Portia’s father wrote his will to portia and instructed portia on how her husband, who would also inherit all of the family’s money, should be chosen. He did so hoping that Portia would marry someone who loves her not only for her beauty and wealth but for her character.
His plan was to offer suitors a casket of lead, a casket of silver and a casket of gold to choose, each casket attracts different kinds of people. The suitor has to swear that they won’t tell other people which casket they chose in order to give everyone a fair chance. They must also swear to not marry anyone else if they choose the wrong casket, and that they must immediately leave if they choose the wrong casket. The added consequence of participating in this ritual weeds to people aren’t willing to take a risk for portia. With this carefully devised plan, Portia would hopefully marry a man who truly loves her.
The first casket was the gold casket, the one the Prince of Morocco had chosen. Since gold represents money, the gold casket probably was meant to attract gold diggers. In this case, the prince of morocco ultimately chooses the gold casket, which says “ who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire”, since he himself wants to marry her for her wealth. The second suitor was the prince of arragon, who chose the silver casket. Arragon rejected the gold casket because it was too obvious but finally chose the silver casket which reads “ who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves” because he feels he deserves a woman like portia. What he found in the casket was a picture of a clown, because he thought he outsmarted the system but still failed.
At last, it was Bassanio’s turn to choose the right casket. Portia really wanted to give him some tips so that they can marry, but Bassanio rejected it because he wants to come to the right conclusion by himself. He examines the caskets and rejects the gold and silver caskets because he says the worst things are usually presented with a beautiful outer appearance to cover what’s inside, and chooses the lead, because he knows he shouldn’t judge things by what it looks like.
First draft
Portia’s father wrote his will to portia and instructed portia on how her husband, who would also inherit all of the money, should be chosen. He did so hoping that Portia would marry someone who loves her not only for her beauty and wealth but for her character. He does so by offering suitors 3 caskets of lead, silver and gold to choose, each casket attracts different kinds of people, the suitor has to swear that they won’t tell other people which casket they chose, that they can’t marry anyone else if they choose the wrong casket, and that they must immediately leave if they choose the wrong casket.
The first casket was the gold casket, which is the one that the prince of morocco chose. Since gold represents money, the gold casket probably was meant to attract gold diggers. In this case, the prince of morocco ultimately chooses the gold casket, which says “ who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire”, since he himself wants to marry her for her wealth. The second casket was the silver casket, of which the prince of arragon chose. Arragon rejected the gold casket because it was too obvious but finally chose the silver casket which reads “ who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves” because he feels he deserves a woman like portia.
At last, it was Bassanio’s turn to choose the right casket. Portia really wanted to give him some tips so that they can marry, but Bassanio rejected it because he wants to come to the right conclusion by himself. He examines the caskets and rejects the gold and silver caskets because he says the worst things are usually presented with a beautiful outer appearance to cover what’s inside, and chooses the lead, because he knows he shouldn’t judge things by what it looks like.
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