merchant of venice - portia
...o glories her intelligence and takes enjoyment from using it. Portia anticipates great enjoyment and amusement from the secret trip to Venice, the dressing up in men's clothes, acting the part of a bragging young intelligent brave man and dressing up as a well-known lawyer. Even a trained lawyer could not of handled the trial in Venice more confidently. Portia is also intelligent in her relations with people. She realizes that the value of her fathers, ‘Trial by Caskets;’ and tactfully underrates her talents in order to build up Bassanio’s. Her intelligence was way beyond that of the other characters in Shakespeare’s play, The Merchant of Venice. Portia’s lively wit is a product of her intelligence, plus her marvelous sense of humor. Portia’s wittiness makes more and more of a memorable character as we read through this play. The humorous touch with which she describes the various suitors who come to woo her is barely her genuine wit, but a sharp intelligent one. Portia shows that she does not have a mean wit in her but a gentle one, as she will not make fun of people or other characters while they are in her presence. Wittiness really brings out the true personality of characters, especially in Shakespeare’s work. It is known that Shakespeare uses wittiness to bring out the true feelings of characters in his plays. Wittiness is used quite often in The Merchant of Venice especially with the character of Portia. Her frisky wit is the cause of the whole ring episode, which is the conclusion of this play. There are many obvious uses of sarcasm in the last scene until all was explained. The concluding scenes are also rich in Portia’s quick snappy replies and her play on words. Portia’s wittiness and play on words add colour and contrast to Shakespeare’s play, The Merchant of Venice. In society today, a memorable person would have a huge social bearing on you if you thought they were memorable. Portia, a character in Shakespeare’s play, The Merchant of Venice has a huge social bearing in this play. Portia was always perfectly poised and gracious regardless of her thoughts and feelings at the mo...