Compare and contrast Portia’s three suitors, examining their characters
Shakespeare highlights three of Portia’s suitors, the Prince of Morocco, the Prince of Arragon and Bassanio. He does this to heighten dramatic tension, as these three men are the most important candidates to win Portia’s hand in marriage. They reveal the contents of the three caskets and their different characters as exposed as being proud, vain and humble. They also emphasise the racial prejudices of Venice a place where many races clash. Their attitudes towards the caskets and their choices indicate what their character is like. This essay will compare and contrast the three suitors and will explore how Shakespeare influences the audience’s attitudes towards the three men.
The Prince of Morocco is the first suitor of the three suitors we are introduced to. His first line is,
‘Mislike me not for my complexion’ (Act II Scene i)
He is anxious to compensate for the colour of his skin. He shows himself to be ashamed and insecure. However his character is proud because after he remarks on his skin colour he proceeds to defend it and boasts about himself,
‘ ...this aspect of mine/ Hath fear’d the valiant…The best regarded virgins of our clime/Have lov’d it too...’ (Act II Scene i)
He challenges Portia to compare his blood with the whitest of men to see whose is the reddest.
‘Bring me the fairest creature…And let us make incision for your love/ To prove whose blood is reddest, or mine.’ (Act II Scene i)
This would be a way to suggest that Morocco was as noble as any white man was because red blood signified courage and virility. A lot of emphasis is placed on Morocco’s skin colour. His long-winded speeches full of false and extravagant praise makes him sound insincere,
‘…all the world desires her; /From all corners of the earth they come,/ To kiss this shrine, this mortal breathing saint:’ (Act II Scene vii)
In contrast his exit is short and dignified, in total disparity to his entrance and long speeches before choosing a casket.
‘…I have too griev’d a heart /To take a tedious leave: leave losers part.’ (Act II Scene vii)
This indicates he does not easily accept defeat.
He explains his thoughts on each of the caskets as he reads the inscriptions on them. He says the lead casket is not worth hazarding everything for and quickly dismisses it. When he comes to the silver casket he comments,
This book addresses the issue of race all throughout the story, which is while it is probably the most discussed aspects of it. The books presentation is very complex in many ways. There is no clear-cut stance on race but the book uses racist language. The racist language durin...
“This, by his voice, should be a Montague. Fetch me my rapier, boy. What dares the slave come hither, cover’d with an antic face, To fleer and scorn at our solemnity? Now, by the stock and honour of my kin, To strike him dead I hold it not a sin.” (Shakespeare, page 54).
Although he learned of his true identity at an early age, it seems as though the narrator preferred to be white. This could have possibly been influenced by his upbringing during his early childhood and the mistreating of blacks as opposed to the higher regards for whites. He seems to accept a white, and sometimes often racist view of the world in general. This can be noted in ways such as when he states he never forgave the teacher that led him to understand he was black. Also, in his travels throughout the South, the way he observes his surroundings is often like those made through the eyes of a racist white man. He picks out the "unkempt appearance, the shambling, slouching gait, and loud talk and laughter” of the lower-class blacks that he meets (p. 40). He also admits that he never really enjoyed seeing a rich white widow have a black companion. Then, after partaking in a debate about race among several white passengers on a train, the narrator expresses his admiration for the most racist man that was involved in the discussion. It also seems as though he only had eyes for white women and he eventually married one and had children with her. Although he may have preferred to
...cted” but that “that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist” that Birdie and her sister express toward the end of the novel upon their reunification (408). Through embodying both falseness and such a self-serving and facile view of race, Redbone serves as Senna’s symbol that they go hand in hand, that is, that such conceptions are empty and inauthentic – not true to the way the world actually works. As we begin to doubt who Redbone is, we doubt what he says. Taking this a step further, the sense of inauthenticity associated with him points out the aspect of lying to oneself that is necessary for maintaining these self-serving definitions of race. As Redbone pretends to be something he’s not and the flasher denigrates others for an inauthentic sense of power, the racist lies to himself about how the world really is to maintain his image of himself, and his race, on top of it.
