Compare and contrast the characters of Rosalind in As You Like It and Portia in The Merchant of Venice.
Portia and Rosalind are both heroines of Shakespearean comedies. They are both high born, clever, witty, and resourceful. They also both have male authority figures dictating their lives: the instructions in Portia's father's will mean that he is determining who she will marry even from beyond the grave, while Rosalind's uncle forces her to leave home by exiling her from his court.
Another significant similarity is that they both disguise themselves as men. Rosalind takes on the persona of Ganymede when she flees into the forest as a means of protecting herself. As a woman, she would be too vulnerable to attack. While in the forest, she incites the love of a shepherdess who believes her to be a man, and tutors Orlando, who also does not know it's her, in how to love her as a woman.
Portia's reasons for donning her disguise are quite different, and she spends...
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far less time masquerading as a man than Rosalind does. She has already secured the love of Bassanio when she takes on the persona of Balthazar, so there are fewer of the comic instances of mistaken identity that can be found inAs You Like It. Portia takes on this disguise not for her own protection but to help Antonio, her beloved's good friend, by pretending to be a lawyer and defending him before the Duke of Venice.
Compare and contrast Portia from The Merchant of Venice and Viola from Twelfth Night.
The big similarity is that both Portia and Viola disguise themselves as men at some point in the story. Their reasons for doing so are different, however: Portia does so to rescue Antonio from Shylock's vengeance, while Viola is disguising herself in a foreign land where as a woman she might be vulnerable to physical assault or others who would take advantage of women. She is also hoping to gain employment in the court of Duke Orsino, who might not wish to employ a woman.
As characters, the two contrast greatly. Portia comes off as more assertive than the gentle Viola. Portia manipulates situations to get what she wants, such as guiding Bassanio to choose the correct casket so she can have him for her husband. Viola pines for Orsino by contrast, though to be fair, she must hide her identity while working for him.
Portia has a sharp wit, while Viola's use of language is more lyrical. Portia is quite intellectual, considering how she's able to argue for Antonio's life successfully in court. Viola's intelligence belongs more to the realm of the heart, since compared to all the other foolish and lovesick characters in Twelfth Night, her love alone is pure and noble. She is wise when it comes to how romantic love operates, though she is as subject to its thrall as the other characters are.