Queen Elizabeth I and Portia in The Merchant of Venice
This paper draws detailed parallels between Queen Elizabeth I of England and Portia, the fictional protagonist of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. Through four areas of comparison — experiences with suitors, marriage-related challenges, use of religious rhetoric, and the reconciliation of class interests — the paper argues that both women, despite historical ambiguity surrounding their reputations, were fundamentally positive figures who made meaningful contributions to their respective societies. Drawing on primary quotations from the play and scholarly sources on Elizabeth's reign, the paper demonstrates how each woman's wealth, intelligence, and political shrewdness enabled her to act with virtue and purpose.
- Introduction: Thesis: both women were fundamentally positive figures
- Experiences with Suitors: Parallel foreign suitors reflect wealth and virtue
- Marriage Issues and Shrewdness: Each woman used marriage challenges to show shrewd judgment
- Religious Rhetoric and Governance: Both invoked Christian rhetoric in public roles
- Reconciling Class Interests: Each unified state, nobility, and merchant class
- Conclusion: Good deeds outweigh criticism for both women
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What makes this paper effective
- It grounds each comparative claim in specific textual evidence, alternating between direct quotations from The Merchant of Venice and citations from scholarly works on Elizabeth I, giving the argument both literary and historical weight.
- The four-part organizational structure (suitors, marriage, rhetoric, class alliances) is clearly signaled in the introduction and followed consistently, making the argument easy to track.
- The paper handles ambiguity honestly — acknowledging that both women attracted critical interpretations — before arguing toward a definitive position, which strengthens its analytical credibility.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper uses sustained comparative analysis across a real historical figure and a fictional character. Rather than treating the two subjects as merely analogous, it explores how each woman's choices in parallel circumstances (suitors, marriage, rhetoric, class politics) reveal shared values and strategies. This method demonstrates how literary texts can illuminate historical contexts and vice versa.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a thesis-driven introduction that previews four comparative themes. Four body sections then develop each theme in turn, moving from the relatively personal (suitors, marriage) to the broadly political (rhetoric, class unity). A conclusion restates the thesis and synthesizes the evidence. This five-paragraph-plus structure suits an undergraduate comparative literature or history essay.
Introduction
There are a number of similarities between Queen Elizabeth I of England and William Shakespeare's character Portia in his play The Merchant of Venice. Both women possessed considerable wealth and power; although Portia was not royalty, she was still a wealthy heiress in the city of Belmont. Because of the money and power associated with these women, they each had numerous suitors and some noteworthy encounters with suitors during their lives. Additionally, each woman involved herself with matters of law and governance — the Queen did so from a national perspective while Portia did so from a more modest, civil perspective.
These aspects of their characters have helped to make them somewhat ambiguous figures. Some scholars regard them as admirable people, while others believe their negative qualities outweigh the positive. A critical examination of their lives and the parallels between them, however, reveals that although each woman engaged in certain questionable actions, both were fundamentally good people deserving of their reputations as positive contributors to their respective societies. Examples drawn from their experiences with suitors, their marriage challenges, their use of rhetoric, and their ability to forge alliances across social classes all support this thesis.
Experiences with Suitors
Both Queen Elizabeth and Portia had similar experiences with suitors who sought to win their hands in marriage. Partly due to their wealth and power, their encounters with prospective husbands were unusual compared to those of the average woman. As Queen of England, Elizabeth attracted men from across the continent and beyond. Portia's situation was equally distinctive: as dictated by her father's will, she could only marry the man who correctly selected one of three caskets. Like Elizabeth, Portia also received numerous foreign suitors.
