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Can you provide a reference to the ring episode in The Merchant of Venice?
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The ring episode in "The Merchant of Venice" is pivotal, symbolizing love and loyalty. Portia gives Bassanio a ring as a token of marriage, warning that losing or giving it away would signify the end of their love. During the trial, Bassanio reluctantly gives the ring to Portia, disguised as a lawyer, after persuasion from Antonio. This act tests Bassanio's loyalty. A parallel subplot involves Gratiano and Nerissa, emphasizing themes of trust and fidelity.
The ring plays an important role in The Merchant of Venice. Portia first gives the ring to Bassanio, as a token of their marriage vow, and later uses it a test of his love and friendship.
When she gives Bassanio the ring, Portia tells him that it stands for all her inherited worldly goods as well as her heart, and that if he loses it or gives it away, that act will indicate that he no longer loves her and that she could change her mind. Bassanio agrees and accepts the terms.
I give them with this ring
Which when you part from, lose or give away
Let it presage the ruin of your love,
And be my vantage to exclaim on you . . .
During the trial, Portia impersonates a lawyer in order to save Bassanio from having to fulfill Shylock ’s contract, which she does...
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by proving it is impossible to fulfill. Afterword, the “doctor of laws” suggests to Bassanio that he offer to him a token of thanks. Bassanio offers his gloves, but (at first) refuses her additional request of the ring, because it was his wife's gift.
Good sir, this ring was given me by my wife;
And when she put it on, she made me vow
That I should neither sell nor give nor lose it.
Antonio, who is his best friend and has lent him money, then persuades him, and he sends it along.
My Lord Bassanio, let him have the ring
Let his deservings and my love withal
Be valued against your wife's commandment . . .
There is a secondary ring subplot, involving Gratiano and Nerissa, in which a man similarly seems to slight his female lover’s gift. Portia rebukes him for this slight:
You were to blame, I must be plain with you,
To part so slightly with your wife's first gift . . .
For further analysis, see:
Newman, Karen. 1987. "Portia's Ring: Unruly Women and Structures of Exchange in The Merchant of Venice." Shakespeare Quarterly 38 (1): 19–33.
The following three references trace the ring leit motif found in the second half of the story.
The recourse to an element of three (three caskets, three rings, three confrontations, etc....) are tritely a "fairy tale" element in this already farfetched tale. Shylock the usurer conveniently replaces the ogre and Portia, the fairy godmother!