Can You See It

William Shakespeare lived in the Elizabethan era, in fact many of his plays seemed to have captured the ideals of the society in which he lived, particularly, the roles that women played in his plays. These women were able to create their individual identities in the plays, apart from assuming their roles as women wives (Emilia) or lovers (Bianca) to the main characters of Shakespearean plays. Shakespeare presents another side of the woman's character through the existing father and daughter relationship that are often present in his stories. The father and daughter relationship seemed to be of the uttermost importance as it would appear that the fate of these women correlated with their relationships to their male relations, particular their fathers. In Merchant of Venice, Portia was portrayed as the ideal upper-class woman but most importantly, she was obedient to the request of her father. Jessica,  Juliet and Desdemona on the other hand were depicted as deceptive and disobedient to their fathers, and their fates were adversely affected because of it.  Shakespeare’s presented of many of his female characters showed the evolution from the Elizabethan woman to the early Renaissance woman. The female characters in Shakespeare’s plays were presented with more complexities than the typical Elizabethan women would have been regarded. The Elizabethan era was eventually superseded by the era of Renaissance which brought with it the reformation and change to the way women were see in England. Nevertheless, Shakespeare did not entirely depart from the model Elizabethan woman.

In the Merchant of Venice, Portia comes across as the heroine of the play. Not only is she beautiful but her wealth makes her even more attractive to men. Her father, in his will, stated that Portia cannot choose her husband, he instead devises an ingenious test that all of Portia’s suitors must perform. The suitors must chose from among the casket of gold, silver and lead one of which holds the picture of Portia. The person who chooses the correct casket would be able to marry Portia. The second scene begins with Portia expressing her discontent in not being able to choose a husband due to the terms of her fathers will. The scene takes place in Portia’s house in Belmont, in venting to her mistress Nerissa she says;  

        O me, the ‘word’ choose!

        I may not choose who I would nor refuse who I dislike;

        So is the will of a living daughter curb’d by the will of a dead father.

        Is it not hard, Nerissa that I cannot chose one, nor refuse none?

In this scene we Portia have been introduce to the idea of being independent as she contemplates the freedom of being to choose who she would wed. She also comes to the realization that even beyond death the ‘will’ of her father usurps the ‘will’ she has for herself. Here we see Shakespeare stepping out of the Elizabethan model in this instance where Portia is expressing discontent in being unable to marry, during the Elizabethan era arranged marriage for persons of Portia’s nobility were not in the least bit uncommon. Shakespeare however, quickly placed Portia backed into the Elizabethan mold through her act of obedience to her dead father’s will. Although Portia dreaded having to marry any one of the suitors that attempted at her hand in marriage, she carried out the will of her father nevertheless. It would seem as though Portia’s father through his will is still in control of his daughter’s life even after his own encounter with mortality. He sees portion as his possession, and through the nature of his will he choose who the possession of his Portia is transferred to. It is difficult nonetheless, to conclude that term of the will were strictly to control Portia. It was his duty as a father to provide for and protect Portia who would be seen as she was the ‘weaker sex’. He placed the picture of Portia in the casket of lead, showing that he wanted his daughter to find someone who would love her, and was not concern with her wealth, someone who would forgo silver or gold, and choose of the three lead.

Portia’s love interest Bassanio ends up being the suitor who chose the correct casket of lead, which held Portia’s picture.

 When Bassanio spoke to Antonio the first words that Bassanio uttered, in describing Portia was concerned her wealth and then mentioned her beauty. In Act II Scene II he says,

        In Belmont is a lady richly left,

            And she is fair and, fairer than the word.

This showed that even Bassanio, who chose the casket of lead, was motivated by possessing the gold that would accompany his marriage to Portia. Bassanio’s marriage to Portia was in part a financial acquisition, which was the norm in nuptials to women of the upper-class in Elizabethan society. Although, it is evident that Bassanio is quite taken with Portia, Bassanio lives to squander money; her bride’s dowry is even more appealing.  After the couple had wed Bassanio goes back to, Venice willing to double Antonio’s debt with the money that his marriage has brought him. This only the second time in the play that Bassanio is using money on a worthwhile cause; the first was on his quest to win Portia.

