Perceptions of Jessica in the Merchant of Venice

Portia is generally considered the de facto heroine of William Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice, while the play’s second-most prominent female character, Shylock’s daughter Jessica, is largely ignored in feminist criticisms of Merchant. This might be due to Portia’s more evident adherence to the formula Shakespeare used in his comedies to create the class of characters we now view as modern feminist ideals: she is witty, confident, brave, and altruistic, and Jessica is none of those things. Portia is also part of the main plot, while Jessica’s marriage is an almost completely unnecessary subplot. Why, then, was Jessica even included in the play? Shakespeare may have intended Jessica’s insecurity, irrationality, and selfishness to contrast with the apparent perfection of Portia’s personality, but Jessica’s flaws instead make her the more interesting character, because the other characters’ perceptions of her are so varied. <a href="https://medium.com/@manet/perceptions-of-jessica-in-the-merchant-of-venice-f0c784b61615">Click Here</a>