In part, the large number of suitors each woman attracted reflects a selectiveness rooted in wealth and social standing — each drew some of the most distinguished men of her time. Elizabeth's foreign suitors included King Eric XIV of Sweden, Archduke Charles of Austria, Henry Duke of Anjou, and Francis Duke of Anjou, though she would eventually come to regard her citizens as "all my husbands, my good people" (Haigh 24). Before deciding to marry Bassanio, Portia entertained suitors such as the Prince of Morocco, the Prince of Aragon, and "The County Palatine" (Shakespeare, Act I, Scene II). The distinguished titles of all these suitors testify to the beauty, wealth, and desirability of both women, suggesting they were extraordinarily sought after. Their desirability — rooted in qualities such as intelligence, good looks, and religious conviction — supports the view that they were, at heart, admirable individuals.
Marriage Issues and Shrewdness
Both Portia and Queen Elizabeth endured a variety of challenges related to marriage, and the way each navigated those challenges further supports the characterization of both women as fundamentally good. Portia's situation was unique in that immediately after her wedding she traveled to Venice disguised with her female companion "accoutred like young men" (Shakespeare, Act III, Scene IV) in order to help resolve the central dispute of the play — namely, Antonio's fate after his ships appeared lost at sea and he was unable to repay his debt to Shylock. In this respect, Portia was compelled to adjudicate a legal matter that indirectly involved her own husband, since Antonio had borrowed money from Shylock in order to provide Bassanio with the funds for his dowry. Despite her personal stake in the outcome, Portia followed the law strictly and delivered a judgment in which Antonio's life was spared and Shylock was required to forfeit a portion of his fortune to Bassanio.
Queen Elizabeth's marriage challenges were markedly different and centered on her decision never to marry, never to name an heir, and never to designate a successor to her throne. This decision drew considerable criticism from several political factions in England, who believed she was sowing the seeds of future instability (which partly explains the historical ambiguity surrounding her image). In actuality, Elizabeth was able to use her status as an eligible bachelorette as the foundation for diplomatic relationships with the nations represented by her noble suitors. She also refrained from naming a successor — declaring, "I will never break the word of a prince spoken in a public place" (Doran 87) — in order to minimize the risk of assassination by those who might hope to accelerate the transfer of power. Both women faced distinct marriage-related difficulties, yet each transformed those difficulties into demonstrations of shrewd judgment, which further supports their characterization as positive figures.
Conclusion
After analyzing the most relevant points of similarity and dissimilarity between Queen Elizabeth and Shakespeare's female protagonist Portia in The Merchant of Venice, it becomes readily apparent that despite the tendencies of some scholars to view them with ambiguity, these women were definitely positive figures who accomplished a number of beneficial objectives. This conclusion is strongly supported by their respective experiences with suitors, which were shaped by their wealth and social standing and demonstrated that each was a virtuous woman who was highly selective about the man she would marry.
It is further supported by the marriage challenges each faced: Portia's involved saving an innocent man's life and symbolically aligning the interests of the political state, its aristocracy, and the working class, while Elizabeth's centered on cultivating diplomatic connections through the prospect of foreign marriages and preserving England's stability by refusing to name a successor once she had decided not to marry. Both women also employed a particularly persuasive form of rhetoric rooted in their Christian faith — a faith that helped Elizabeth rule England with justice and fairness, and that Portia demonstrated when presiding over Antonio's fate against the implacable demands of Shylock.
Finally, perhaps the ultimate achievement of each woman was the unification of the interests of the state, the nobility, and the merchant class — a feat represented in Shakespeare's play through the bond among Portia, Bassanio, and Antonio, and accomplished in reality by Queen Elizabeth during her reign. It is clear that the good these women produced far outweighed any negative influence they may have exerted. It is therefore far more fitting to remember them for their positive deeds and the gains they secured for society than to dwell on the criticisms that some have used to tarnish their reputations.
Works Cited
Doran, Susan. Queen Elizabeth I. London: British Library, 2003. Print.
Haigh, Christopher. Elizabeth I. Harlow: Longman Pearson, 2000. Print.
Loades, David. Elizabeth I: The Golden Reign of Gloriana. London: The National Archives, 2003. Print.
Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. 1596. Web. http://shakespeare.mit.edu/merchant/full.html
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