Portia is a female protagonist of
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's ''
The Merchant of Venice
''The Merchant of Venice'' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. A merchant in Venice named Antonio defaults on a large loan provided by a Jewish moneylender, Shylock.
Although classified as ...
''. A rich, beautiful, intelligent heiress of Belmont, she is bound by the
lottery
A lottery is a form of gambling that involves the drawing of numbers at random for a prize. Some governments outlaw lotteries, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree of ...
set forth in her father's will, which gives potential suitors the chance to choose among three caskets. If he chooses the right casket, he wins Portia's hand in marriage. If he chooses the incorrect casket, he must leave and never woo any other woman in marriage. She is shown to think little of various foreign noblemen of similar rank who are most likely to seek her hand in marriage and still less of two suitors who seem to attempt her father's assigned task. Instead she favours a young but impoverished Venetian noble, Bassanio, who is also a soldier and a scholar. Bassanio goes on to choose the right casket.
Portia is also fond of wordplay and
proverb
A proverb (from la, proverbium) is a simple and insightful, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and use formulaic speech, formulaic language. A proverbial phra ...
s, frequently quoting and coining them, which was considered a sign of wisdom and sharp wit in
Elizabethan era
The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...
. Some suggest that the character of Portia was based on
Queen Elizabeth herself, who also had a penchant for proverbs.
Plot
![Portia - Henry Woods](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Portia_-_Henry_Woods.jpg)
She is beautiful, gracious, rich, intelligent, and quick-witted, with a luxury lifestyle and high standards for her potential romantic partners. She is bound by the lottery set forth in her father's will, which gives potential suitors the chance to choose between three caskets composed of gold, silver and lead. If they choose the right casket – the casket containing Portia's portrait and a scroll – they win her hand in marriage. If they choose the incorrect casket, they must leave and never seek another woman in marriage. Portia is glad when two suitors, one driven by greed and another by vanity, fail to choose correctly, although she demonstrates tact to the Princes of Morocco and Arragon, who unsuccessfully seek her hand. She favoured Bassanio, a young Venetian noble, but is not allowed to give him any clues to assist in his choice.
Later in the play, she disguises herself as a man and then assumes the role of a lawyer's apprentice (named Balthazar) whereby she saves the life of Bassanio's friend
Antonio
Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular male ...
in court.
In the court scene, Portia finds a technicality in the bond, thereby outwitting the
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
moneylender
Shylock
Shylock is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's play ''The Merchant of Venice'' (c. 1600). A Venetian Jewish moneylender, Shylock is the play's principal antagonist. His defeat and conversion to Christianity form the climax of the ...
and saving Antonio's life from the
pound of flesh demanded when everyone else including the Duke presiding as judge and Antonio himself fails. It is Portia who delivers
one of the most famous speeches in ''The Merchant of Venice'':
Despite Portia's lack of formal legal training, she wins her case by referring to the details of the exact language of the law. Her success involves prevailing on technicalities rather than the merits of the situation. She uses the tactics of what is sometimes called a
Philadelphia lawyer
Philadelphia Lawyer is a term to describe a lawyer who knows the most detailed and minute points of law or is an exceptionally competent lawyer. Its first known usage dates back to 1788.
Philadelphia-based Colonial American lawyer Andrew Hamil ...
in modern times and in so doing demonstrates that she is far from powerless, irrespective of her earlier lack of choice in the marriage. However, the concept of
rhetoric
Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...
and its abuse is also brought to light by Portia – highlighting the idea that an unjust argument may win through eloquence, loopholes and
technicalities, regardless of the moral question at hand – and thus provoking the audience to consider that issue. Shylock leaves the trial with both his life and his job intact but retains only half of his money and is deprived of his identity on being forced to convert to Christianity, while his daughter Jessica and her Christian husband Lorenzo with whom she had previously eloped are found in Portia's castle, not, it is implied, in complete happiness. Portia and Bassanio, on the other hand, continue to live together along with the former's lady-in-waiting Nerissa and her husband Gratiano.
Progenitor
![Portia and Shylock (Sully, 1835)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Portia_and_Shylock_%28Sully%2C_1835%29.jpg)
The original Portia Shakespeare drew from was
Porcia Catonis
The gens Porcia, rarely written Portia, was a plebeian family at Ancient Rome. Its members first appear in history during the third century BC. The first of the gens to achieve the consulship was Marcus Porcius Cato in 195 BC, and from then un ...
, the wife of the Roman statesman Brutus, as well as several biblical allusions. She was also compared to the wife of Brutus within the play in Act 1 scene 1 when Bassanio talks to Antonio.
Portrayals
The strength of the role of Portia has made it attractive to many notable actresses.
Frances Abington
Frances "Fanny" Abington (1737 – 4 March 1815) was an English actress who was also known for her sense of fashion. Writer and politician Horace Walpole described her as one of the finest actors of their time, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan was s ...
,
Sarah Siddons
Sarah Siddons (''née'' Kemble; 5 July 1755 – 8 June 1831) was a Welsh actress, the best-known tragedienne of the 18th century. Contemporaneous critic William Hazlitt dubbed Siddons as "tragedy personified".
