Women's role in merchant of venice

The play also presents women who are conversant with the legal jargon and does not also shy away from portraying the intelligence of women. The Merchant of Venice is a display of women in a world that may be believed to be of men by highlighting contracts, cases and the laws of Venice. The play the merchant of Venice follows the path of two friends, Antonio and Bassanio. The introduction of the legal technicalities and the contract comes in when Bassanio wishes to travel to a foreign land to win the hand of a girl he intends to marry. On lacking finances, he borrows from his friend Antonio which leads to them getting money from a Jew named as Shylock. This leads to the entrance of Shylock, a Jew with great hatred for Antonio because he had received a lot of discrimination and ridicule from him due to the fact that he was a Jew.

Shylock, therefore, wants revenge for all the times he was ridiculed. Bassanio begs Shylock to lend him money and expect interest because they were not friends but enemies. According to Lauren Garrett in her article; True Interest and the Affections, Bassanio requests for the loan to be lent out with a usury to signify that they are really not a friend (Garret 32-62). However, Shylock rejects the plea and chooses to lend the money out in “kindness. After this Portia pledges that everything she owns is now Bassanio’s including herself and that the only caveat in this arrangement is that Bassanio is not to lose the ring that Portia hands him. The contract that is the marriage is therefore bound.

The ring if lost will be the base of Portia getting whatever she wants from Bassanio. According to Grace Tiffany in her article Law and Self Interest in The Merchant of Venice, the giving of the ring is the point via which Portia would be able to collect the interest from the contract that is their marriage (Grace 384). The ring, in this case, stands to bind them in that what is being loaned out is the estate, the servants and Portia herself. When Bassanio speaks he says to Antonio, “To you, Antonio, I owe the most in money and love. This apart from showing the intensity of friendship between Antonio and Bassanio elaborates that it wasn’t the first time Bassanio needed money from Antonio.

His lifestyle had depleted his finances to a point where he had to look for a lady to marry and by so doing gain her wealth. It would, therefore, be unwise to regard the contribution of Portia to Bassanio’s decision as unimportant. In accordance to the fact that Bassanio’s decision to marry Portia had nothing to do with her as a person but with her wealth if the advice and hints brought forth by Portia would have been removed from the equation, then it would have been expected of Bassanio to pick the gold or silver casket. Bassanio is against this decision as he is portrayed to be the one begging the Duke just to declare Antonio free from Shylock’s contract and request for a pound of flesh.

The entry of Balthazar is viewed to be in favour of Shylock as he has been summoned to listen to the case and in the beginning supports the continued judgment of the offender, Antonio. However, he puts into place the literalist perspective of the case according to Grace Tiffany (Grace 384). The literalist interpretation of the contract is that Shylock does indeed deserve the interest which in this case is the pound of flesh from Antonio. However, Shylock is instructed by Balthazar that he should only take a pound of flesh without a single drop of blood and that the exact weight of the flesh he extracts from Antonio should be a pound and not anything more. Conclusion Portia, a maiden that is not only rich but also intelligent is introduced by Shakespeare as a character who is a woman but also as a character who accomplishes way more than most men in the play.