Think about how we learn about Portia's character: through her actions, through her language and through the minor characters like Lorenzo and Jessica. She displays some contradictory qualities in the play and so she is not a simplistic character to analyse. Look at the following words and match them to the quotations. Find some other quotations to support these descriptions of Portia.
| Bassanio | “In Belmont is a lady richly left And she is fair, and (fairer than that word), Of wondrous virtues..” (Act 1 scene i) |
| Portia | “By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary of this great world.” (Act I scene ii) |
| Portia | “I may neither choose who I would, nor refuse who I dislike, so is the will of a living daughter curb’d by the will of a dead father.” (Act I scene ii) |
| Portia | “Besides, the lott’ry of my destiny Bars me the right of voluntary choosing:” (Act II scene i) |
| Jessica | “for the poor rude world Hath not her fellow.” (Act III scene v) (talking of Portia) |
| Portia | “The quality of mercy is not strain’d, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven” (Act IV scene i) |
| Portia | “The Jew shall have all justice,- soft no haste! He shall have nothing but the penalty.” (Act IV scene i) |
| Portia | “we shall have old swearing That they did give the rings away to men:” (Act IV scene ii) |
| Portia | “How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.” (Act V scene i) |
Published on: 11 Dec 2010
