Portia the enigma

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Deception. A word of great importance. A word that symbolizes not only the sneakiness of the beholder, but the cluelessness of the surrounding people. In regards to The Merchant of Venice, one could definitely argue that Portia signifies deceit. Portia's evident beauty, yet unknown intelligence, deceives the audience as well as characters in the story. Portia resembling deceit, not only reveals a lot regarding her character, but the audience learns a lot about William Shakespeare's take on gender inequality, and the power of women. William Shakespeare created "Portia", to promote a message of great significance, no man is better than any woman. Yet, one could definitely argue that Shakespeare unintentionally made that point evident. But it is evident that he believes no gender is better than one another, due to all the references in the story. It is evident that gender inequality is a main aspect of the book, yet Portia signifying deceit, proves to the audience that gender doesn't depict intelligence.
The act of deceiving basically means to delude someone by a misleading appearance or statement. Within the entire Merchant of Venice, the readers see many references to deceiving, which supports the argument that Portia does in fact represent deceit. As it has been recognized, Portia is beautiful. At the beginning of the story Bassanio says, "In Belmont is a lady richly left; And she is fair, and fairer than that word, Of wondrous virtues. Sometimes from her eyes I did receive fair speechless messages. Her name is Portia, nothing undervalued". (797) Bassanio description reveals her beauty, and breathtaking ambiance, yet nothing relating to her intelligence is spoken about. When Portia is incognito, and dressed as a "doctor", we see...

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...deceit, due to her beautiful ambiance yet her secret intelligence. William Shakespeare not only reveals a lot regarding the characters in the story, but the readers understand his perspectives regarding gender inequality. It is definitely well known that he does not believe neither gender is better than one another. Additionally, he does not believe that woman lack intelligence or smartness, he believes their brains are equivalent to men's. Furthermore, William Shakespeare incorporates Portia into the story to promote the message that if people want to prove something, it does not have to be to anyone, besides themselves, and that is extremely significant to the story as well as life in general. So overall, The Merchant of Venice promotes the message, using Portia representing deceit, that gender inequality as well as proving oneself is irrelevant and not important.

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