 Let's discuss key quotes relating to Narissa's character. Now, whilst Narissa isn't one of the main characters, do bear in mind that she is important in so far as, number one, she acts as a really important sounding board for Portia, who of course is one of the main characters in Merchant of Venice. Bear in mind in terms of Narissa and her position, she is what we call a lady in waiting. So people who are members of royalty, people who are dukes, duchesses, kings, queens and so on, tend to have a very, very close personal assistant who helps them, for example, dressing, but also usually they tend to, over the period of their lives, these people tend to serve them and they tend to have a very close relationship that they cultivate. So really, we get to know Portia's character particularly through her interactions with Narissa, okay? So Narissa plays a really, really important role in illustrating to us Portia's real emotions and sentiments, but of course also Narissa's journey. In many ways, mimics Portia's journey. So when Portia becomes engaged to Bessonio, she becomes engaged to Gratiano, who is Bessonio's friend, but equally she is the one that helps Portia in her scheme to go to Venice and help free Antonio. So of course, both of them dress up as men. Whilst Narissa is the clerk, Portia is the lawyer. So she dresses up as Balthazar, okay? So of course, Narissa plays a really important supporting role in illustrating Portia as the main character, but of course also she mimics, her journey mimics in many ways Portia's journey. And of course, also do bear in mind that she reflects a lot of typical Elizabethan women at the time, especially women who were servants. In other words, she is a lady in waiting. So of course, also lots of the things that she tends to ask kind of show that subservient role that she plays in society and in her relationship with Portia. Now, as you can see behind me, essentially I've predicated all the key quotations to bear in mind in terms of Narissa's character, especially if you're writing about her either for course or career exams, but equally if you're writing about Portia, you do want to borrow some quotations from what Narissa says as well. Now let's look at the first key quotation relating to the Narissa's character. So she actually tries her best to justify Portia's father's decision to have this interesting will where he leaves these three caskets and he decides that the man that's truly intended to marry Portia is the one that's gonna choose correctly from this casket. So Narissa actually justifies that decision because she says, your father was ever virtuous, ellipsis, holy men ellipsis, good aspirations or inspirations even. Now in this case, what we can see here is actually Narissa, whilst Portia is really annoyed on what her dad did, she feels like she's been controlled by her dad even beyond his grave. Narissa is trying to make Portia feel better about his decisions and she's basically saying, look, I feel like your father had the best intentions and I think his decision to, you know, choose your suit and the man that you marry based on these three caskets, I think, you know, this is a good decision by him, okay? So she's trying to justify this and she's trying to really make Portia remember her father as a very good and a holy man. Now the one level analysis you want to do here is the three words, virtuous, holy and good to describe her father. Of course, these are all adjectives but the main thing is that they belong to the semantic field of morality. So Narissa is really, really positive in describing Portia's dad but also justifying his decision to still control her beyond his grave and of course, bear in mind, contextually, fathers and men generally tended to control the lives of women and whilst Portia is kind of rallying against this and saying, no, I don't think my dad should, you know, have chosen this way of choosing my husband, Narissa justifies it, okay? So she's kind of supporting the social order whereby dad's controlled who their children married, who their daughters particularly married. Now the second quotation to remember with Narissa's character is, she really is hoping that Bassanio is the person that picks the correct casket because she does really want Portia's dreams to come true. She knows that Portia really loves Bassanio. So when Bassanio is arriving, she says, Bassanio, Lord love, if thy will it be, okay? So she's almost, so Narissa's almost kind of praying to the heavens, I hope Bassanio is going to be the person that picks the correct casket. Now the one level analysis here you want to do is firstly the literation of El in Lord love and also this whole sentence is what we call an exclamatory sentence. In other words, it's got an exclamation mark. Of course it's a show Narissa really emphatically almost calling to the gods of fortune saying, please, Bassanio pick the correct casket and of course he does. Now the third quotation to bear around with Narissa's character is when, of course, Bassanio picks the correct casket and then she's basically celebrating their new found love. Bassanio is going to marry Portia, but also this is her way of also announcing that his best friend, Gartiano, has proposed to her and they're also going to marry. Now she states, my lord and lady and this is of course she's talking to Bassanio as Lord and lady being Portia. It is now our time, Ellipsis, to cry good joy, my lord and lady. So here she's basically saying, I'm so happy for you Narissa and Bassanio. I'm really happy that you guys are gonna be married. It's our time to really celebrate your wedding but equally she's kind of just about to reveal to them that her and Gartiano are going to be married too and of course Portia's really happy for her and they decide to have a wedding together. Now the main word level analysis you want to show here and of course this shows how caring Narissa is towards Portia is firstly the repetition of lord and lady. So lord and lady is repeated twice but equally you've got onomatopoeia of cry and again here what this shows is that Narissa and Portia almost have a very sisterly connection. So as I mentioned, Narissa is actually a slightly lower social position than Portia. She's her lady in waiting. In other words, her glorified personal assistant for life, right? However, we can see that her and Portia actually share a very sisterly connection. So what this onomatopoeia is showing is just how overjoyed Narissa is for Portia but equally also how overjoyed she is that she's gonna be marrying Gartiano too. Now, the next rotation to bear in mind of the Narissa's character is when Portia is revealing her plan to go and help Antonio escape the really brutal conditions of Shylock's bond which is to take a pound of his flesh and Portia basically says, look, we're gonna dress up as men, okay? And Narissa is really confused. She says, why? Shall we turn to men? And here, you want to focus firstly in terms of word level analysis is a structural point. You want to talk about the Caesura. Of course, this is showing that Narissa, she's almost amazed at how clever Portia is. And the second word level analysis you want to do here is the literation of tea for turn two. And this question, this is not a rhetorical question by the way, bear in mind that this is an actual question that Narissa asks because she's really amazed that Portia can come up with such an intelligent plan. What this is illustrating more so for Portia's character is just how intelligent and quick-witted she is, right? So whilst Narissa is almost really passive, she kind of takes things as they come to her. Portia is very aggressive, very outward. She's the person that's trying to figure out a way to save Antonio's character and also Antonio's life but also by extension to make sure that her husband, Bessonio is going to be happy because of course he's not gonna be happy if he loses his friend. Now the other quotation to bear in mind is when she's in on the plot, on the comedy relating to asking both Bessonio and Gratiano for their rings. So of course she also, just like the way Portia gave Bessonio a ring and made him promise never to give it away, she gave a ring to Gratiano and made him promise never to give it away. So of course when they come back after they've given the rings away, so Bessonio gives his ring away to Bortazar, Gratiano gives his ring away to the clerk, Narissa feigns anger and she states, gave it to a judge's clerk and of course here she's speaking in the exclamatory sentences as the comedic value of the play. The final quotation for Narissa's character is of course when she does reveal to Gratiano that they played a trick on him and of course she states, pardon me my gentle Gratiano and here you want to focus on the illustration of M in me, my and also G, the alliteration of gentle and Gratiano. Of course here she's asking for his forgiveness in fooling him, okay? So that's really it when it comes to key quotations to remember for Narissa's character.