The Importance of Cross Dressing in Merchant of Venice   

Deidre Latoof
Shakespeare
11 November 2005

            

William Shakespeare, a prolific writer of the 16th century, is well known throughout the world even today, and his writing is an integral part of the British literary canon.   While there is still some debate today as to the reasons behind Shakespeare’s popularity, there are many who argue that at the very least his portrayal of strong women in his plays is worthy of study.   Shakespeare’s comedy The Merchant of Venice introduces Portia, perhaps one of the most influential of his female characters, and it is through Portia that Shakespeare addresses issues of gender roles and identity through the medium of cross dressing.

While Shakespeare’s personal views on gender roles are not known today, his writing does address important questions such as the traits that define men and women, the ways in which each gender can possess the qualities of both the masculine and the feminine, and the roles of men and women in society (Gerlach online).    It is possible that the questions that Shakespeare raised were at least in part due to the political situation of his time.

Shakespeare’s interest in the flexibility of gender roles may very well have been influenced by England’s ruler.   The reigning monarch at the time was Queen Elizabeth, but despite Elizabeth’s rule England was still very much a patriarchal society.   Many believed that the Queen should marry so that she could in time produce a male heir to the throne, but the Queen refused because she knew that if she chose to marry then she would

lose the power to rule England (Gerlach online).   Even more extraordinary then the Queen’s refusal to marry is her crossing of gender barriers.   In a speech given to her troops at Tilbury in preparation for the invasion of the Spanish, she said, “I know I have the body but of  a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too (Gerlach online).”

Although the character of Portia does not hold the same power as the queen of England, she does appear to realize that whatever strength of mind she possesses will be ignored if she goes to court to aid Antonio in the body of what Queen Elizabeth referred to as “a weak and feeble woman.”  This is due to a societal conflict regarding the education of women, noted by Lisa Jardine:

On the one hand the view is expressed in pedagogic treatises that an education….will contribute to the pupil’s moral fiber and fitness to be an active member of a social elite; this view is matched by the equally clearly expressed position that there is something intrinsically indecorous about a woman who transgresses the social code which requires her to observe a modest silence and passivity in public (Jardine 4).

This commonly held social opinion essentially expresses the idea that while a female may be educated at the discretion of her family, particularly her father or male guardian, it is socially improper to, in fact, use any knowledge that she has gained in a social setting.   This very sentiment is the primary motivation for the cross dressing of Portia and Nerissa in The Merchant of Venice.   Portia understands that in order to help her husband’s friend Antonio, she must dress like a man in order to escape the strict limitations placed on women at the time (Belsey 639).   The male identity that Portia assumes allows her to utilize her knowledge of the law and gain the respect of the men of the court, including her husband Bassanio.

The salvation of Antonio is not the only significance that cross dressing plays in The Merchant of Venice.   While still an important part of the play, it is perhaps more significant when considered as part of Portia’s transformation throughout the play from dutiful woman to somewhat of a rebel, as a woman in charge of her life.

When Portia is first introduced in the play, it is assumed that she is in the traditional dress of women as suitors come and attempt to win her hand.   Portia is not in control of her fate because she must abide by her deceased father’s wishes in regards to who Portia will marry.   She assumes the dutiful, subordinate role of women at the time, because even though she assists Bassanio in the choosing of the right casket she does not break the rules of her father’s will and is still subject to those rules.   

Similarly, Portia’s assumption of a masculine identity allows her the opportunity to be on equal footing with her new husband and gives her the freedom to rebel against the restricting role of women that society mandated at the time.   Bassanio does not place claim on her hand in marriage, but asks if she will accept him as a husband and Portia, in the submissive role that she plays in the beginning of the play, says to him that she is “an unlessoned girl, unschooled, unpracticed” and that she “commits itself to yours to be directed as from her lord, her governor, and her king.(Bennington 97)”  With these phrases she gives Bassanio control of herself as well as her entire household and fortune(Ornstein 96).   However, it is important to note that while this passage does focus largely on Portia giving herself up to her husband, she does not do so without a failsafe.   In giving Bassanio a ring, she says that “when you part from….let it be my vantage to exclaim on you (Bennington 97)”, meaning that if he loses the ring in any way he forfeits any claim he has to her, thus taking Portia out of her role of submission and placing her in a superior position to Bassanio.

Portia’s transvestitism proves useful to her in proving Bassanio’s faith to her and testing his vow to never remove the ring he gave her.   As a clerk, Portia is successful in saving Antonio from death and grateful Bassanio promises the clerk anything that “he” wishes.   Taking the opportunity to test her husband’s loyalty, she asks for her own ring and Bassanio eventually agrees to give it.   Portia’s test, and Bassanio’s subsequent failing of the test, gives Portia an uncomfortable level of control over Bassanio as she is now able to dissolve their marriage if she wishes.   Instead, she practices the mercy that she suggested to Shylock and the ending of the play is merry in a way typical of Shakespeare’s comedies.   

As Shakespeare is one of the most famous writers of the world even today, there are countless books and studies on the author and his work.   There is no consensus as to whether or was a feminist or misogynist.   His influences on his writing are largely unknown.   Still, given the history of England at the time, the connection with a strong female in a position of power bears an uncanny resemblance to the heroines crafted by Shakespeare, women that are powerful, witty, and smart.   

Shakespeare’s opinions on the role of women are not always certain because his strong female characters do eventually end up in the submissive and restraining role of marriage, unlike Queen Elizabeth, but at the very least he poses important questions on what it means to be a male or female, what the limitations of each are, and how those limitations are regulated by society. 

The Merchant of Venice is a work in which gender roles are questioned and crossed in order to make a statement about women and how they are subject to the rule of men.   Cross dressing allows Portia to exercise power that had previously been denied to her.   It also provides her with an opportunity to prove her love to Bassanio and, accidentally, to test Bassanio’s love for her.   While the play ends with Portia resuming her submissive role as a dutiful woman, now as a wife instead of a daughter, the effect that Portia has in influencing major events is not forgotten.   In assuming the identity of a man, she did what none of the other men of the play could do: she saved Antonio’s life. 

 

Works Cited

 

Belsey, Catherine.  "Disrupting Sexual Difference:Meaning and Gender in the Comedies." Shakespeare: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory 1945-2000.  Ed.  Russ McDonald.  Maldon: Blackwell, 2004.  633-649.   

Bennington, David, ed.  Necessary Shakespeare.  2ndnd ed.  New York: Pearson Longman, 2005.  74-112.   

Gerlach, Jeanne, Rudolph Almasy,  and Rebecca Daniel.  "Revisiting Shakespeare and Gender." The Women in Literacy and Life Assembly.  1996. 

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.  11 Nov.  2005 http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/old-WILLA/fall96/gerlach.html.   

Jardine, Lisa.  "Cultural Confusion and Shakespeare's Learned Heroines." Shakespeare: The Critical Complex.  Ed.  Stephen Orgel and Sean Keilen.  New York: Garland, Inc., 1999.  1-18. 

Ornstein, Robert.  Shakespeare's Comedies: From Roman Farce to Romantic Mystery.  Newark: University of Delaware P, 1986.