how she
knows.