She is intelligent and good with words, and she likes to perform in front of people, for example in Act 2 Sc 1, she hides her real feelings from Prince Morocco, by speaking and acting politely and sincerely. “Yourself, renownéd prince, then stood as fair as any comer I have looked on yet, for my affection.” But after he picks the wrong casket, she tells us that she does not like him, “A gentle riddance! Draw the curtains, go.”
In Act 4 Sc 1, Portia disguises as Doctor Balthazar, the lawyer who defends Antonio from being killed by Shylock at the very last moment. In this scene, we find many contradictions in the things she says and does. For instance, she talks strictly of the law, but she is bending the law herself, by imitating as a lawyer. She gives everyone a speech on mercy, but then callously destroys Shylock. She has cleverly made traps for Shylock to fall into, like offering him triple the amount in debt, rather than the pound of flesh. Then she pretends to judge that Shylock will have his pound of flesh. At the last second, she mentions that loss of blood is not written in the bond, so Shylock will break the law if he takes the pound of flesh. At this point, Shylock begs for the money, but Portia is merciless. She also says that the law states that if anyone who plots to kill a Venetian, he or she must lose all his wealth. As a result, Shylock is now devastated and Antonio is saved by Portia with her witty mind.
Portia is also a humorous character, which enlivens the scenes she appears in. For example, in Act 3 Sc 5, she tells Nerissa about her plan in disguising as men, and how to acting out the behaviours of men from what she have observed in her life. “I have within my mind, a thousand raw tricks of these bragging Jacks.” She might as well have some fun while trying to save Antonio’s life. In the courtroom scene, when Bassanio offers his life to Antonio, Portia replied that if his wife was to hear that, she would not be happy, “Your wife would give you little thanks for that, if she were by, to hear you make the offer.”
The ring plot was also Portia’s idea, where she tests his husband if he really loves her or not. He did give the ring to Balthazar and when Bassanio returned home, Portia acted as if she was angry and she proved that he was disloyal to her, but at the end, she tells her that is was just a mock and they were happy to be together again.
To conclude, Portia is perhaps one of the most intelligent and appealing heroine in Shakespeare history, appearing as the beauty and wealthy lady in Belmont, while in Venice, the decisive and intelligent lawyer who saved Antonio’s life.
