“Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.”
Inscription on the gold casket
Morocco understands this to be describing Portia and chooses it. All that is in the casket is a carrion skull. He is disconcerted that he chose incorrectly, after being chided a fool by the scroll inside the casket, he leaves swiftly. Shakespeare influences the audiences attitudes towards Morocco by the racist comments made in the play and showing him being insecure and he speaks in prose like an unimportant character, he is often portrayed as a comical character to add meaning or to give a different slant to his actions.
The second suitor, Prince Arragon is a Spaniard. His name is a pun of arrogant. Portia wants to get the ordeal over with quickly but Arragon takes his time choosing. He too dismisses the lead casket, as if it does not even bare thinking about. He considers the gold too common for him too choose because he is better than that. He is left therefore with the silver casket which he chooses because he thinks he deserves Portia and should not go without her. Arragon talks in prose, which shows his self-importance is greater than his importance to the plot. He is confident he has picked the correct casket. Inside it however he sees the portrait of an idiot. For such a pretentious person this is very humiliating. When he discovers he is wrong, he is embarrassed and speaks humbly;
“Sweet adieu! I’ll keep my oath, patiently bear my wroth.”
Arragon, Line 77, Act II Scene IV
This is a similarity between Morocco and Arragon. They both enter the scene lavishly and depart quickly. Shakespeare influences the audience’s attitude towards Arragon because of the way he is presented, in an exaggerated way. He is not mentioned previously by Portia and is stereotypical of a Spaniard of the time. This would have been amusing for the Shakespearean audience as relations at the time with the Spanish were bitter.
The suitor of paramount importance is Bassanio. His importance is significant because Portia favours him to all the others. He has of course already been introduced and played a fairly large part prior to the meeting. There is great tension in his scene because Portia now knows that the correct casket is lead and she would like him to pick correctly. There is pressure on Bassanio because although he appears to want to marry Portia there is the underlying factor that he needs to re-pay the loan given to him through Shylock, by Antonio, he does not however show it openly. He does not have qualities similar to the other two characters and is portrayed in a good light. In contrast to the other two suitors, Bassanio is eager to complete the task quickly and Portia urges him to think about slowly and carefully. She plays music for him while he contemplates the caskets. In his speech he talks of law, beauty, war, cowardice and religion. Of beauty he says;
“The beauteous scarf veiling an Indian beauty.”
Bassanio, line 98, Act III, Scene II
By this he means that veils can be deceiving to even the wisest of people. The Shakespearean audience could have related to this as pale skin was favoured. He speaks wisely and contrasts the other two suitors who are self-important and materialistic in a sense. He picks the lead casket;
“Thou meagre lead, which rather threaten’st than dost promise aught, thy paleness moves me more than eloquence, and here choose I.”
Bassanio, line 105, Act III, Scene II
Bassanio also feels threatened by the lead casket but he sees beyond that and when he finds Portia’s portrait inside the casket, he is beside himself with joy, for now he need worry about money no longer. Bassanio is perhaps depicted as a better character than he actually is. The atmosphere when he is around is happy and contented. Shakespeare presents him to the audience as a good, Christian Venetian who deserves respect and Portia’s script shows the audience that she wants to be with Bassanio to be happy and the audience begin to agree with her.
Each of the three suitors is significant but Shakespeare presents each one in such a way, that the audiences’ views are swayed towards and against them. It adds comedy to the roles and stirs up discrimination against Morocco and Arragon. Morocco and Arragon can be compared in this way. The strongest contrast is Bassanio because he is so different it his actions to the other suitors.
