“Merchant of Venice” Feminist Perspective Essay

The feminist critical perspective examines the roles that women looseness of the bowels in literary full treatment and their true significance to the text. Their roles are usually decided on by the society or beat period in which the story is set. In The Merchant of Venice, young-bearing(prenominal)s were suppressed by the societal ideals of Shakespeares Elizabethan era, which is portrayed through the characters of Portia and Jessica, who could non establish their own powerful identities because they were women. Portia and Jessica are the main fe manlike characters in the play. If they had been wee-ween a chance to show their skills, they undoubtedly wouldve been uttermost(prenominal)ly strong women. However, they had to mask their abilities in pasture to appeal to their anthropoid counterparts. Their positions in the story were to show what it was to be the ideal Elizabethan wo world. Time and clipping again, Portia and Jessica were shown to be mere objects that were owned by the male characters in the story. They could non shine or arrest powerful characters, when they had every capability to.According to Maggi Ros Life in Elizabethan England A Compendium of habitual Knowledge, a womanhood was nothing more than property in Elizabethan society. It states that, Children are the property of their parents, and give them the respect a servant gives his masterWives are the property of their husbandsSome women are more freelance than others. 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 chink perfectly into this description of Elizabethan women.Jessica was the property of her father. usurer did not care for his daughter nearly affluent as the fact that he owned her. When Jessica eloped posterh her contendr, Lorenzo, Shylock cared only about two things that his daughter had eloped with a Christian and that she had stolen his money. The reade r can see this when Salanio, while gossiping with Salerio, mocks Shylock I never comprehend a passion so confused / So strange, outrageous, and so variable / As the dog Jew did spill the beans in the streets / My daughter O my ducats O my daughter / Fled with a Christian O my Christian ducats / evaluator the law A sealed bag, two sealed bags of ducats, Stoln by my daughter Justice detect the girl (II.viii.13).Jessicas eloping with Lorenzo signified that Shylocks source of pride, his Jewish religion, would endafter his death. thither would be no continuance 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 most important thing in Shylocks life. Jessica had taken some of his ducats and precious stones. He begged the law to condemn Jessica, who had stolen his hard-earned money. It was obvious that the loss of his daughter did not affect him one bit. But rather, it was the loss of his money and Jewish bloodline which infuriated him. Sadly, this showed that Jessicas worthy 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 lead die as chaste as Diana, unless I be obtained by the manner of my fathers will (I.ii.98). Her deceased father had left john a will, which contained a distribute. thither were three jewel caskets, make of gold, silver, and lead. The man who can correctly choose the casket containing Portias picture would become her husband. If Portia had not remained loyal to her father, she could have easily 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 wilful to her father, even after his death. O me, the word choose I may neither choose who I would, nor refuse who 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 ultimate 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 believed Portia for her bag and wealthiness. If they could win her as a wife, their reputations and futures would be set. The first suitor to try 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 many men desire (II.vii.5).This shows that Morocco was a greedy man who desired 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 sort of superficial. I will assume desert. Give mea key for this / And instantly unlock my fortunes hither (II.ix.52). He saw Portia as merely a free ride to financial security. He didnt want her because he love or cared for her. He only wanted her for her money and power. Women were a prize which men displayed and flaunted. A woman had no true value as a person.A recurring event in the play was the women disguising themselves as men. This is symbolic of the suppression of the women by their male counterparts. They had to mask their true abilities under the guise of men. There was no way in Elizabethan society for a woman to be successful in any field other than wifehood or motherhood. In Act II, Jessica was finally resistling 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 bewitching follies that themselves commit / For if they could, Cupid himself would blush / To see me thus transformed to a boy (II.vi.34). Escaping from her father should have authorize her character, but in fact, it didnt. She had to disguise herself as a pageboy, thus, taking away any feeling of female empowerment that the act of eloping should have brought. She was defying in the costume 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 lawyer and clerk and traveled to Venice to defend Antonio. Portia was the most intellectual character in the play and that was made evident by the skill with which she executed Antonios defense. When the evidence was clearly stacked against Antonio, using her wit and intelligence, Portia turned 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 expressly are a pound of flesh / chair then thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh / But, in the cutting it, if thou dost shed / unmatched 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 stated that if an attempt was made at a Venetians life, the perpetratorwould have his property confiscated. This was a brilliant twist of events that greatly affected the case. Shylock had now turned into the victim and Antonio was completely off the hook. Portia was an utterly brilliant lawyer, which everyone in the courtroom could distinguish. However, Antonios defense and the infamous quality of mercy speech were made under the disguise of a male lawyer. No one would ever see the true intelligence that Portia actually beheld, simply because an intelligent 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 idea ls forced Jessica and Portia to mask their abilities and talents. They could not show their true identities or else they would break the mold of a proper Elizabethan woman, which was absolutely unthinkable. Portia and Jessica were two 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 merely a prize that should be flaunted. Their inner-value was worthless it was their material value that mattered. Finally, some(prenominal) 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 social stigmas which had existed during Shakespeares time period.