The Suitors of Portia , Raina And Louka

“The Merchant of Venice” is a masterpiece of tragic – comedy written

by Shakespeare and “Arms And The Man” is a masterpiece of anti –
romantic comedy written by Bernard Shaw. Love is a major theme in both
these masterpieces of world literature belonging to two different centuries.
So quite naturally there are suitors seeking the hands of beloveds in these
two love plays. A suitor is he tries to woo and win the love of a lady. In both
“The Merchant of Venice” and “Arms and the Man” there are beautiful
attractive ladies like Portia, Raina and Louka. There are also the suitors of
these attractive ladies but Portia is the most sought- after lady. As many as
nine suitors are mad for the hand of Portia. Raina has two suitors – Sergius
and Bluntschli. Louka has also two suitors – Nicola and Sergius. Let us
attempt a comparative study of these suitors.

As we have told, Portia, the heroine of Shakespeare’s “The Merchant

of Venice” is the most sought – after lady because she has the greatest
number of suitors. But these suitors are put to tough test – the test of the
lottery of caskets. The six princes, the psychological cowards don’t face the
test at all. They just escape to their respective lands avoiding the risky rest.
Then comes the Prince of Morocco. He faces the test of the lottery of caskets
– the casket of gold, the casket of silver, and the casket of lead. The Prince
of Morocco is influenced by the inscription on the gold casket : Who
chooseth me shall gain what many men desire. Carried away by the
glittering outward appearances the Princess of Morocco foolishly chooses
the gold casket. The external pomp and glitter of proud gold capture the
imagination of the proud prince and he gives argument in favour of the
showy gold and chooses the wrong casket without carefully examination the
other caskets. The Prince of Morocco fails in the test of the lottery of caskets
which is actually a test of character. He is dismissed as a lover of glittering
outward show, not a lover of truth.

Then comes the suitors named the Prince of Arragon. He chooses the
silver casket swayed by the inscription on it : Who chooseth me shall get as
much as he desires. This prince is not foolish like the Prince of Morocco.
Like the Prince of Morocco he is not carried away by an external show. So
he rejects gold with all its superficial pomp and glitter. A hater of ordinary
man, the haughty and egotistical Prince of Arragon, very much proud of his
royal birth chooses the silver casket for his arrogant belief that he alone
deserves beautiful Portia. That is, he also fails in the tough test of character
because he thinks he is the only deserving character, the only competent
suitor of Portia.

At last comes the great suitor, Bassanio. Initially he appears to be very

little different from Salarino and Salanio. The two hangers- on / parasites of
the rich and wealthy Antonio. We see him fond of extravagant living –
borrowing money and wasting it in extravagance but for this reason we
can’t dismiss him as a mere fortune hunter , a hypocrite or a trader in love.
He may be extravagant but not a fortune hunter, a hypocrite or a trader in
love. As a matter of fact, he improves as the drama of wooing Portia
continues. He may have started the drama of love with mercenary motives
but with the passage of time he grows to love the lady’s real beauty and
worth. The Affection and respect with which he is treated by both his friend
Antonio and his intelligent beloved, Portia suggest that he is something
different from or more than a fortune hunter.

We have seen Bassanio’s great anxiety to repay the loan from his
friend, Antonio. Unlike a fortune hunter he is honest and sincere. He is mean
minded and narrowly calculative like trader. It is his sincere and genuine
passion of love for Portia that inspire him to risk and hazard all and stand the
test of the lottery of caskets. The challenges on the leaden casket appeals to
his combative or competitive spirit of a born soldier and he chooses the right
casket. The speech that he makes just before his choice of a casket shows the
immense possibilities of his character so long unknown to us. The father of
Portia wanted such a self – sacrificing suitor as a son- in – law for his
daughter.

