MERCHANT OF VENICE ACT1 SCENE 2 ICSE LINE BY LINE SUMMARY ANALYSIS

 Act I: Scene 2

Summary

At Belmont, Portia is seen talking to her confidante, Nerissa. According to the will of her late father, Portia cannot marry a man of her own choice. Instead, she must make herself available to all suitors and accept the one who would choose the right casket wherein Portia's portrait is lying. Portia seems belligerent. She is exasperated by repeated pestering of myriad different suitors coming from different directions of the world. Nerissa tries to comfort Portia. She tells her that her father was a wise man. He knew exactly what he was doing. He knew that only the right suitor for Portia would be able to open the casket property. Portia is not so certain. However, for she gave her word that she would be obedient to her father's last wishes.

 

Nerissa asks Portia to recall the gentlemen who have already taken the test and give her opinion. The suitors who came to Belmont were a Neapolitan prince; the County Palatine; a French lord, Monsieur Le Bon; a young English baron, Falconbridge; a Scottish lord; and a young German, the Duke of Saxony's nephew. Portia goes on commenting on their individual faults, finding each one of them undesirable as a husband. Fortunately, all of them failed to open the right casket and decided to comply with the three oaths they had taken.

Nerissa then reminds her mistress of a Venetian scholar and soldier who attended her father’s court with one Count Montferrat. Portia instantly remembers him and praises him highly: "He, of all the men that ever my foolish eyes looked upon, was the best deserving of a fair lady." A servant interrupts the conversation and announces that a new suitor, the Prince of Morocco, has arrived to take the test.

Analysis

Unlike the opening Scene at Venice, this scene opens at Belmont. Like Antonio, Portia expresses her sadness but unlike Antonio she shows the reasons for sadness being clearly due to the conditions imposed on her by her dead father's will. she can "neither choose who I would nor refuse who dislike [as a husband]."

We had been given the impression that Portia is very beautiful and very rich. But now we find before us a woman who is not only fair but quite witty with her agility of mind and for her sharp, satiric intelligence. It is, in fact, Portia's satiric flair that provides this comedy the greatest sparkle. At the query of Nerissa, Portia offers her wry and droll comments on each of the previous suitors.

 

 

Shakespeare attempts to give his audience the conventional Elizabethan satiric view of the other European nations. Each of her suitors corresponds to her age's caricatures of the typical Italian, Frenchman, German etc. The Neapolitan prince "does nothing but talk of his horse," a characteristic of only the southern Italian; the "County Palatine" (from the Rhineland) is a pure, unadulterated dullard; he is unable to laugh at anything; "Monsieur Le Bon" is "every man in no man". He has many superficial and changeable characters but no single, substantial one. (To marry him would be "to marry twenty husbands.") The English suitor wears myriad European fashions in clothing but gets various national clothes and refuses to speak any language except his own. He appreciates many dresses buy does not speak many languages. His dress code represents no particular allegiance of his towards any nation. The coward Scot is known for his anger at the English but he can’t retaliate on his own, rather calls for help from France and finally, there is the German who does nothing but drink. Portia sensibly refuses to be married to a "sponge."

 

Basically, we can say that this scene has three major purposes. 

 

First, it outlines the device of the caskets and the typical test to the audience. This scene provides the dramatic basis for the scenes in which the various suitors "hazard" their choice of the proper casket for Portia's hand in marriage. 

 

Secondly, it introduces us to Portia — not simply as the "fair" object of Bassanio's love, but as a woman of powerful character and wit, perceptive about the people around her and quite able to hold her own in verbal combat with anyone in the play. She has an unshakable loyalty towards her late father. She differs with his choice but does not think of disregarding his will. Her articulation is a very important quality, given Portia's subsequent importance in the development of the plot. 

 

Shakespeare takes the play to the climax by introducing her eloquent personality to the audience through this scene. Her brilliance therefore will not come as a surprise to the audience, especially when she superbly outwits the crafty Shylock. Finally, there is a minor but significant touch toward the end of the scene, when Nerissa asks Portia whether or not she remembers a certain "Venetian, a scholar and a soldier" to which we hear Portia's immediate recollection of Bassanio, indicating her vivid memory of him and implying her love-at-first-sight-like interest in him. 

 

This is a contrasting scene to Venice. Just the scene before, we have been introduced to the trade and commerce life of Venice with its youthful pleasure loving youth. But, in contrast to that, this scene shows a much solemn atmosphere. Culture and wit rule here. People are more pragmatic and discreet in their choice of taking the right decision.

Elizabeth ruled when Shakespeare composed this play. It was a time of England’s identity crisis and time for trade, commerce and maritime expansion. Other prominent nations needed to be shown in a poor light to the Englanders through such plays to boost a sense of belonging and superiority. Hence it is subtly presented through the weird characteristics of the suitors hailing from other countries.