Portia wants to know if Bassanio, her suitor, truly loves her for who she is, rather than for her wealth or status. She is also curious about the nature of love and loyalty, as demonstrated by her willingness to test Bassanio's devotion through the casket challenge. Additionally, she seeks to understand the dynamics of relationships and the impact of external pressures on true affection. Ultimately, her inquiries reflect a desire for genuine connection and mutual respect in love.
Antonio is convinced that he will lose his lawsuit with Shylock and will be obliged to give up his pound of flesh and his life. He asks Bassiano earlier, "You cannot better be employ'd, Bassanio, Than to live still and write mine epitaph." Later, when actually preparing himself to be killed, he has the opportunity to deliver what he believes will be his last words. He says to Bassanio Commend me to your honourable wife: Tell her the process of Antonio's end; Say how I loved you, speak me fair in death; And, when the tale is told, bid her be judge Whether Bassanio had not once a love. He wants Bassanio to tell Portia how much he loves Bassanio; at least that is what is happening on the surface. But what does Antonio care about Portia? He is really letting Bassanio know how deep his love for Bassanio is, in order to get a loving response. Bassanio responds all too lovingly by saying that he loves Antonio more than his wife, a rather unfortunate remark since his wife is standing right next to him. All this is made sense of with the supposition, put forward by a number of scholars, that Antonio has a homosexual attraction to Bassanio.
The conflict is between Antonio and Shylock but Shylock is hated by everyone in Venice because he was a Jew, so that's Bassanio, Portia and all the other people in the play
Portia's impersonation of a man and a lawyer when she was neither springs to mind. Likewise Nerissa's impersonation of a lawyer's clerk. Jessica deceives her father so she can elope with Lorenzo.
Some people think that Antonio's attitude to Bassanio is more affectionate than is normal for two men and that Antonio was in love with Bassanio. When he says "In sooth I know not why I am so sad" it is really because his love for Bassanio is not reciprocated, since Bassanio is clearly after Portia. He then puts his life on the line to borrow money for Bassanio to chase Portia, a selfless act indeed if he wanted Bassanio for himself. That subtext can give an interesting reading to Antonio's character, but is by no means necessary. Elizabethan men were in the habit of expressing their affection for each other in pretty extravagant terms, knowing that it would not be understood as expressing homosexual desire since homosexuality was absolutely taboo. Of course homosexuals did exist and people knew about it (as shown in Marlowe's Edward II and Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida) but it was not spoken of openly in any kind of positive light and it was a serious offence to engage in homosexual acts. Elizabethans felt about homosexuals about the same way we feel about child molesters. In other words, Shakespeare probably did not intend Antonio to have any love interest in the play, apart from his brotherly and totally non-sexual affection for Bassanio. But for modern audiences, reading that relationship as sexual may resonate with us.
Um I don't know. Did they? 'cos Portia De Rossi was pregnant when she was with Ellen?? I don't know!
Um I don't know. Did they? 'cos Portia De Rossi was pregnant when she was with Ellen?? I don't know!
To answer the question we need to know what money and from what or whom. Here's the situation: Antonio borrowed 3000 ducats from Shylock the moneylender. He hoped to repay it from the sales of the cargos of one of a number of ships he was expecting. The sale of the cargo from any one ship would have been enough to cover the loan. However, none of the ships came in on time. Is the question how Antonio might have got back the money from the lost ships? He couldn't; insurance had not yet been invented. Also, Antonio gave the 3000 ducats he borrowed to his friend Bassanio who blew it all on chatting up Portia. He couldn't get the money back from Bassanio, at least not at the time he needed it. Of course, later some of his ships came in late and Bassanio successfully married the rich Portia so he had money galore but by then it was too late--Shylock was already claiming his pound of flesh.
Portia's mother is not in the play.
not sure but i need to know
He could be played that way. You must understand that in cultures where homosexuality is severely repressed, men often form strong affectionate bonds for each other which stop short of a sexual relationship, because they can display affection without it being assumed that their affection has a sexual subtext. This was the case in Shakespeare's day: you can see it in operation in the ending of The Two Gentlemen of Verona which to modern eyes seems implausible. In Merchant, Antonio does seem to be extremely affectionate towards Bassanio. His melancholy when the play starts ("In sooth I know not why I am so sad") could be connected with his sexual attraction for Bassanio, who does not reciprocate. He also presses Bassanio to give away his wedding ring, which of course was calculated to make his wife angry, and which might have caused a rift between them, sending Bassanio back to the company of Antonio. Of course when he finds that his life has been saved by Portia, he has to accept it with good grace. It's a plausible scenario. But Antonio plays just as plausibly as an extremely affectionate friend without any sexual overtones at all.
There is a chance that these websites are wrong because Ellen showed her audience (on her show) that she is taller than Portia, Ellen is listed as being 5' 7.5" nearly everywhere, but here is a list of heights that Portia is: people.famouswhy.com say Portia is 5' 8" celebheights.com say Portia is 5' 7.25" www.celebs101.com also say she is 5' 8" It seems that she is between 5' 7" and 5' 8", but its is not entirely fact on her height, all I know is that she is shorter that Ellen who is listed as being 5ft 7.5in pretty much everywhere. (It doesn't help that Portia wears heels when in public) I hope that helps.