Research Paper on The Role of Women in Hamlet in William Shakespeare’s play. (A Feminist Reading)

Her strength comes through at the conflict and climax of the play, once Shylock hears that Antonio’s ships went shipwreck, he realises that he will fail to pay him back, and very hurriedly he has Antonio in the courtroom requesting his pound of flesh of the bond made in the beginning. Portia goes out the ordinary, and transgresses to save her husband’s best friend’s life. She makes a plan for herself and her helper, Nerissa to save Antonio’s life by disguising as young men. The reason behind that lies in the hierarchal law that forbade women to act in the Venetian courtrooms. Caravella explains that their act of disguising goes beyond shallow looks she says: “By defying their genders to enter into the male-dominated society in Venice they enact the essence of radical feminism.” (Caravella 2006), As strong and intelligent as her plan is, she does in a short speech in her explanation of the plan to Nerissa display a very specific prejudiced idea of what it is like to be a man, she says in her speech: “and speak of frays Like a fine bragging youth, and tell quaint lies, How honorable ladies sought my love, Which I denying, they fell sick and died— I could not do withal” (Lines 73-77), and when Nerrissa asks her if they are turning into men, Portia answers her saying “Fie, what a question’s that If thou wert near a lewd interpreter!” She shows a rather shallow representation of what a man is. And how it is a thing to brag about to “kiss and tell” and the count of the women the man has been with. It can either be taken into consideration as what a man’s privileges are, or as a very preassigned idea of what a man should be which does not help when it comes to gender role expectations, and therefore not contributing to feminism.

Once the strong female figure and her helper manage to reach to courthouse dressed as young men, she acts as Antonio’s lawyer, and takes control over the mission of saving his life. She then discovers a flaw in the bond, whereas Shylock’s request of Antonio’s pound of flesh does not entitle him to any of his blood as it is not stated in the bond. And while it is impossible to cut off the flesh without Antonio bleeding, Portia manages to turn the whole case around. She accuses Shylock of conspiring against the life of a Venetian citizen. Adding to that she ends up making Shylock paying Antonio and the government with everything he owns. Considering the anti-Semitism in this play against Shylock, Portia exceeds at punishing him the most. The strong character however, does go overboard by having him stripped of all that he owns, her actions come off religion based discrimination.

Another trick that the disguised woman pulls of is fooling her husband, and having Nerissa, her servant do the same to hers. When Bassanio insists on repaying the Doctor who is portia in disguise, she refuses the money and asks for Antonio’s gloves and Bassanio’s ring. The ring was given to Bassanio by Portia as a sign of fidelity. And the intelligent women manage to have their husbands hand them the rings as a sign of gratitude despite their promises to never take them off. Pulling of this scheme, the women go back to their home to being subordinate wives, and they do not wait when their husbands return, asking them about the rings. When the men tell them the truth, Portia insists that she thinks Bassanio has given it to another woman, again showing this perceived idea of men having multiple women. Which furthermore takes away from unassigned beliefs.

Jessica, is also another female character that comes to a point where she must be disguised as a man to get her way, she is the Jewish moneylender’s daughter, Shylock. She falls in love with the Christian Lorenzo, Antonio and Bassanio’s friend. She goes from hating her father, to actually stealing his ducats and her mother’s ring, to elope with her lover. She ends up marrying Lorenzo, and converting to Christianity. She worries about the way she looks as she comes down to Lorenzo in Act II, scene 6, she says: “I am glad ’tis night, you do not look on me, For I am much ashamed of my exchange.” Beauty, being an important attribute of a woman in Shakespearean times as is in the modern day, it is another form of oppression women experience and must act against, she also in a sense contradicts actions. Converting into Christianity, is just as confusing as the reason behind it is unclear, it could be out of true intent, or rebellion, or for her husband, who claimed the superior religion in the anti-Semitic play, making Jessica yet another follower of oppression, despite her following her wants and dreams.

Even though the crossdressing resembles empowerment and control, it can be concluded that Portia, and the rest of the women characters in this play cannot be portrayed as a modern day feminist if intersectionality is put into count as the whole point of it is to act against discriminations and inequalities, to bring the marginalized parties more towards the centre. By showing signs of Anti-Semitism she fails to claim all the right attributes of a proper modern day feminist, activist. She does however show more qualities of a radical feminist as Caravella argues: “The radical feminist perspective has a focus on gender inequality”(Caravella 2006), she takes into count the limitations of gender, and gender only, adding to that she is after all privileged with class, and race, and gender being the only oppression for her.

Work Cited

Caravella , Angela. “Influences of the Radical Feminist Perspective in The Merchant of

Venice.” Gender Roles of Women in the Renaissance, 2006,

www2.cedarcrest.edu/academic/eng/lfletcher/venice/papers/acaravel.htm.

Scott, Bonnie Kime, et al. Women in Culture: an Intersectional Anthology for Gender and

Womens Studies. Wiley Blackwell, 2017.

Smith, Rob. Shakespeare, the Merchant of Venice. Cambridge University Press, 2002.