Unfairness in the Merchant of Venice

"By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary of this great world."
(I.ii.1)

Just like my previous post, I'll be discussing another theme that seems to come up in the Merchant of Venice: unfairness. We so often see this unfairness happen to many characters in the play, whether it be them treating other unfairly or them being treated unfairly themselves. In this post, I'll be discussing the character Portia, who is a wealthy heiress from Belmont, forced to marry the suitor who chooses the correct casket.

To start, Portia has no choice but to follow her father's wish, which was for her to marry the man who chooses the right casket out of three: gold, silver, and lead. She seems very tired meeting all the suitors from around the world, and that results to her being very picky and stubborn about the men surrounding her, proven in the line: "If I live to be as old as Sibylla, I will die as chaste as Diana unless I be obtained by the manner of my father’s will. I am glad this parcel of wooers are so reasonable, for there is not one among them but I dote on his very absence. And I pray God grant them a fair departure." (I.ii.95-99). This line shows that Portia is very picky and doesn't wish for any of the suitors to be near her, saying that she will die a virgin taken from the remark "I will die as chaste as Diana," seeing as Diana was a virgin Roman goddess who never slept with anyone. This behavior is unfair to her suitors, and it might sound very unpleasant for them if they heard this. 

 Next, Portia is treated unfairly since her suitors would want to marry her for either her money or status. Not many suitors would marry her for love, and if they did, Portia would most likely not have feelings for them back. This can be shown in the line: "In Belmont is a lady richly left,
And she is fair and—fairer than that word—Of wondrous virtues." (I.i.163-165). This line was said by Bassanio, proving that he wanted to pay back his debt with Antonio by using Portia's money. There's also speculation that Portia likes Bassanio, and this leads Portia to be more gullible towards Bassanio's tricks. This, of course, is very unfair to her and it isn't her choice to choose a husband that loves her as much as he loves her - or the other way around.

To add, Portia's suitors can also be very rude and arrogant, with bad traits written all over them. Here are a few lines that Portia says to describe her previous suitors:
"for he doth nothing but talk of his horse, and he makes it a great appropriation to his own good parts that he can shoe him himself. " (I.ii.36-38)
"If I should marry him, I should marry twenty husbands. If he would despise me I would forgive him, for if he love me to madness I shall never requite him." (I.ii.55-58)
"Very vilely in the morning, when he is sober, and most vilely in the afternoon, when he is drunk." (I.ii.85-86)
From the lines above, we can see that some of her suitors exhibit bad behaviors, with some being alcoholics, horse-loving arrogant princes or just rude nobles!

Last but not least, Portia has some sort of prejudice (just like every other character) towards people who aren't the same race or religion as she is. We can observe her thoughts towards the Prince of Morroco, one who is dark-skinned and is most likely a Muslim. Her thoughts were: "If he have the condition of a saint and the complexion of a devil, I had rather he should shrive me than wive me." (I.ii.115-117). In here she says that she would rather stay away from him than marry him, saying that even though he was the nicest person in the world, she still wouldn't marry him because of his complexion. This is very unfair to the Prince of Morroco because even though he might be a little self-centered, he can offer her love. However, Portia doesn't accept this 'love' and prejudices against him because of his dark complexion and (probably) religion.

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