Douglass uses irony to bring a point across to his audience, with the recounting of his own heritage. He explains that his separation after birth from his mother, a slave, and a majority of his foul treatment is likely because his white father feels a need to destroy the lives of his bastard children in order to reassert devotion to
The character's prejudice was also evident when he asked about Robert's deceased wife. Upon hearing her name Beulah, he asked, "Was his wife a Negro?" Immediately, his wife seemed offended at the question. The paragraphs that follow are important to the story. The speaker informs the readers that his wife told him the story of Robert and Beulah. H...
(Act 1 Scene 4), Thane of Cawdor for his service. It was during this scene,
Wolff uses colors to symbolize a hatred for an alternative race in this short story. The
...r. Hamlet speaks to Horatio quietly, almost serenely, with the unexultant calm which characterizes the end of the long, inner struggle of grief. He has looked at the face of death in his father’s ghost, he has now endured death and loss in all the human beings he has loved, and he now accepts those losses as an inevitable part of his own condition. “He states, “The readiness is all” suggesting what is perhaps the last and most difficult task of mourning, his own readiness to die” (Bloom 135). Hamlet recognizes and accepts his own death.
this is said at the beginning of act 3 scene and is saying that if
They pluck out mine own eyes!/Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood/Clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather/The Multitudinous seas incarnadine, /Making the green one red (act II, scene iii, l 58-62).
Shakespeare uses this to connect with the one of the tales of Hercules. When a centaur (part man and horse) by the name of Nessus captured Deianeira, Hercules shot the centaur with a poisoned arrow. With the centaur's dying breath he gave Deianeira a vial of his poisoned blood telling her she could use it to rekindle Hercules' love for her if it ever faded. Hercules fell in love and married Deianeira (Hercules second wife). One day when she felt that his love was fading, she made him a robe that was dipped in the blood of the centaur. When Hercules received the gift from his wife he was overjoyed and put it on, almost immediately his skin started to burn and he caught on fire. The club that is mentioned is Hercules' weapon. Benedick says Beatrice would harm him, even if he used a weapon, he wouldn't be able to stop her, even though she may not mean any harm.
Thus Barbantio suggests that a disrespected white man is superior to a respected noble and gentleman in the army whose only 'problem' as Barbantio sees it is ...
Symbols are present in every person’s daily life. Symbols are seen everywhere, whether it is through art, religion, culture, or road signs, they are all around. Blood is a symbol that is seen in art, religion, literature and many other visual forms. Its direct connection to the human body is a significant aspect of its symbolism. People in the medieval period, which was right before Shakespeare’s time, thought that the blood was a person’s life force, and to some extent they were right. Literature uses blood to represent a variety of things such as a character’s desires, emotions and conscience. In the play “Macbeth,” by William Shakespeare, blood symbolizes many things, however, the most significant
Everyone is deceived and believes Portia is truly a man therefore showing that she has the capabilities to exert the traits of a man. Portia is described as the “wise young judge” (IV, I, 228) and an “excellent young man” (IV, I, 252) by Shylock showing that he believes in the gender identity of Balthazar. Bassanio, Portia’s husband, is also fooled as he states that Antonio’s life is more valuable to him than Portia. Her credibility in turn gives her power over the men in the scene. She is able to use the balances of justice along with her knowledge in order to save Antonio. The turn in this scene is when she repeats, “A pound of flesh” (IV, I, 315) and states the specific words used in the document as no blood can be dropped from Antonio or else Shylock will be punished and strikes fear into Shylock. This shows that it is possible for a woman to obtain the masculine qualities of being powerful and intellectual. If Portia were to have not dressed as a man, but merely a woman, due to the social constructs of the time she would not have had any power in this situation. Portia tells Bassanio “I pray you, know me when we meet again” (IV, I, 432) which shows her feelings towards Bassanio not knowing her true identity, even through her disguise. Her actions were that of her individual, but due to her altering her appearance of gender it changed the way others viewed her