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Female Characters in ‘The Merchant of Venice’-William Shakespeare

 Female Characters in ‘The Merchant of Venice’

Ans. William Shakespeare is a past master in creating life-like characters in his plays. There is a large range of male and female characters in his plays painted in different shades of colours in life. Some of his female characters like Cordelia in King Lear, Portia in The Merchant of Venice, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Desdemona in Othello, and so on are really wonderfully created female characters.

Let’s discuss female characters in the Merchant of Venice.

Shakespeare seems to have created female characters in this play intentionally stronger than their male counterparts. We have three female characters: Portia Jessica and Nerissa.

 

Portia dominates by her qualities not only the female but also the male characters. She has several qualities of head and heart. She has intelligence, wisdom, loyalty, romantic nature, presence of mind, confidence, kindness, wit, humour, etc.

 These qualities make her stature very high. The reader/audience loves her even in her weak moments of life when she feels caught in difficulty due to the vow given to her late father. She is not free to choose the husband of her choice. She respects her father’s strange will unto the last. She shows her deep love for Bassanio and deep respect and loyalty to her father. She is also full of the milk of human kindness. When she comes to know from Bassanio about  Antonio’s difficulty, she at once tells her husband to stop all his work and go to Venice to save his friend.

It is her presence of mind that she at once makes a plan to reach Venice to save Antonio in the Duke’s court. She intelligently and very confidently handles Antonio’s case. Thus she not only saves Antonio but also gets Shylock punished for the crime that he committed against humanity.

In this way, she also overshadows not only other female characters but also male ones including her husband Bassanio, who has been created in low profile. It is, later on, Bassanio’s character is redeemed (saved/recovered) when he reaches Venice to help Antonio in the Duke’s court. There he shows much concern for his friend’s life. He offers Shylock several times more money than it was taken as a loan from him. But the Jew is not ready to forgive Antonio. Bassanio also tells the Jew that he can cut every part of his body but spare Antonio’s life.

Another female character is Jessica. She is Shylock’s daughter. She elopes with her lover Lorenzo taking with her a lot of valuables from her house. She does not love her father. She condemns him for his evil-doings. She also calls her house a hell. She feels ashamed of being called Shylock’s daughter. although she feels bad for such types of feelings for her father. Lorenzo and Jessica waste Shylock’s money when they stay at several places during elopement time. Thus we do not have a very high opinion about Jessica. She loves money. That is why she took diamonds and ducats with her. In Portia’s absence, Lorenzo and Jessica take care of her house.

The third female character in the play is Nerissa, who marries Gratiano. She is Portia’s woman-in-waiting. She provides (gives) company to her. Portia shares her thoughts and feelings with her. In Act, I, Scene (ii), Portia feels sad to think that she is not free to choose the husband of her choice. Then she tells Portia that her father was really a wise person. She consoles her that she would finally get a husband who would truly love her. Nerissa also accompanies Portia in the Duke’s court. In the ring episode also, Nerissa has an equal part to play. In a way, she has been created as a foil to Portia to highlight her qualities.

 In this way, there are three female characters in The Merchant of Venice, who dominate their male counterparts.

 

When You Are Old-Explanation-Line-to-Line-W B Yeats

 

When You Are Old-Explanation-Line-to-Line-W B Yeats

William Butler Yeats was born in Dublin in 1865 and died in 1939. He was a great Irish poet. He is considered one of the great modern poets also. He began writing poetry at an early age and he was much influenced by Spenser, Shelley, and a few Pre-Raphaelite poets also. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1923.

About the Poem

When You Are Old’ is WB Yeats’ memorable poem which deals with the theme of ‘love’ that is expressed by the poet in a very unique manner. It is said that the great Irish poet, W. B. Yeats had immense love for Maud Gonne, who was equally active in native politics. Several times the poet expressed his love for her, but he was always met with rejection.

It seems that, while writing this poem, the poet writes this poem keeping in view his beloved Maud Gonne, whom he continuously loved and his love indeed met with a failure.

In the present poem, the poet tries to convince his beloved that he was the only person who loved her from the core of his heart and his love for her spirit.

In the above lines, the poet addresses his beloved that she should take down ‘this book’ and read it slowly when she grows old,  her hair becomes grey and she sits by the fire feeling sleepy and nodding on some winter evening. The poet uses the demonstrative adjective ‘this’ for the book. 

It means the poet means to indicate to her to read the particular book in which the present poem would also be there. He further suggests to his beloved that after going through the pages of the book of poems, she should recollect, as if in a dream, that her eyes once had the soft look and her eyes were deep and shadowy.

It means she had very beautiful eyes. The use of the word ‘nodding’ shows the aging effect on her. It also creates beautiful imagery.

Stanza 2

How many loved your moments of glad grace,

And loved your beauty with love false or true,

But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,

And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

Explanation: In the first stanza, the poet suggests to her to analyse how many of the young men loved her truly or falsely. After deep consideration, she would reach the conclusion that all of them had physical love in their hearts for her. But still, there was one who loved her ‘pilgrim soul’. 

The poet also claims that he was always sensitive to the changes that went on her face from time to time. It shows the poet’s deep devotion to her and is a testimony to ‘his true love for her. He knew when her face showed the marks of sadness and sorrow. Only the poet was able to read and understand even the minutest changes on her face.

The poet has called the ‘soul’ as a pilgrim. It means that the poet also believes in life after death like Robert Browning, a great Victorian poet. According to Oriental philosophy, the human soul is immortal and leaves the body after death to take new birth.  Thus human soul travels like a pilgrim to reach its final abode, Heaven, the pilgrimage. This is what the poet wants to convey to us by using the phrase ‘pilgrim soul’.

 Stanza 3.

And bending down beside the glowing bars,/  Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled

And paced upon the mountains overhead/  And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

Explanation: In this stanza also, the poet again imagines his beloved as an old woman who is sitting beside the fire. Now she is bending down the glowing ‘bars’ of the fireplace, and murmuring a few words of regret as to how the true love has fled from the world and become impossible to find.

The poet uses personification here to bring out the meaning that true love is a rare phenomenon on this earth. He says that it has left the earthly surroundings and fled by pacing upon the mountains. It has hidden his face amid the crowd of stars. 

One cannot pick up a star and bring it down on the earth. So it has become to find true love on the earth. The use of the word ‘murmur’ shows regret.

Here, it may also be concluded that by presenting the picture of love disappearing from the earth, the poet means to make his beloved realise that his love for her is true.