Notesale: Turn your study into money

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Merciful or manipulative
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Portia manipulates Shylock during the trial scene enabling
him to think that he has won; she also deceives the characters on stage as she dresses up as boy this
creates dramatic irony
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Nevertheless at other points in the play she is shown as merciful as she demands
that Shylock shows mercy towards Antonio, as well she ultimately saves Antonio which shows her as being
a merciful character
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When Bassanio finds out that he must go back to Venice to visit Antonio at his trial, Portia demands that
they get married first before Bassino leaves to Venice, perhaps she has pre-planned the ring trick ‘‘First
go with me to church, and call me wife And then away to Venice to your friend
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Later on in the play she continues
to be played as a manipulative character as she deceives Lorenzo by saying that Nerrissa and her are
going to go to a monastery whilst their husbands are away ‘To live in prayer and contemplation’ however
as the audience knows Portia’s true character as being witty and manipulative we suspect that she is not
actually going to a monastery
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Throughout the trial scene Portia’s intelligence and
manipulative quality is shown as she is able to control the scene, throughout the trial she manipulates
shylock to allow him to believe that he will have his bond ‘‘It must not be
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’ Here Portia also manipulates the audience and characters on
stage as we suspect all hope is lost for Antonio as the law must uphold itself
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Portia manipulates shylock as she allows him to think that she is on his side as she builds up shylocks
hopes to have his bond as Shylock praises her ‘O rightful judge’ however just before he is about to cut she
manipulates the law to the Christian characters advantage and defeats Shylock ‘But in the cutting it if
thou dost shed/ One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods /Are by the laws of Venice confiscate’
Portia was the only character who was able to manipulate the law to the Christian characters advantage,
she is shown as a manipulative characters as she takes away shylocks wealth showing her as being an
intelligent and manipulative character
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’ Portia is shown as a manipulative character as she is willing to destroy her marriage just to remove
Antonio from it
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In the merchant of Venice Portia is portrayed as a compassionate and merciful character as during the trial
scene Portia gives a rhetorical speech demanding that Shylocks show Antonio mercy, this is based on
Christian teachings that being merciful links us to god ‘It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes’ here
Portia shows her Christian understanding of mercy and that it is up to God
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Portia is shown as a merciful character as although she defeats Shylock, she saves Antonio who is a
Christian character
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Portia is a compassionate character as she fought
the trial so Antonio would win, she did not just save Antonio but also Bassino, who would never have
forgiven himself if Antonio had died
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We suspect that Portia knew from the beginning that’s she could defeat Shylock, but she
allowed him to think that he would have his bond, which is cruel
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