William Shakespeare

English author

William Shakespeare, Shakespeare also spelled Shakspere, byname Bard of

Avon or Swan of Avon, (baptized April 26, 1564, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire,
England—died April 23, 1616, Stratford-upon-Avon), English poet, dramatist, and actor often
called the English national poet and considered by many to be the greatest dramatist of all time.

Life
Although the amount of factual knowledge available about Shakespeare is surprisingly large for
one of his station in life, many find it a little disappointing, for it is mostly gleaned from
documents of an official character. Dates of baptisms, marriages, deaths,
and burials; wills, conveyances, legal processes, and payments by the court—these are the dusty
details. There are, however, many contemporary allusions to him as a writer, and these add a
reasonable amount of flesh and blood to the biographical skeleton.

WORK
Shakespeare's works include the 36 plays printed in the First Folio of 1623, listed according to their
folio classification as comedies, histories, and tragedies.[155] Two plays not included in the First Folio,
[12]
The Two Noble Kinsmen and Pericles, Prince of Tyre, are now accepted as part of the canon, with
today's scholars agreeing that Shakespeare made major contributions to the writing of both. [156][157] No
Shakespearean poems were included in the First Folio.In the late 19th century, Edward
Dowden classified four of the late comedies as romances, and though many scholars prefer to call
them tragicomedies, Dowden's term is often used.[158][159] In 1896, Frederick S. Boas coined the term
"problem plays" to describe four plays: All's Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, Troilus and
Cressida, and Hamlet.[160] "Dramas as singular in theme and temper cannot be strictly called
comedies or tragedies", he wrote. "We may, therefore, borrow a convenient phrase from the theatre
of today and class them together as Shakespeare's problem plays."[161] The term, much debated and
sometimes applied to other plays, remains in use, though Hamlet is definitively classed as a tragedy

Differences in the character traits of Antonio and Shylock; beliefs and priorities
make Shylock the villain in The Merchant of Venice.

Antonio and Shylock are the two main protagonists in William Shakespeare’s play
“Merchant of Venice.” Both of them are merchants who lend money and are popular
figures in the city of Venice. However, both of them have different temperaments and
principles, and they both hate each other.While both lend money, their terms and
intentions are also entirely different. Antonio lends money because he genuinely wants
to help people, and not because he wants to make huge profits from lending. Shylock,
on the other hand, is a cunning merchant who lends money and extracts a huge amount
of interest on the loan, and he can go to any extent to recover his money.In the play,
both the characters suffer losses. Antonio’s ships are stuck in the sea and he has to
depart from his dearest friend Bassanio, while Shylock’s daughter Jessica elopes taking
away his father’s money.However, for Antonio, it is the relation of friendship with his
dear friend Bassanio that holds the greatest value. As a loyal and generous friend,
Antonio funds Bassanio’s trip to Belmont; he is willing to use his wealth and power to
help his friend so that he could marry Portia, a wealthy heiress. Despite his own ships
and finances stuck in the sea, Antonio is worried more for Bassanio and wants to help
him gain his love, even if it means approaching his adversary Shylock for a loan.On the
other hand, Shylock is a cunning merchant who always wants to make more money; he
cries more for his money than for his daughter when his daughter elopes. Shylock also
finds it disgusting that her daughter eloped with a Christian boy, and not with someone
from their own community.Shylock’s terms of lending can also be very cruel as can be
seen from the condition he puts forth when he lends money to Antonio – that he will
extract a pound of flesh from Antonio’s body if he fails to return his money within the
stipulated time.It is because of these reasons that Shylock is seen as the main villain in
The Merchant of Venice.Thankfully for the readers, the ending of the play is on a happy
note, where the righteous emerges the winner, and the villain is punished. At the end of
the play, Antonio gets back all his ships and money, whereas Shylock hos to incur
substantial losses.

