 Now let's look at quotes relating to the character of Portia. Now bear in mind that Portia is a very wealthy heiress however her hands are tied as a result of her father's will so her father even after he's died controls who she is going to marry from beyond his grave. In other words, his will states that any person who wishes to marry her must choose correctly from three caskets, one of gold, one of silver, one of lead whoever chooses the correct casket basically wins over Portia as his wife so of course she's really frustrated because on the one hand she's maybe not going to marry the man that she wants but on the other hand she's also being controlled by her father beyond the grave. Now Portia is a character it's presented as very intelligent, very witty, also on the other hand however when she does travel to Venice when she realises that Bessonnia's friend Antonio is in trouble and she disguises as a Balthazar of course we see that she's very clever because she's able to interpret a contract which all these other men are not able to do however she's also a little bit ruthless in terms of how she dictates the conditions of Shylock's punishment so on the one hand she's very intelligent, very witty, however on the other hand she's also somewhat ruthless however do bear in mind that Portia goes against the typical Elizabethan woman who is very passive, very quiet or is listening to what men had to say, actually she's presented as very fiery. Now as you can see behind me I have presented or rather created key quotations remember for her character especially if you're revising her character and considering key quotes for either assessments that you're preparing for or coursework okay and so for each quote essentially of highlighted interesting structural techniques and word level analysis you can do so let's begin with the first quotation when it comes to the character of Portia so here we can see that she states, my little body is a weary of this great world now this is stated in the opening of the play where we meet her she's fed up of her father's will, she's fed up of having you know this constant group of men, different men coming in to try and win her hand in marriage of course bear in mind that she has a massive inheritance and at the time contextually women were counted as the property of the husbands therefore anybody who married her basically inherited everything she owned including her as a person because she was counted as a woman as property now here we can see she's really exasperated okay at this will that her father has left behind she can't marry who she wants, she's still waiting for the right person to come along who's going to pick the right casket and she when she states my little body is a weary of this great world, hair little and great this is oxymoron, this is showing her anger and annoyance at how her father is still controlling her beyond his grave the second quotation to bear in mind for Portia's character is again we can see hair and we feel sorry for her as a woman we can see how contextually women were really controlled by the male figures in their lives during this period during Shakespeare's time because she states I may neither choose whom I would nor refuse whom I dislike here basically she's saying my father's wall is really irritating because I don't get to choose it's my father and it's these really bizarre set of circumstances basically based on chance that dictate who I am going to marry so I don't get to choose who I want to marry okay but also I don't get to refuse if I don't want to marry that guy I don't refuse if he picks the right casket I have to marry him even if I'm not attracted to him now the word level analysis you want to do here is the repetition of the first person pronoun I okay so repeat it three times obviously showing how she's really annoyed she feels really constrained by when it comes to her role as an Elizabethan woman because of course remember she lived through Queen Elizabeth's time or rather Shakespeare wrote this during Queen Elizabeth's time also the other word level analysis you want to consider is the alliteration of W in whom and would okay now the other quotation to bear in mind for Portia's character is when she's describing her father's really bizarre will and its bizarre conditions she states that he hath devised in these three chests of gold silver and lead so of course here you've got alliteration of age showing her kind of annoyance exasperation but of course also she uses the rule of three here when she lists gold silver and lead to tell us what the caskets are that the men have to choose from the men that want to marry her the next quotation for Portia's character is when she talks about the different suitors however we now also see so as I mentioned this play there's a lot of things that go on in this play that make it a comedy but also there's a lot of things that show prejudices during the time on the one hand you've got Antonio who's very anti-Semitic so not liking Jews but of course also other characters in the play don't like you that's why Shylock as the main Jew is portrayed as a villain however in this quotation where she's talking about the Prince of Morocco specifically he comes from Africa he's maybe not dark skinned African but he's definitely very tanned in complexion she shows that she utterly dislikes him because he is darker