Jul 24, 2008

The Merchant of Venice | Portia (Character Analysis)

When we first hear of Portia, Bassanio is extolling her virtues to Antonio. Chief among these virtues, in Bassanio's estimation, is the money she stands to inherit. When we first meet Portia in Belmont, she is bemoaning the constraints her deceased father has placed on that inheritance. She must marry the man who correctly identifies one of three caskets, and Portia punningly complains, "so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father" (I.ii.24-25). Portia, however, is not a character who will allow her will to be curbed.

Bassanio may have wanted to marry Portia...