Differences in the character traits of Portia and Jessica

Shakespeare endows both Portia and Jessica with the traits that break norms of the society in
the contemporary Elizabethan society. Both of them are bold and dare to exercise their own will
in matters of importance. Both cross-dress to signify freedom they like to exercise.However, they
differ from one another in many aspects. Jessica is a Jew and hence Shakespeare portrays her as
a controlled character with low self-esteem. She converted herself from a Jew into a Christian
through her marriage to Lorenzo. Jessica’s discontent with her house and her father was clearly
evident when she exclaims that her `house is hell’ and looks upon Lorenzo to save her enabling
her to become a Christian and thereby enhance herself and her living conditions. Unlike Portia,
Jessica disempowered her father by stealing and distorting his hopes by escaping with a
Christian. Shakespeare has conveyed Jessica as a much more submissive character which
becomes evident greatly through her marriage scene. The fact that Jessica appears with ‘page’s
suit she hath in readiness’ emphasizes that she is disguised as a servant. This also implies that
she will not be given the opportunity to exert a significant amount of influence.Portia has been
clearly evident as an instrumental character to the play’s development as a result of her
greatness, high self-esteem, abilities, intelligence and manipulative power. Shakespeare draws
our attention to Portia’s masculine integrity through her ability to govern the drama and
dominate the scene. Shakespeare allows Portia’s character to demonstrate further intelligence
by introducing her to state that ‘Clerk draw a deed of gift’. Portia’s words explicitly highlight her
awareness of the way in which the law operates and thereby challenges the perception of
women in 17th-century society. Her manipulative character is yet again demonstrated and is
apparent in the courtroom scene.

PORTIA
Her High Position in the Gallery of Shakespeare’s Heroines

Among the heroines created by Shakespeare, Portia occupies a high position. She
produces a powerful impression on our minds; and her role in the play is most
conspicuous and memorable. When the play the Merchant of Venice is mentioned
anywhere, people think of two persons, namely Shylock and Portia; and these two
persons are inseparable from each other in our minds because we remember Shylock
chiefly as a villain wanting to take the life of his enemy Antonio, and we think of Portia
as the person who defeats Shylock’s evil design. And, of course, Portia has other
qualities also to impart a measure of greatness to her.

Her Sense of Humour and Her Sparkling Wit

Portia is a lady with a cheerful and optimistic disposition. She has a strong sense of
humour and a sparkling, scintillating wit which she shows in the very beginning and then
continues to show till the very end. It is only on one occasion in the whole play that she
feels melancholy, and even sick of the world. When she is first introduced to us, she
tells Nerissa that she is feeling weary of the world. But this melancholy mood lasts only
for a few minutes, and is dispelled as soon as Nerissa begins to talk to her about the
various suitors who have arrived at Belmont to try their luck at the caskets. Portia has
something very amusing to say about each of these four suitors. Her comment on her
English suitor is perhaps the most amusing. This comment ends with her saying that the
Englishman perhaps bought his doublet in Italy, his round hose in France, his bonnet in
Germany, and his behaviour everywhere. Subsequently she shows her sense of
humour in setting the Rings story afoot and bringing it to an end which gives rise to
plenty of mirth and laughter. Portia’s comments on her various suitors show also her
powers of minute observation and her penetrating judgment of human character.

Her Devotion to the Memory of Her Father

Portia is genuinely devoted to the memory of her father who, while dying, had devised a
kind of lottery for the purpose of her choice of a husband. She is determined to carry out
the terms of her late father’s will. Of course, it is possible for her to disregard her
father’s will and to marry a man on the basis of her own judgment. But she has implicit
faith in her father’s wisdom, and she is convinced that her father’s will would prove to be
the means of her getting the right man as her husband. In this belief she is greatly
encouraged by Nerissa who tells her that good men are sometimes divinely inspired
when they are dying and that they then take sound decisions. Having fallen in love with
Bassanio, Portia could easily have married him without subjecting him to the test laid
down by her father in his will, but she does not follow such a course. Even the man, with
whom she has fallen in love, must prove his worth by passing the test before she would
marry him; nor does she give him any hint as to the casket which he should choose.
Her Modesty, Humility, and Femininity

Although Portia is a woman with a powerful intellect and extraordinary powers of

reasoning, she yet remains a woman at heart with a lot of modesty, humility, and
compassion. When she disguises herself as a man, she succeeds eminently in playing
a masculine role. But on all other occasions she shows that modesty lends to a woman
the grace and the chain which make her a lovable person. When Bassanio puts his
hand on the lead casket, she feels overwhelmed by a feeling of ecstasy, and is hardly
able to restrain her feelings on this occasion. When he actually opens the lead casket
and, finding her picture in it, claims her with a kiss, she makes a speech which
embodies the very spirit of humility. She describes herself as an unschooled,
unlessoned, and unpractised woman, and then goes on to make a complete surrender
of herself to the man who has won her as his wife.

The Muse of Wisdom and Love

For all these reasons, one of the critics describes Portia as the Queen of this play, and
as the Muse of wisdom and love. This critic also says that Portia is as natural as Eve in
Paradise.