(i) Porita and Nerissa are in a room of Portia’s house in Belmont. In fact, Portia is greatly fed up with this life of affluence and luxury and she is not given the liberty of ‘ choosing her husband according to her own will. The matter of her marriage will be settled according to the will of her dead father. Nerissa tries to console her.
(ii) When Portia tells Nerissa that she is greatly tired of this wordly life living in the midst of luxuries and now she has lost her entire interest in such a life, Nerissa 1 tries to cheer her up saying that if she (Portia) had been poor in the same measure as she is rich, she would have been fed up with the life of scarcity and misery. She adds that it has been her (Nerissa’s) experience and observation so far that both rich and poor are dissatisfied with their present state, hence it is definitely an occasion for happiness to be neither too rich not too poor. Then she says that the man of great wealth leads a life of worries and becomes old sooner but a man of modest means . enjoys a longer life. At this Porita says that she has commented in a good and beautiful way.
(iii) Portia says that the old people preach instructions to the young, forgetting that such instructions are difficult to be carried out. She complains that it is very unkind of her father to leave no freedom of choice in her marriage. In fact, Portia has no alternative at all, for her dead father, from whom she has inherited all her wealth, had already bound her by his will regarding the method by which she ought to choose her husband. She thinks that in that case she will have to mercy with a man whom she does not know by his nature and behaviour and according to the will, she also has lost the chance of loving a man whom she likes.
(iv) After hearing the talks of gloominess from Portia, Nerissa tells her that her (Portia’s) father was very wise in restricting his daughter’s freedom of merriage by means of these caskets, because she (Nerissa) believes that anyone who could choose the right casket by correctly interpreting the inscription upon it should be regarded as a very desirable suitor because of his wise judgement in the selection of casket. Later it is found that the justification made by Nerissa proved correct. A right person named Bassanio whom Portia liked, succeeds in choosing the right casket and Portia feels unbounded joy to find such a husband who was true and sincere in love and friendship.
(v) Portia’s reply to Nerissa proves that she is deeply attached to her father. She respects his will and desires to be married only according to his will. She is determined not to violate her father’s will even if she has to pay a price by remaining unmarried. Another facet of Portia’s character that is revealed to us is her kindness. She bears no malice towards her suitors and prays to God to grant all of them a safe departure.