Apart from being the upper-class obedient daughter and a financial conquest, Portia is portrayed as an intelligent woman and she ends up becoming the heroine of the play by settling the dispute between Antonio and Shylock. Portia’s insightfully reading of their bond and manipulation of Shylock’s strictness to the bond lead to her discovering the loophole that saved Antonio’s life.

        This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood:

The words expressly are ‘a pound of flesh’.

Take then thy bond, take thou pound of flesh;

But, in the cutting if thou dost shed

One drop of Christan blood, thy lands and goods

Are, by law of Venice, confiscate

Unto the state of Venice.

Although, Shakespearean women are generally presented as inferior  the role of Portia’ seemed to have ushered the ‘renaissance’ of Shakespeare’s female characterization, by giving Portia, a woman, such a central and significant role in the play. His depiction of her as intelligent and witty in an era were women were uneducated was very liberal. All the same, Shakespeare’s heroine in the Merchant of Venice did not venture to far from the traditional model of a good Elizabethan woman, as it was Portia’s Elizabethan characteristics such as her obedience that made accepting her as a heroine less difficult. Portia the model Elizabethan woman ends up with her love Bassanio who sees as a possession and a sex object, an opportunity to display her wit among men who see has inferior, even though she was disguised as a man herself, and happily in the utopia of Belmont through her obedience.

Jessica the daughter of Shylock on the other hand is portrayed as a the disobedient daughter, Jessica elopes with Lorenzo a Christian, abandoning Shylock, and stealing from him.  She is hardly the submissive, obedient daughter that Shylock believes he has raised her to be. Jessica says in her first line in Act II Secne III as she prepares to leave,

Our house is hell, 

Shylock, isolates her from the world maintaining dominance and power over her, and because he feels as though he has control over her he does not think to distrust her

“Hear you me, Jessica:

Lock up my doors; and when you hear the drum  

And the vile squealing of the wry-necked fife,

 Clamber not you up to the casements then,

 Nor thrust your head into the public street

To gaze upon Christian fools with varnished faces;

 . . . Let not the sound of shallow fopp’ry enter

 My sober house”

He assumes he has her obedience and doesn’t give it a second thought, Preoccupied with his money (“I did dream of moneybags tonight” [Act II. Scene V.18]) and his revenge (“I’ll go in hate, to feed upon / The prodigal Christian” [Act II. Scene V.14–15]). “There are my keys,” he says to Jessica, “Look to my house” (Act II.Scene V.12, 16).

When Shylock discovers that Jessica has fled, we see that Shylock not because his lost daughter, he was upset because he lost his possession, among which Jessica is included.

 “My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter !

 Fled with a Christian! O my Christian ducats!

Justice! The law! My ducats and my daughter!  

A sealed bag, two sealed bags of ducats,  

Of double ducats, stol’n from me by my daughter!  

And jewels—two stones, two rich and precious stones,

Stol’n by my daughter! Justice! Find the girl!  

She hath the stones with her, and the ducats!” 

And it is equally apparent which of the two he values more:

“I would my daughter were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear!

 Would she were hearsed at my foot, and the ducats in her coffin!” 

After Jessica ran away, he exclaims in disbelief,

My own flesh and blood to rebel!

The way Shylock sees Jessica and the way he treats her reflects many father-daughter relationship during the Elizabethan era, like Portia, Jessica was the possession of her father. Jessica, in contrast, to Portia, attempts free herself of her father through disobedience and deception. These two attribute are in direct contrast of the principle at the women of this era is thought, which is obedience, submission and loyalty. Perhaps, this is why Jessica’s struggle for her independence from her father is undermined, and considered a mere act of rebellion.  The fate of disobedient Shakespearean  women is often death, however, Jessica fate was quite different, she marries Lorenzo the man she loves, become an heiress to Shylock’s possession and ends up in blissful Belmont as a result of  her disobedience to the Jewish, villain Shylock. If Shylock had not been the villain in the Merchant of Venice Jessica’s disregard for the principles of a model Elizabethan her fate would have been similar to the character of Juliet.

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