Shakespeare’s three women characters – Portia, Nerissa and Jessica Essay Example

casket, we know this because right at the beginning of the play Portia says, "O me, the word 'choose'!

I may neither choose who I would, nor refuse who I dislike, so is the will of the living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father. " She has to stick to this by law as it is written in her fathers will. However I believe that she knew what was in the caskets and tried to manipulate her suitor's decisions. I think this because there are two lines in the play, which suggests she knows. These are, "I pray thee set a deep glass of Rhenish wine on the contrary casket, for if the devil be within, and that temptation without, I know he will choose it. "

And, "I could teach you how to choose right. The first of these tells us that she does know which casket has her picture in it also tells us that she wishes to discourage the suitor from choosing it. The second of these tells us this also and shows she has a great preference for Bassnio. Today Portia's name is linked with the Qualities of justice and mercy, but she is cruel in her defeated and humiliation of Shylock. When she dresses up in men's clothing with Nerissa she made sure she pushed Shylock into a corner he couldn't get out of. She did this cleverly by making sure Shylock had basically told them he wanted to kill Antonio and then springing the loophole on him.

First she asks him, "Have by some surgeon, Shylock, on your charge, To stop his wounds, lest he do bleed to death.

" After she has attained this information she then says, "if thou dost shed One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods Are by law of Venice confiscated Unto the state of Venice. " Then she hits him with another blow by saying, "He seek the life of any citizen, The party 'gainst the which he doth contrive Shall seize one half his goods, the other half Comes to the privy coffer of the state, And thy offenders life lies in the mercy Of the duke only"

All three women have a one point in the play dressed up as men. It was Jessica who did this first when she left her fathers house. She did this to disguise herself in amongst the people celebrating the masque ball she becomes a torchbearer for Lorenzo, he says, "Descend, for you must be my torchbearer. " Portia and Nerissa dressed as men so that they could go into the court and humiliate Shylock. I don't think this practice would have been normal in these times but Shakespeare used this in a lot of his plays.

I think he did this because it would have sold, as it probably would do today, because it is a scandal. Portia and Nerissa dressing as men comes back to the point of women having very few rights. In the era it would have been strictly forbidden for a women to hold a position of power such as lawyer and unless they were involved in a case it also would have been forbidden for them to enter a courtroom. That was one of the purposes of dressing up as men. The other was

to play some games with their husbands.

We know this because Portia used the opportunity of being offered a gift to take the ring she had given Bassanio from him. When she gave him the ring she told him that he, "should neither sell, nor give, nor lose it. " She however pressures him for it and then plays a game with it. Jessica did some very controversial things that even today would be considered slightly strange and very rebellious. First of all disowning your father would have been unheard of and changing your faith would have made you an outsider. She did both of these things, though with reason. The first reason being that she loved Lorenzo.

We know this because she says, "O Lorenzo, If thou keep promise, I shall end this strife, Become a Christian and thy loving wife. " She also said, "Lorenzo certain, and my love indeed, For who love I so much? " I also think she wanted to make a fool out of Shylock I think this because we know she traded Shylock's ring for a monkey because Tubal says, "One of them showed me a ring that he had of your daughter for a monkey. " She also spent four score ducats at one sitting which suggests she is trying to teach Shylock a lesson and hit him where it hurts, his money.

Stealing from your father would have been and still is very wrong but Jessica did this as well, which makes her very untypical for the times. I don't think Jessica is treated as an equal with the Christians. I believe this because as she walks into the

estate at Belmont and Bassanio says, "Lorenzo and Salerio, welcome hither" Jessica isn't greeted like the others; she is left standing at the entrance to the room. There are only very limited amounts about Nerissa in the play and a lot of the time she is just doing as Portia tells her. She agrees to marry Gratiano after only knowing him for a short time.

She did this because Bassanio was marrying Portia. We know this because Gratiano says; "I got a promise of this fair one here To have her love, provided that your fortune Achieved her mistress. " This would have been slightly strange, but I think it shows her loyalty to Portia both as a servant and a friend. I think that the three women are typical of the era in some ways and in others they are not. For instance Portia sticks to her fathers will and marries the person who chooses the right casket but has it in her mind to try and influence her suitors.

Jessica is not so typical because she rejects everything, which is expected of her and runs away with a man of a different religion and steals her father's money and jewels. On the other hand she knows her place in a room and is very polite in accordance with etiquette of the time, for instance she wishes Portia well by saying, "I wish your ladyship all heart's content. " This would have been the sort of farewell expected of you, especially to person of higher rank. Nerissa is a typical working class girl but still has some things about her, which aren't normal.

For instance her relationship

with her mistress is very friendly which wouldn't have been so in most rich households she also marries someone on the condition that his friend marries her mistress when she barely knows him. I think Shakespeare's intentions were to create three entirely different characters, which would have appealed to an audience in the late 1500's. I believe this meant making them rebellious in certain ways. If you look at films today a lot of the female characters are rebellious for instance Liz Hurley in Bedazzled or Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider.

Both of these characters are designed to be different to what is expected of women during the 21st century, this is what makes them appealing. I think Shakespeare's three women were 16th century versions of modern film heroines because this play would have been popular entertainment and his characters had to appeal to both men and women. Women liked them because they idolised them and wanted to be them and men liked them because they were naughty girls and wanted to be with them.

Shakespeare builds a character people can relate to and then uses that character as a literary device to tell his story. If the characters were totally normal the story wouldn't be worth telling because nothing interesting would happen, and if the characters didn't have a normal background or something the audience could relate to then the story would be implausible. So Shakespeare had to create a balance between the two. Thus the characters are both typical women of the day and rebels without a cause.