In “Arms And The Man” by Shaw we come across two beloveds and
three suitors. The beloveds are Raina and Louka and the suitors are Sergius,
Bluntschli and Nicola. Sergius is a major in the Bulgarian army and the
captain of a cavalry force. This handsome and impressive young man is the
fiance of Raina. This romantic young man earns romantic glory making a
foolish and foolhardy cavalry charge on the Serbian artillery forces in the
battle at Slivnitza. Sergius, the Byronic self- conceited romantic hero wins
the battle fighting the wrong way and the opposition forces lost the battle
fighting the right way. He becomes disillusioned about the romance of war
when he is refused promotion to a higher rank by the Russian officers.
Consequently he resigns his post as a cavalry captain and returns to his
beloved Raina only to be disillusioned and disenchanted about love and
marriage. Tired of his higher spiritual love with Raina, Sergius who is
basically a flesh and blood man but superficially a romantic lover starts
flirting with Louka, the maid- servant of Raina.

The maid- servant, however, plays upon the young hero’s weakness
for her and very cleverly tricks him into marrying her. This young suitor has
the blood of a soldier in him and challenges Bluntschli, his rival in love to a
dual but marking the cold blooded great bravery of Bluntschli he withdraws
not only his heroic challenges but also his romantic claims over Raina.
Sergius’s notion of love was initially unreal and romantic. He looked upon
Raina as his goddess, his queen and his heroine. Returning from the war, he
meets his beloved like a knight meeting his lady- love. The beloved also
welcomes the romantic hero as her hero, her king. This illusion of romantic
love, however, gets shattered with the knowledge of truth and the truth is
Sergius’s flirtation with Louka and Raina’s disillusion about Sergius’s
higher love and her discovery of a better life- partner in Bluntschli.

Bluntschli is a suitor of Raina but a different kind of suitor. He is an

ideal Shavian suitor who ridicule the romantic illusion of love and war. He
looks upon love as a sentiment from realistic point of view. He cherishes
love for Raina but behaves wisely and honourably and declares his love for
only when her suitor Sergion slips away from her and declares his decision
to marry her maid servant Louka and also when Raina becomes disillusioned
about Sergius and very mature in her attitude to life. He is carefully careless.
He cures Raina and Sergius of their romantic notion of love and war. He
looks upon love as a kind of folly and marriage s a biological necessity. He
doesn’t find anything glorious and glamorous about love and marriage.
Unlike Sergius, he is shifty and innocent in his attitude to Raina. Unlike
Sergius he is reliable as a suitor, very much free, frank, bold, witty and
humorous having keener insight into human character.

Nicola is another suitor, the suitor of Louka. But he is not an

emotional fool like Sergius. A man-servant of the Petkoff family, he has the
genius and soul of a servant, very much polite, humble and decent in his
behaviour. He is Shaw’s practical man. He has taken money from Petkoff to
celebrate his engagement with Louka. But as he is very practical and
business-minded, he is able to observe the changes in his beloved. He is
marking her tendency to lean towards Sergius, a highly aristocratic and
fashionable young man. Louka belongs to the lower social rank but mentally
she is aristocratic. She wants to use her knowledge of the Petkoff’s / Petcoff
family as a weapon and ladder to go up. But Nicola, a contrast of Louka is
happy with his lower rank and he would keep the secret of the Petcoff family
as the secret of success in his service.

A typical Shavian practical man, Nicola would keep quiet and serve
his own ends or feather his own nest. He would never take advantage of that
secret like Louka. He thinks that as a wife Louka would be very expensive
but as Sergius’s wife and a customer of the goods of his new shop she would
be more profitable. So even though he is engaged to her, he readily gives his
consent to her marriage with the rich and fashionable young man Sergius.
He would rather have her as a fashionable customer than as his costly wife.
As a suitor Nicola is practical and commercial minded. He is like and unlike
Bluntschli. Both are Shaw’s practical men. But while Nicola belongs to
lower social rank, Bluntschli belongs to aristocratic social rank. Bassanio is
a self-sacrificing lover. He is ready to sacrifice his all / all he has for the sake
of his beloved. Nicola is not. He would rather withdraw his claim upon his
beloved than sacrifice his financial interest. This is how we can attempt a
simple comparative study of the different suitors of Portia, Raina and Louka.

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