During Elizabethan Era women w…

During Elizabethan Era women were believed to be inferior compared to men. As a consequence women could only live under the male control. They did not have many rights and voice to be taken seriously. One of the results of that tradition is that the inheritance of the single women or widows passed on to men when they got married. This mostly led women not to find a suitor and live on the fortune as a usurer. In The Merchant of Venice, Sheakespeare creates Portia as a woman who represents the oppressed women who found ways to cope with this system. In the play Portia is a young woman who is haunted by her deceased father’s will. She has to get married to a man who can be successful in the contest of caskets that her father set before his death. In the play Portia is seen as a woman who has learned to manipulate patriarchal order. The analysis will focus on how she manages to make her own wishes and thoughts survive by manipulating the system. With the following paragraphs firstly the condition of the women in Elizabethan Era and where Portia stands in this order will be discussed, secondly Portia’s control over Bassanio will be examined, and finally despite the common belief her ways of outsmarting the men in the trial scene will be analysed. As mentioned above, women were practically dolls in the eyes of men. They were lower in rank compared to the opposite sex. Women could inherit their deceased fathers’ or husbands’ financial heritage and possessions, but when they got married the husband had a right over all of it. As a result most of the women choose not to get married to keep the fortune to themselves. In The Merchant of Venice however Shakespeare creates Portia, a young bachelorette in Belmont who is “A lady richly left/ And she is fair and, fairer than that word” (1.1169-170). With her beauty and her wealth she has many suitors including men from different countries, for them she is just a lady that they can profit from. As she is a victim of the patriarchal tradition, she is neither capable of choosing the person she desires nor she can repudiate her dead father’s wishes. Instead she has to follow her father’s bidding who created the contest of caskets. Along with the situation her reaction to this can be clearly understood in the following lines; O me, the word ‘choose!’ I mayneither choose whom I would nor refuse whom Idislike; so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father. Is it not hard, Nerissa, that I cannot choose one nor refuse none? (206-210) Here Portia laments the destiny which was seen fit for her. Moreover to that what must be discussed in detail is that even though he is dead, his father, the patriarch has more control over her life than she does. A dead man has more control from the grave compared to a living woman. Also another thing that needs to be questioned is what drives Portia’s father into creating a challenge for her suitors. Is it because he wants her daughter to be happy or he wants to make sure that his inheritance does not fall into wrong hands? Women in such tradition is described by Natasha Korda as “a profitless purveyor of capital between men” (131). And it is obvious that Portia functions as one here, since her happiness is out of the equation considering the reaction she gives in her conversation with Nerissa in Act 1 Scene 2. Yet Portia does not do anything to contravene her father’s will. Instead, she chooses to manipulate this silently which will be led to her control over Bassanio. In Act III, Bassanio joins the contest. His intentions can be interpreted as the tradition suggests that men usually pursue a woman’s fortune since they “accustomed to believe that they had a ‘right’ to assets of female family members.” (160) as Margaret Hunt says. To illustrate, before he goes to Portia’s house he says “I have some business.” (2.2171). So it is highly possible that Bassanio considers marrying Portia as something financial and for him it is perfectly normal to take a woman as a wife for her fortune. And in the previous acts he never mentions any spiritual bond with Portia. The only things mentioned by him are her fortune and how fair she is. Whether Bassanio has the traditional set of mind or not does not matter that much since Portia takes control over him in the end without letting any suspicion to occur. It is obvious that Portia is willing to have Bassanio as her husband, she wishes that he chooses the right casket and asks him not to hurry doing so. Yet she cannot contravene her father’s will and she is not able to give Bassanio any clue about the right casket. Instead she uses her wit and cunning to lead him to the right one, as a consequence she triumphs and acquires what she desires. Even though it might be perceived as she is content with the outcome it is obvious that Portia still is indecisive about the fortune that will be Bassanio’s after they unite their lives. Beshrew your eyes, They have o’erlook’d me and divided me; One half of me is yours, the other half yours, Mine own, I would say; but if mine, then yours, 1380And so all yours. O, these naughty times Put bars between the owners and their rights! And so, though yours, not yours. (1377-1383)