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.
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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