“Merchant of Venice” Feminist Perspective Essay

The feminist critical perspective examines the roles that wo hands sword consort in literary works and their confessedly significance to the text. Their roles atomic number 18 usually pertinacious on by the ships company or time period in which the romance is set. In The Merchant of Venice, pistillates were suppressed by the societal ideals of Shakespeares Elizabethan era, which is depicted through the characters of Portia and Jessica, who could not establish their confine got fibrous identities because they were women. Portia and Jessica are the main distaff characters in the play. If they had been open upn a fate to submit their sciences, they undoubtedly wouldve been extremely laborious women. However, they had to suppress their abilities in severalise to woo to their male counterparts. Their positions in the story were to show what it was to be the ideal Elizabethan woman. clip and time again, Portia and Jessica were shown to be perfect objects that were po ssess by the male characters in the story. They could not shine or accommodate bureauful characters, when they had all capability to.According to Maggi Ros vivification in Elizabethan England A summary of Common K nowledge, a woman was secret code practically than square-toedty in Elizabethan auberge. It states that, Children are the dimension of their parents, and give them the comply a servant gives his masterWives are the property of their husbandsSome women are to a greater extent independent than former(a)s. However, every woman expects to be married, and to depend on her male relatives throughout her life. Throughout the story, we see that Jessica and Portia fit suddenly into this description of Elizabethan women.Jessica was the property of her father. moneylender did not care for his girlfriendfriend or so enough as the fact that he owned her. When Jessica eloped with her cacoethesr, Lorenzo, moneylender cared solely astir(predicate) two things that his daug hter had eloped with a Christian and that she had stolen his money. The instructer can see this when Salanio, trance gossiping with Salerio, mocks Shylock I never heard a passion so confused / So strange, outrageous, and so shifting / As the dog Jew did utter in the streets / My daughter O my ducats O my daughter / Fled with a Christian O my Christian ducats / Justice the law A wet bag, two sealed bags of ducats, Stoln by my daughter Justice Find the girl (II.viii.13).Jessicas eloping with Lorenzo signified that Shylocks source of pride, his Jewish religion, would end after his death. T here would be no duration of the tradition because Jessica had betrayed him and married a Christian. She could no longer bear him a Jewish heir. After his religion, money was the second virtually important thing in Shylocks life. Jessica had taken some of his ducats and wanted stones. He begged the law to condemn Jessica, who had stolen his hard-earned money. It was self- observable tha t the loss of his daughter did not push him one bit. But rather, it was the loss of his money and Jewish descentline which infuriated him. Sadly, this showed that Jessicas worth was limited to nothing more than mere property.Portia was, like Jessica, bound by her father. She says If I live to be as old as Sibylla, I allow die as chaste as Diana, unless I be obtained by the tactual sensation of my fathers give (I.ii.98). Her departed father had left behind a will, which contained a block out. There were three caskets, do of golden, silver, and lead. The man who can correctly recognize the casket containing Portias picture would become her husband. If Portia had not remained loyal to her father, she could concord well chosen any man to be her husband. However, this shows the power of the male guardian in Elizabethan times. Portia did not dare to be disobedient to her father, even after his death. O me, the word choose I whitethorn neither choose who I would, nor spurn wh o I dislike, so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father (I.ii.19). Instead, she grudgingly accepted the riddle as the last-ditch decider in her fate and love life.In another aspect of Elizabethan society, women were mere objects that belonged to their husbands after ownership was transferred from their fathers. The suitors lasciviously coveted Portia for her beauty and wealth. If they could win her as a wife, their reputations and futures would be set. The first suitor to deliver his luck at the riddle of the caskets was the Prince of Morocco. He chose the gold casket which had an inscription that read Who chooseth me shall gain what umpteen men thirst (II.vii.5).This shows that Morocco was a greedy man who sought after Portia for materialistic reasons, just like many other men who would desire the gold too. The second suitor to attempt the riddle was the Prince of Arragon, who chose the silver casket. Like Morrocco, Arragon was quite superficial. I will assume desert. Give me a key for this / And instantly unlock my fortunes here (II.ix.52). He saw Portia as only when a free ride to monetary security. He didnt want her because he loved or cared for her. He only wanted her for her money and power. Women were a apprize which men displayed and flaunted. A woman had no professedly value as a person.A recurring event in the play was the women disguising themselves as men. This is symbolic of the retrenchment of the women by their male counterparts. They had to mask their straightforward abilities below the guise of men. There was no way in Elizabethan society for a woman to be victorious in any field other than wifehood or motherhood. In Act II, Jessica was finally rebelling against the strict rules of Shylock. She was taking extreme measures in order to elope with Lorenzo. I am glad tis night, you do not look on me / For I am much ashamed of my exchange / But love is blind and lovers cannot see / The pretty follies that themselves take out / For if they could, Cupid himself would blush / To see me thus change to a boy (II.vi.34). Escaping from her father should have empowered her character, but in fact, it didnt. She had to secrete herself as a pageboy, thus, taking international any feeling of female authorization that the act of eloping should have brought. She was defying in the garments of a male and this showed that only males had the power to rebel or to be strong.At the end of Act III, Portia and Nerissa dressed up as a male attorney and clerk and traveled to Venice to defend Antonio. Portia was the just about intellectual character in the play and that was made evident by the skill with which she executed Antonios defense. When the evidence was distinctly stacked against Antonio, using her wit and intelligence, Portia rancid the tables on Shylock and made him the victim. Portias cleverness was shown when she said This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood / The words expre ssly are a pound of contour / Take thus thy bond, take thou thy pound of pulp magazine / But, in the cutting it, if thou dost escape from / One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods / Are, by the laws of Venice, confiscate Unto the state of Venice (IV.i.309).Portia knew that Shylock had every right to cut Antonios fleshthe law gave him that right. But, she also knew that the law express that if an attempt was made at a Venetians life, the perpetrator would have his property confiscated. This was a brilliant doctor of events that greatly affected the case. Shylock had now turned into the victim and Antonio was completely finish the hook. Portia was an utterly brilliant lawyer, which everyone in the court could distinguish. However, Antonios defense and the infamous pure tone of mercy speech were made under the camouflage of a male lawyer. No one would ever see the true intelligence that Portia actually beheld, simply because an healthy female was unfathomable in Shakespeares time.Women in Shakespeares Elizabethan society were greatly undermined. This is made quite evident in The Merchant of Venice, through the feminist critical perspective. Societal ideals forced Jessica and Portia to mask their abilities and talents. They could not show their true identities or else they would crock up the mold of a proper Elizabethan woman, which was absolutely unthinkable. Portia and Jessica were both the property by their fathers and could never really break free from that ownership.Also, Portia was desired by men for her wealth and beauty, rather than her intelligence and personality. Women were just now a prize that should be flaunted. Their inner-value was manky it was their material value that mattered. Finally, both women had to disguise themselves as men in order to express the independence and power they possessed. The female characters in the story were inferior to the males because of the amicable stigmas which had existed during Shakespea res time period.