Portia in Shakespeares The Merchant of Venice and Abigail of Marlowes

Portia in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and Abigail of Marlowe's the Jew of Malta Portia and Abigail are two characters with very different values. Portia in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice remained true to her religion, and her father’s wishes throughout the play. Abigail, on the other hand, changed religions and disobeyed her father. However, the writers used these two women to make similar statements about religion. Portia represented the quintessential Christian. Abigail of Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta, was more of an ethically ambiguous character, but it can still be argued that she was the most principled character in the play. Both Shakespeare and Marlowe used the daughter character to represent the ideal human being. In The Merchant of Venice the ideal human being is the perfect Christian. In The Jew of Malta the ideal is more of a Machiavellian that can still display some love and loyalty. Regardless of the principles Shakespeare and Marlowe wish to convey in their plays, they both chose young, females to express them. Portia was defined by her obedience. She remained strictly obedient to the law and to her father’s wishes without ever wavering. She did complain a little but did not consider breaking either the rules of the law or her father. Portia first showed her law-abiding nature when she remained true to her father’s wishes despite her desire to do otherwise. In Portia’s first scene she is quite upset about the terms of her father’s will. â€Å"I may neither choose who I would, nor/ refuse who I dislike; so is the will of a living daughter/ curb’d be the will of a dead father. Is it not hard,/ Nerissa, that I cannot choose one, now refuse none?† (Merchant of Venice, I.ii.23-26). ... ...conform with her father’s religion, unlike Portia who wanted only a Christian like her father. Abigail was so upset by Mathias’ death caused by Barabas, that she converts to Christianity and becomes a nun. Abigail’s conversion was the ultimate betrayal of her father. It was not the law of Malta that governed Abigail’s actions before Mathias’ death, but the rules of her father. She stayed loyal to her father’s laws in everything but loving Mathias. When Barabas’ demands of her caused the death of her lover, Abigail decided to defy him. To Abigail, love was more important than her duty to her family. Regardless of whether Abigail was governed more by her love for Mathias or her duty to Barabas, what set her apart from the other characters in The Jew of Malta was that she was governed less by Machiavellian principles and more by Christian-like motives.