To marry Portia, Bassanio must first challenge the casket test and choose one out of three caskets correctly. Portia’s love for Bassanio is obvious and she makes little attempt at neutrality. She intelligently commands that music be played whilst Bassanio makes his choice. Fortunately, Bassanio is smart enough to interpret the message of the song -- not to look on the surface, but what lie beneath, and chooses the correct casket containing Portia’s picture. His choice is not based on ego or self-delusion but a combination of intuition and practical wisdom. His reaction to his success is not arrogant and domineering but modest and respectful. This proves that he is a deeper, more thoughtful and sensitive character rather than a shallow, mercenary socialite which we are led to believe at the beginning of the play.
Portia’s wit is again shown in the trial scene, where she cleverly got Shylock to reject in open court both the idea of mercy and the idea of money as alternatives to the pound of flesh. Shylock is trapped when Portia quietly points out that the bond “doth give thee here no jot of blood” and if he spills one ”drop of Christian blood” in the process of cutting a pond of flesh from Antonio, his “lands and goods” will be forfeited to the state. While Portia’s intelligence and wit saved Antonio, it clearly illustrates the unfair justice being mete out to Shylock, one of minority Jews in the Christian dominated city of Venice.
Both Portia and Bassanio are generous and value friendship above money. To save Antonio, Bassanio’s friend, Portia is willing to pay double “six thousand” and “treble that”, which amounts to thirty-six thousand to “deface the bond” which entitles Shylock to cut a pound of flesh from Antonio. Although Portia is “richly left”, it does not diminish the fact that she is willing to part with much more than what Bassanio had originally borrow from Shylock so as to repay Antonio’s generosity. Bassanio’s generosity is illustrated when he offered to give “the dearest ring in Venice” to Balthasar (Portia in disguise), in gratitude of saving Antonio’s life. Bassanio’s love and loyalty for Portia is shown here as well, when Bassanio tried hard not to give Balthasar his “trifle” ring and refuses on the grounds that his wife had told him he must never part with it. It is only at Antonio’s bidding that Bassanio sends Gratiano after the disguised Portia and Nerissa with their rings.
They are both capable of sacrificial and passionate love. Portia is uncharacteristically hesitant and anxious immediately before Bassanio’s casket scene, revealing the pressure and the tenderness of her feelings for him, and her anxiety not to lose him. Her love for Bassanio is illustrated in her speech where “my eye shall be the stream/ and the watery death-bed for him” should Bassanio chooses the wrong casket. She is willing to be a submissive and loyal wife, and regards Bassanio as “from her lord, her governor, her king”. She is sensitive to Bassanio feelings and shares his problems, as she is “half yourself (Bassanio)”.
On the other hand, Bassanio is a typical romantic hero who is chivalrous and gallant, although part of Bassanio’s motive for wooing Portia is to pay off his debts referring the trip to Belmont to woo Portia as a “secret pilgrimage”, thus making Portia into a goddess. Bassanio’s loyalty and responsibility is once again emphasised in the trial scene, where he refuses to give away his wedding ring. He is also quick to ask for Portia’s forgiveness when he returned to Belmont from Venice.
In conclusion, Portia and Bassanio is a compatible couple, sharing many similar qualities – intelligence, affectionate, sensitive, loyal, generous, and devoted to each other. Their relationship typifies ideal love and involves self-sacrificing, sharing, humility and devotion. Despite her submissive and humble attitude towards Bassanio, Portia proves to be a little more superior of the two and is capable of being a strong adversary to her foe.