Portia is a witty, strong-willed,resourceful, resolute and romantic. But she is also someone who has biasses for others that she does not like. This is most evidently shown in her suitors, where she finds faults in everyone, and even judges the Moroccan by his skin colour. She sees through and summarises all her suitors and from there she chooses which one she likes and which she doesnt. This shows how much she looks at first impressions, and how she draws conclusions from those first impressions.
Her most important words are from her speech on mercy. She shows how much she thinks, as a Christian, that mercy is important, and how it should season justice. On the contrary though, she did not give Shylock the mercy that she talked to him about. Instead, she shows him no mercy and the speech is a bait for him to be tricked. This shows that she might have meant what she talked about in mercy, but she is so prejudiced, that she dislikes Shylock as Bassanio dislikes him, thus not giving Shylock any mercy. Though, another way to look at it is that she cares for Bassanio and knows that Shylock would get in the way of his happiness.
Overall, I enjoyed her character. The irony of how she is a boy acting as a girl acting as a boy in the court is a great addition to the comedy that is MOV. Furthermore, her character is so intelligent and witty, and how she tricks other to get what she wants is also something that I found fascinating. Again, like all other characters, she might not be a perfect character, but someone with flaws, but her attitudes and actions are a good addition to the play which I enjoyed.
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