Bassanio and Portia - True love or a false pretence? T3P7
Are Portia and Bassanio really in love? Do they love each other equally? Since Bassanio was clearly after Portia's money when he started courting her, do you think he could ever genuinely fall in love with her, or is his quest and his love for her tainted by his original position as a gold digger?
First, some think that Bassanio was not truly in love with Portia. Their reasons for believing so is because at the start of the play, Bassanio spent his entire fortune and was left with nothing. He wanted to get back some fortune and Portia, whose father had recently deceased, had a fortune to giveaway so to speak. It also does not hurt that Portia is beautiful, as mentioned by Bassanio in the play.
"Fair and fairer than that word
of wondrous virtues"
-Bassanio, Act 1 Scene 1
Bassanio recognises that Portia is a great woman and that she also is rich. To Bassanio, his quest for her love is like shooting an arrow to find the first, its either double or nothing.
However, it is not entirely fair to say that Bassanio is completely not in love with Portia and just married her for her money. Throughout the course of the story, Bassanio has had a lot of time to consider his love for Portia. Even if he did not love her at first, he could have changed his mind somewhere in the course of the story. Furthermore, who is to say that he did not love here truly in the first place!
In conclusion, there is no doubt about Portia loving Bassanio as she can be seen offering to do many things for him throughout the story. However, whether or not their love is a two-way relationship is a question that many people have tried to answer, will try to answer and still trying to answer.
posted by Fu Yuan at
9:18 PM
1 Comments:
Bassanio strikes me as flippant and superficial, though he might be jovial and good-natured, he has no qualms at all about asking his best friend Antonio for money, again and again, as he suggests he has at the beginning of the play. He does tell Antonio not to gamble with his own body on his behalf but he doesn't spend too much time protesting, all for some money to give the illusion of being wealthy to Portia. By all accounts, Bassanio is aware that Antonio might have romantic feelings for him and is ready to capitalize on those feelings to achieve his goals. Similarly, Bassanio has met Portia before and thus suggests that he already knows that she likes him and has feelings for him, he has quickly gone to secure money so that he can gamble on a 1 out of 3 chance of winning her over...personally, I don't trust him or think he's worthy of Portia. But clearly Portia's father, thus patriarchy and the test of christian mores set up by her father indicate otherwise.
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