"The Merchant of Venice"

Paper Summary:

This paper provides a description of the casket scenes in Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice." The paper looks at Portia, one of Shakespeare's more willful and determined women, and explains how the lottery system devised by Portia's father sheds light on her character. The paper also compares Portia's character at the casket scenes with that at the court scene.

Outline:
Introduction
The Casket Scenes
The Court Scene
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"First of all, it is interesting to note that the lottery system that Portia's father had construed consisted of caskets instead of any other available objects. In a system that was devised to find Portia a husband, it is almost macabre that caskets be used to symbolize her impending marriage. It is almost as if hinting that her father knew how much she would dread a chance marriage as much as death itself. The lottery system hides a Christian bias (Sparknotes.com) where it also resembles Venice of the play. The caskets are gold, silver and lead and each with its own inscriptions. According to Christian teachings, humans should resist the idea of desire as it is unreliable. There is also the matter of appearances being deceiving and that humans should not only trust their senses."

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