According to Peter Malin, men were terrified of being deceived by women, and having their reputations damaged by being “cuckolded.” Both Desdemona and Portia are deceitful. Brabantio’s description of “a maiden never bold” (1.3.95) is a far cry from the “outspoken” Desdemona that we see in the Senate, showing that she has been putting on a façade in front of her father. Portia, likewise, deceives Lorenzo by saying that she and Nerissa are going to “live in prayer and contemplation” (3.4.28) until their husbands return. Even minor female characters have manipulative tendencies. Nerissa, for example , disguised as the clerk, is able to “get [her] husband’s ring.” (4.2.13) It is possible to say that the women only appear deceitful because they are secretly breaking the constraints of society. If women had the same rights as men, perhaps they wouldn’t have to act in secret.
However, Desdemona’s blatant disregard for society’s strictures is shown by her elopement. Although now it seems archaic to ask permission to be married, at the time it was compulsory if the marriage were to seem “lawful.” Edwin Sandys preached in 1585 that all marriages must “have the full consent of their parents” or else the marriage will be the “cause of great sin and much misery.” The elopement with Othello was a “dishonour” of “so flood-gate and o’erbearing nature” (1.3.57) that she is “dead” (1.3.59) to her father. From then on, it seems that Desdemona is doomed, as her reputation as an innocent girl is tainted. In the Olivier Othello, Desdemona runs into the Senate and embraces Othello. This is seen as romantic to a modern audience, due to our intolerance of racism. However in Shakespeare’s time the relationship would be seen by many as against the will of God. The audacity that Desdemona shows would have been seen as shocking by the majority of the Elizabethan audience.
Shakespeare’s portrayal of Portia is completely contrasted with that of Desdemona. Portia is paradoxically conformist and non-conformist at the same time. She preserves her reputation by obeying her father’s will, yet some of her actions suggest that she is rebelling against the patriarchal society. For example, she asks Nerissa to “put a glass of Rhenish wine on the contrary casket” (1.2.59) before the alcoholic suitor from Germany takes his pick of the caskets. Moreover, critics such as Moody and Fiedler have argued that although Portia decided that she will not “teach [Bassanio] how to choose right,” (3.2.10-11) she hints that the correct casket is the leaden one, since the song before his selection has the words “bred”, “head” and “nourishèd” in it, which all coincidentally rhyme with “lead.” They believe that it is “quite unbelievable” that Bassanio “should have chosen it unprompted.”
However, this is a rather cynical view and it violates “the dramatic and literary conventions the play exploits.” Before Bassanio chooses the casket, we know that he is going to choose correctly, since the “third lover [in a fairytale] will free the imprisoned princess from enchantment after the first two suitors have failed.” Bassanio, with “no purse of [his] own, is a man who is “seemingly a failure in the eyes of the world.” By fairytale convention, it is necessary that he will “emerge triumphant.” If he received help from Portia then he would not be the hero that the fairytale genre demands of him.
However, unlike Othello which is indisputably a Tragedy, The Merchant of Venice does not conform to the typical comedy, so why must the play conform to the conventions set by fairytales? Shakespeare could by toying with the idea of genre, as well as the typical portrayal of women. If this is the case, then it seems as though Portia is only obeying the rules insofar as the public eye can see. She does not strictly play by the rules, yet she does not break any, so she cannot be punished for her actions as Desdemona is.
The most obvious example of Portia disobeying the rules is when she dresses as a man. She is well aware that “a maiden hath no tongue” (3.2.8) and so disguises herself as a man to give herself a voice. Some critics like Lisa Jardine have argued extensively to prove that cross dressing was purely to satisfy the lusts of the Elizabethan audience. Although this could be the case, a more widely acknowledged and accepted view is that cross-dressing makes us “question what it means to be a man or woman.” In The Merchant of Venice Shakespeare allows Portia to command respect in Venice, proving that the only “thing” that separates the two sexes is, as Gratiano crudely puts it, “the young clerk’s pen.” (5.1.237) Cross dressing is a dramatic device used by “women” in several of Shakespeare’s plays, which allows the women to infiltrate the patriarchal society. In Portia’s case, this proves worthwhile, and the audience are left with a sense that, actually, it is the women who are in control.
