The Casket Lottery Essay

So, the original question given to me was ‘Describe what happened at the scene where Bassanio is picking his casket’; however, I’ve decided to generalize the question’s idea to ‘Write a brief outline on the casket lottery, set out by Portia’s father in his will’ so that I can still answer the original question but the altered question allows me to expand my answer slightly.

In Act 2 of the play, Portia explains the terms of the casket lottery to the Prince of Morocco, which he then attempts at the caskets but fail. Another suitor to want to marry Portia is the Prince of Arragon, but fails too. In Act 3 of the play, Bassanio tries his luck at the caskets, and with dramatic irony, he succeeds and ‘wins’ Portia. Of cause there are more details than this and the Acts aren’t just about the things mentions, but this introduction is just the bare-bones of the casket lottery.

This was set up in Portia’s father’s will and although Portia complains and rather dislikes the casket lottery, she must obey her father’s words because it is his will, after all, but also Portia was the property of her father.

For some reasoning and evidence, Portia dislikes the casket lottery, because in Act 1 Scene 2, she says, ’But this reason is not in fashion to choose me a husband… I may neither choose who I would, nor refuse who I dislike, so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father.’ When she says this, I think that she says it in a rather rebellious tone, like she might find ways to deceive the test, for example making it easier for suitor she likes with subtle hints and