skinned okay so there's a lot of racism as well in this play now she states when she's showing that she really hopes that the Prince of Morocco will pick the wrong casket she says he have the condition of a saint and the complexion of a devil so she's basically saying that even if the Prince of Morocco was like the best of the best person ever he has the complexion the skin color of a darker skinned person and at the time during this period when Shakespeare wrote darker skinned people were considered to be closer to the devil they were maybe dark because they were devilish of course that is not true but that was the idea at the time and hence why Portia describes the Prince of Morocco as a seeming to be a devil now in terms of word level analysis you want to do here this you want to focus on the contrast between the mention of how the Prince of Morocco might be a saint a wholly a good person however he has a skin shade of a devil this is oxymoron saint and devil being opposites the next quotation to bear in mind with Portia's character is when Visano picks the correct casket the lead casket and she's really happy and she states happiest of all that is her gentle spirit and of course here her happiest is a supportive adjective she's this is showing her complete and utter joy that she's going to get to marry the man that she actually wants to marry the other key quotation to bear in mind is now when she states myself and what is mine to you and yours and this is when she's pledging that you know everything that's mine is now yours because I'm now marrying you Visano and of course what this shows contextually is she has accepted to now be Visano's property because of course bear in mind that when women married men during this time they were considered to be their property and this is emphasized in terms of word level analysis in the pronouns myself and mine so this is Portia saying me I will be your property and she says this and emphasizes by saying you and yours to Visano now the next word level analysis to do here is when she then gives a Visano a ring okay and she says this ring when you part from lose or give away ruin okay and there's I've put here says yours so bear in mind that I've skipped a few words okay so this ring ellipsis apologies so this ring ellipsis when you part from comma lose or give away ellipsis ruin dot dot dot so basically here she's basically saying look I'm going to give you a ring you can't part from it okay this is a token of my love you have to make sure you look after it now here in terms of word level analysis what you want to do is focus on the rule of three part lose or give away now the next quotation to bear in mind with Portia's character is when she disguises herself as both as are and she goes to defend Antonio in court against Shylock and of course she's able to cleverly interpret the conditions of the contract and show that Antonio is not at fault and then she says the bond is forfeit in other words the bond that Antonio had the obligation that he had to give a pound of his flesh it's no longer valid Shylock can't take a pound of Antonio's flesh now of course here in terms of sentence analysis here you want to talk about it being a declarative sentence declarative sentence being a sentence that states a fact feeling on mood the next quotation to bear in mind when it comes to Portia's character is when she then obviously tricks with Antonio and Bessonio and she gets Bessonio to give Balthazar her ring right so she tricks Bessonio into giving him her or rather Portia her ring as Balthazar then she goes back with Nerissa of course they're finding it really funny that they've tricked him and of course also they've tricked his friend Gratiano to give away their ring now she then gives Bessonio a hard time and then later on she basically tells him she says you need to show me a ring I will never come into your bed until I see the ring so of course here the hyperbole never and of course there's kind of that sexual connotation she's never going to sleep with him until she sees the ring here of course there's a comedic element with Portia basically threatening Bessonio that if she doesn't see the ring she's never going to sleep with him you know she's never going to fulfill her wifely duties for him and of course this is adding to the comedic element because obviously we know that she does have the ring she is Balthazar so thus she has the ring and of course when she does reveal that this was a trick and this was a joke Bessonio is really angry and he then you know says are you trying to you know take the take massive all out of me and then she says hang on it's okay it's fine it was just a joke speak not so grossly you are all amazed in other words don't speak so badly Bessonio it's okay it was a joke but also aren't you guys really amazed that I was able to not only fool you all as a man as Balthazar but I was able really cleverly to save Antonio's life by interpreting the contract okay and of course obviously this shows that she's very intelligent and very witty okay now here we can also see she's very headstrong when she says this so of course you've got the sibilance of s and speak and so and you've also got caesura in this quotation as well as assonance of a in are all and amazed so that's it when it comes to key quotations to remember for the character of Portia in The Merchant of Venice