The film "The Merchant of Venice" is an adaptation from the play written by William Shakespeare between 1596 and 1598. The story takes place in Venecia during the XVI century. Those times in history are remembered because in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, the Jews are God's chosen people, while Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and they follow his teachings in the New Testament, so in that way the Jews were castigated as the people who crucified Jesus. That's the reason why in the Middle Ages the Jews left Israel and spread across the world, but they had to live in getthos separated themselves from others specialy from Christians, due to all those diferences the Jews were considered as non-citizens, so as medieval Jews they couldn't own land.
One of the main characters of the movie was a Jewish moneylender called Shaylock. He lent money to monarchs like Antonio a merchant venturer who was much more glamorous than Shylock the usurer. This moneylender felt all the discrimination that Christians such as Antonio had against those men wearing a red hat, that's why Shylock becomes all his angry to the point of murderous revange against Antonio who had a debt with him since his beloved friend Bassanio asked him for some money to travel and marry with Portia, a beautiful heiress who lives in Belmont. Due to the fact that Antonio invested all his money in his merchant ships, he just could help his friend being Bassanio's loan guarantor.
Shylock, who hates Antonio because he had insulted him for being a Jew, saw the opportunity to optain revange from this loaning, so he lent Bassanio the money without charging any interest, but with one condition, that was if Antonio the guarantor of Bassanio will not pay the money he will pay it with a pound of his own flesh.
Portia's role in the film is extremely important in the way she influences in a dramatically way the story. She becomes in the heroine of the story since she demonstrates that she's a good counterpart of Shylock who represents the evil.The beauty and wealth of Portia made her an exceptional figure. There was the rule that any man who could solve the mystery of the Cascade would be able to marry her and enjoy her wealth. Although Portia was very rich, at the same time she was very romantic. When sweeter from different countries came to seek her for marriage she gave interesting opinions about them.
It is clear in the film that she liked Bassanio who was a good man. He was not a rich or a powerful man. He was only the friend of Antonio. This clearly shows that Portia gives more value to love and romance than wealth and power.
Portia was a very smart and skilled person. She was educated and at the same time she was a very intelligent person. She could out with Shylock in his own game. This meant a lot of mental strength, because she knows what to say in which condition and this smartness in the end saved Antonio from the death by hands of the evil Shylock. Portia was also a very brave woman. When she heard the news of Antonio she decided that she must try to save him because he had fallen into danger only by helping Bassanio to come to her to get married. So, she took the disguise of a man and went to Venice to fought with Shylock.
At the very end of the movie none of the dukes who were at court could convince Shaylock to be a little bit softer towards Antonio. But Portia had the mental courage to fight against him through the power of persuasion with the law in her words, through all her intelligence at the right moment in the court she successfully defeated Shylock.
From my point of view, one of the qualities that attract me from Portia's character is that she was an obedient daughter and at the same time she was a very loyal person with all the personality to fight against the injustice. She agreed with the wish of her father about the matter of cascade. She waited patiently to get married. If she wanted she could easily told Bassanio or another person what was the secret of three cascades and could get married but she waited patiently and even allow other princess to try for it. This quality of her personality really makes her an exception among all the characters in the film.On the one hand Portia is one of the finest characters created by William Shakespeare. As a general knwoledge, normally, the women characters of Shakespeare and from most of the writters during those times didn't give an important role for women or even worst they tend to create an image of women showing them like a human being that weren't very strong in terms of personality and self-awareness, they were always dependant. On the other hand, the characters of the comedy are not that strong but I think that Portia is an exception to this matter. She was not only strong, she had many qualities that makes her a strong character. All her characteristics have made her into a very exceptional woman of Elizabethan time. I have no doubt that there were very few women in that time in England and Europe who possessed remarkable qualities like Portia.
To conclude, I'd like to repeat that Portia is a very good character and characters like her are very rare in the drama genre.
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