Portia's Powerful Portrayal: Character Analysis Anonymous 11th Grade

After a close look at today’s society, an observer will find that within all healthy relationships, both people are equal partners. Today, this equality is something we believe to be a result of our basic human rights. However, in Shakespearean times, women were considered to be weak individuals whose purpose was to eventually get married and serve their husbands. Unlike today, mutual love and respect were not commonplace in marriages, and women were generally assumed to be inferior to the dominant man in the relationship. This gender stereotype was one that many people questioned and disagreed with, Shakespeare included. However, Shakespeare was one of the few to actually incorporate his ideas of femininity into his famous works. Through his beliefs and analyzation of society at the time, Shakespeare was able to write strong female characters in his works, including a young woman named Portia who plays wife to Brutus and, at the same time, proves herself as an individual throughout the duration of the play. Therefore, in his play Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare breaks this all-around idea of the pathetic housewife and creates a complex female character named Portia, who stands out for her capability, loyalty, and...