The two plays suggest that although women are limited by the patriarchal society in which they live, they do have some power over men, even if not immediately obvious. It is, of course, a mere woman who destroys “brave Othello” (2.1.38) whom even the Barbarians and Turks could not harm, and it is a woman who ultimately saves Antonio’s life. However the power of women shifts at different stages of the relationship. In both plays the couples are at their happiest during courting and immediately after marriage. During this time Desdemona is described by Cassio as the “captain’s captain,” (2.1.74) and Bassanio lovingly refers to Portia as his “torturer.” (3.2.37) Both of these names imply a position of power that the women hold over their respective husbands. However both of the marriages seem to deteriorate when the wives become merely possessions to their husbands. Othello loses his trust and succumbs to the “green-eyed monster” (3.3.168) and Bassanio gives the ring away. This suggests that women initially have a status of power, but this is lost once they are handed from their fathers to their husbands.
In both plays there is an immediate sign that the marriages could be heading for trouble. Both of the men leave their wives on their wedding night, due to business related matters. This shows us that in Venice, money and business come first, and love comes second. Even Shylock comments on how outrageously the Venetians treat their wives, saying:
These be the Christian husbands! I have a daughter-
Would any of the stock of Barrabus
Had been her husband, rather than a Christian.
(Act IV Sc1 290-3)
This is given one of the extremely few stage directions, which reads: “aside.” This validates and strengthens Shylock’s opinion, since he is quietly expressing his views, rather than trying to start a fight with the Christians. By making the stereotypical villain comment on the Venetian’s behaviour, Shakespeare emphasizes just how badly the Venetian’s treated their wives.
The setting of Venice plays a big rôle in character relationships. Jessica, Emilia and Desdemona are the ones who act inappropriately, and they are all from Venice. Resources show that in the 16th Century, Venice was “as much a place in the imagination as it was in reality.” In both plays Shakespeare depicts Venice as a place which is “exotic” and completely different to England. This idea is further developed when we see the Court scene and Senate scene. It is in these two scenes where Portia and Desdemona are at the peak of their dominance. It seems contradictory seeing as the women are at their most powerful in a place of ultimate masculinity. The women are empowered by the male presence and the freedom of speaking in public, rather than feeling intimidated. David McPherson writes that “the boldness [shown in the court room] may be explicable in the light of Venetian education for a few privelaged women.” Shakespeare could have been aware of this, and could be presenting Venice and its women as more socially advanced. It could, of course, be interpreted in completely the opposite way, saying that Venetian women are unruly and unnatural precisely because they are educated.
The plays can be interpreted in numerous ways according to the whims of the director and the actors. There can be feisty Desdemonas and arrogant Portias; yet a lascivious Desdemona and a humbled Portia can work just as well. In the future, as the balance of power between men and women inevitably changes, the play will once again be seen in a different light. We shall never know exactly how Shakespeare intended these characters to come across, but they certainly show how powerful women can be, even when they are oppressed by a patriarchal and patrilineal society.
Word Count- 2000
Excluding title, footnotes and references in parenthesis.
Hannah Boyd - Jones
Vives, Juan Luis, The Instruction of a Christian Woman (London, 1529), ed. Virginia Walcott Beauchamp, Elizabeth H. Hageman and Margeret Mikesell (Urbana and Chicago, University of Illinois Press, 2002) cited in S.P. Cerasano, ed. William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice: A Sourcebook, Routledge 2004, p51
Cited in: http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefArticle.aspx?refid=701702268
Pepys, Samuel, Cited in Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desdemona_(Othello)
McPherson, David, Othello and the Myth of Venice, in Shakespeare, Jonson and the Myth of Venice (Newark, Del., University of Delaware Press, 1990) cited in Hadfield, Andrew, A Routledge Literary Sourcebook on William Shakespeare’s Othello, Routledge, 2003, p80
McPherson, cited in Hadfield, p81
Vives, cited in Cerasano, p50
Vives, cited in Cerasano, p50
Malin, Peter, AS/A-Level English Literature Resource Pack: The Merchant of Venice, William Shakespeare, Philip Allan Updates, p102
Sandys, Edwin, Sermon Sixteen: A Sermon Preached at a Marriage in Strausborough (London, 1585) cited in S.P. Cerasano, ed. William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice: A Sourcebook, Routledge 2004, p48
Othello, dir. Stuart Burge (1965)
Chernaik, Warren, William Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice, Writers and their Work, Northcote House, 2005, p
Lisa Jardin, cited in Chernaik, p48
Catherine Belsey and Stephen Orgel, cited in Chernaik, p48
McPherson, cited in Hadfield, p81