She was the elder sister of John ...
and
Elizabeth Whitlock
Elizabeth Whitlock (née Kemble; 2 April 1761, Warrington, Lancashire27 February 1836, Addlestone) was an English actress, a member of the Kemble (family), Kemble family of actors. She made her first appearance on the stage in 1783. In 1785 she m ...
all played Portia in the 18th century when actresses first started appearing on stage in performances of the play. More recently, the role has been depicted in the cinema, on television, and in theatres by a number of notable actresses such as
Maggie Smith
Dame Margaret Natalie Smith (born 28 December 1934) is an English actress. With an extensive career on screen and stage beginning in the mid-1950s, Smith has appeared in more than sixty films and seventy plays. She is one of the few performer ...
,
Claire Bloom
Patricia Claire Bloom (born 15 February 1931) is an English actress. She is known for leading roles in plays such as ''A Streetcar Named Desire,'' ''A Doll's House'', and '' Long Day's Journey into Night'', and has starred in nearly sixty film ...
,
Sybil Thorndike
Dame Agnes Sybil Thorndike, Lady Casson (24 October 18829 June 1976) was an English actress whose stage career lasted from 1904 to 1969.
Trained in her youth as a concert pianist, Thorndike turned to the stage when a medical problem with her ...
,
Joan Plowright
Joan Ann Olivier, Baroness Olivier, (née Plowright; born 28 October 1929), professionally known as Dame Joan Plowright, is an English retired actress whose career has spanned over seven decades. She has won two Golden Globe Awards and a Tony ...
,
Caroline John
Caroline Frances John (19 September 1940 – 5 June 2012) was an English actress. She played classical roles on the stage and also portrayed Elizabeth "Liz" Shaw in the BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', as well as several o ...
,
Lynn Collins
Viola Lynn Collins (born May 16, 1977) is an American actress. She has made television appearances in ''True Blood'' (2008), '' Manhunt: Unabomber'' (2017) and '' The Walking Dead'' (2021–2022), and is recognized for her roles in films such a ...
,
Lily Rabe
Lily Rabe (born June 29, 1982) is an American actress. She is best known for her multiple roles on the FX anthology horror series ''American Horror Story'' (2011–2021). For her performance as Portia in the Broadway production of ''The Merchan ...
, and
Gemma Jones
Jennifer "Gemma" Jones (born 4 December 1942) is an English actress. Appearing on both stage and screen, her film appearances include ''Sense and Sensibility'' (1995), the ''Bridget Jones'' series (2001–2016), the ''Harry Potter'' series ( ...
.
Cultural references
The character of Portia has had a considerable and long-lived cultural impact.
*
Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams ( ''née'' Smith; November 22, [ O.S. November 11] 1744 – October 28, 1818) was the wife and closest advisor of John Adams, as well as the mother of John Quincy Adams. She was a founder of the United States, an ...
adopted the
pen name
A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen na ...
"Portia" in letters to her husband,
John Adams
John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...
, the second
president of the United States
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...
. John signed his letters with "
Lysander
Lysander (; grc-gre, Λύσανδρος ; died 395 BC) was a Spartan military and political leader. He destroyed the Athenian fleet at the Battle of Aegospotami in 405 BC, forcing Athens to capitulate and bringing the Peloponnesian War to an en ...
".
* The
New England School of Law
New England Law , Boston (formerly New England School of Law) is a private law school in Boston, Massachusetts. It was founded as Portia School of Law in 1908 and is located in downtown Boston near the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Fina ...
was originally known as the Portia Law School when it was established in 1908 as a women-only law school, and was known by that name until 1969.
* In his ''
Rumpole
''Rumpole of the Bailey'' is a British television series created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer. It starred Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, a middle-aged London barrister who defended a broad variety of clients, ...
'' novels (filmed for the ITV series), author
John Mortimer
Sir John Clifford Mortimer (21 April 1923 – 16 January 2009) was a British barrister, dramatist, screenwriter and author. He is best known for novels about a barrister named Horace Rumpole.
Early life
Mortimer was born in Hampstead, London, ...
has Rumpole call Phyllida Erskine-Brown (née Trant) the "Portia of our Chambers".
*
Georgina Weldon
Georgina Weldon (née Thomas; 24 May 1837 – 11 January 1914) was a British litigant and amateur soprano of the Victorian era.
Early years
She was born at Tooting Lodge, Clapham Common in 1837, one of seven children and the oldest daughter bo ...
the celebrated Victorian litigant and amateur soprano was referred to as the "Portia of the Law Courts".
*
Portia is a moon of
Uranus
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. Its name is a reference to the Greek god of the sky, Uranus (mythology), Uranus (Caelus), who, according to Greek mythology, was the great-grandfather of Ares (Mars (mythology), Mars), grandfather ...
, one of several such named after Shakespearean characters.
*
Portia de Rossi
Portia Lee James DeGeneres (born Amanda Lee Rogers; 31 January 1973), known professionally as Portia de Rossi, is an Australian-American former actress. She played Nelle Porter on the American drama series '' Ally McBeal'' (1998–2002), for wh ...
(born Amanda Lee Rogers), married to
Ellen DeGeneres
Ellen Lee DeGeneres ( ; born January 26, 1958) is an American comedian, television host, actress, writer, and producer. She starred in the sitcom ''Ellen'' from 1994 to 1998, which earned her a Primetime Emmy Award for " The Puppy Episode". Sh ...
, adopted the name Portia to reinvent herself after becoming a model and actress.
* The
Portia Hypothesis, which states women with
masculine
Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as socially constructed, and there is also evidence that some behaviors con ...
-sounding names tend to be more successful in a legal profession than otherwise identical counterparts, is named after the character.
Notes and references
Sources
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{{Authority control
The Merchant of Venice
Literary characters introduced in 1590
Female Shakespearean characters
Fictional Italian people in literature