Weekly ELA Blog Post #17

In this blog post I'd like to write about something I didn't get a chance to discuss before: how willing Portia was to leave Basssanio's choice up to luck. It seems odd that while she was fine using tricks to fool other suitors into choosing the wrong chest, like placing wine on top of one to tempt a suitor, dhe did no such thing to help Bassanio. Surely there were ways she could have swayed his choice towards the right chest, so the question is: did it not occur to her, or did she believe in Bassanio to choose right? While thinking about this, I realized something. It seems clear, as demonstrated throughout the story, Portia is cunning enough to get her way and not willing to break some rules to get it. I figure that Portia knew she could help Bassanio, but was testing him, because she wanted to be sure he really had what it took to choose right. This would make sense, too, considering it's not the only time she tried to test him, there was also the time she tried to get him to break a promise to her.  This is very interesting to me, because it seems to show that as much as she says she knows Bassanio is the one for her, perhaps she's not that sure, and feels she needs to make sure he's right for her.