FOCUS 2

Character

Studies:

PORTIA PORTIA Prepared by

Yeo Yam Hwee

SECONDARY TWO

LITERATURE IN ENGLISH MERCHANT OF VENICE – Retold

as a Short Story by Leon Garfield

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How to write about Portia

PHYSICAL

QUALITIES

MENTAL

QUALITIES QUALITIES QUALITIES

MORAL

QUALITIES

SOCIAL

QUALITIES 2

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PHYSICAL QUALITIES

Portia is described as “lovely as she is

rich”. Any suitor who picks the correct

casket will enjoy “happiness beyond

measure”. She is in love however, with measure”. She is in love however, with

Bassanio, whom she remembers as the

young Venetian “scholar and a soldier”

who used to accompany the Marquis of

Montferrat.

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MENTAL QUALITIES • Portia is described as being “jewelled with every

virtue”, so much so that she has many suitors. Her name is “enshrined all the beauty of the world”.

• Portia is submissive to her late father’s wish that she does not choose a husband but “must instead be chosen”, which makes “her little body”, “aweary (tired) chosen”, which makes “her little body”, “aweary (tired) of this great world”. Although Portia is young, she is burdened with responsibilities that makes her feel tired of “this great world”. She knows of the wonderful things in the world that she will not get to experience while she is trapped in her “house of smiles in Belmont”. So she is not entirely her father’s stool pigeon but has a mind of her own.

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MENTAL QUALITIES Portia, the young lawyer in the court scene,

tells us what she thinks about mercy – “The

quality of mercy is not strained” but should

“drop as the gentle rain from heaven upon the “drop as the gentle rain from heaven upon the

place beneath”. She is so full of wisdom

when she tells the court that mercy “is twice

blessed – it blesses him that gives and him

that takes”.

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MORAL QUALITIES Portia does not fancy any of the suitors who

have arrived at her House of Smiles in

Belmont to try to unravel the mystery of the

caskets. She suppresses her own dreams of caskets. She suppresses her own dreams of

being able to chose a man whom she truly

loves because she submits to her late father’s

will that she shall be “the chosen” rather than

the “chooser”. There is “no warmth in her

affection” towards the princely suitors at all.

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MORAL QUALITIESIn the court, impersonating as a young lawyer, we see a

Portia who is full of wisdom and compassion. She pleads

passionately with Shylock to “temper justice with mercy”

even though Shylock will have nothing of it because he

demands to have his pound of Antonio’s flesh. She appears

so confident of the power of the law which Shylock uses to so confident of the power of the law which Shylock uses to

his full advantage that he cannot help but praises Portia as “a

Daniel who has come to deliver the judgement”. Shylock

thinks Portia is “a wise lawyer”. However, it is the same wise

lawyer in Portia whom at the most important moment,

reminds Shylock that the terms of his contract allows him to

cut one pound of flesh from Antonio’s body without any drop

of blood and he must ensure that no blood is shed. Portia’s

intelligence brings about the total defeat of Shylock. 7

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SOCIAL QUALITIES Portia is cordial towards all the suitors whom

she has met at her house. She is ever so

sympathetic to any suitor who has to leave in

disappointment if he happens to have picked disappointment if he happens to have picked

the wrong casket as he is bound by her

father’s will to “go forever without a wife”.

Portia is admired and “love” by all her suitors

who are willing to lose their “happiness” if

they fail to pick the correct casket.

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