The Suitors Of Portia 4bd60

The Suitors of Portia , Raina And Louka “The Merchant of Venice” is a masterpiece of tragic – comedy written by Shakespeare and “Arms And The Man” is a masterpiece of anti – romantic comedy written by Bernard Shaw. Love is a major theme in both these masterpieces of world literature belonging to two different centuries. So quite naturally there are suitors seeking the hands of beloveds in these two love plays. A suitor is he tries to woo and win the love of a lady. In both “The Merchant of Venice” and “Arms and the Man” there are beautiful attractive ladies like Portia, Raina and Louka. There are also the suitors of these attractive ladies but Portia is the most sought- after lady. As many as nine suitors are mad for the hand of Portia. Raina has two suitors – Sergius and Bluntschli. Louka has also two suitors – Nicola and Sergius. Let us attempt a comparative study of these suitors. As we have told, Portia, the heroine of Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” is the most sought – after lady because she has the greatest number of suitors. But these suitors are put to tough test – the test of the lottery of caskets. The six princes, the psychological cowards don’t face the test at all. They just escape to their respective lands avoiding the risky rest. Then comes the Prince of Morocco. He faces the test of the lottery of caskets – the casket of gold, the casket of silver, and the casket of lead. The Prince of Morocco is influenced by the inscription on the gold casket : Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire. Carried away by the glittering outward appearances the Princess of Morocco foolishly chooses the gold casket. The external pomp and glitter of proud gold capture the imagination of the proud prince and he gives argument in favour of the showy gold and chooses the wrong casket without carefully examination the other caskets. The Prince of Morocco fails in the test of the lottery of caskets which is actually a test of character. He is dismissed as a lover of glittering outward show, not a lover of truth. Then comes the suitors named the Prince of Arragon. He chooses the silver casket swayed by the inscription on it : Who chooseth me shall get as much as he desires. This prince is not foolish like the Prince of Morocco. Like the Prince of Morocco he is not carried away by an external show. So he rejects gold with all its superficial pomp and glitter. A hater of ordinary man, the haughty and egotistical Prince of Arragon, very much proud of his royal birth chooses the silver casket for his arrogant belief that he alone deserves beautiful Portia. That is, he also fails in the tough test of character

because he thinks he is the only deserving character, the only competent suitor of Portia. At last comes the great suitor, Bassanio. Initially he appears to be very little different from Salarino and Salanio. The two hangers- on / parasites of the rich and wealthy Antonio. We see him fond of extravagant living – borrowing money and wasting it in extravagance but for this reason we can’t dismiss him as a mere fortune hunter , a hypocrite or a trader in love. He may be extravagant but not a fortune hunter, a hypocrite or a trader in love. As a matter of fact, he improves as the drama of wooing Portia continues. He may have started the drama of love with mercenary motives but with the age of time he grows to love the lady’s real beauty and worth. The Affection and respect with which he is treated by both his friend Antonio and his intelligent beloved, Portia suggest that he is something different from or more than a fortune hunter. We have seen Bassanio’s great anxiety to repay the loan from his friend, Antonio. Unlike a fortune hunter he is honest and sincere. He is mean minded and narrowly calculative like trader. It is his sincere and genuine ion of love for Portia that inspire him to risk and hazard all and stand the test of the lottery of caskets. The challenges on the leaden casket appeals to his combative or competitive spirit of a born soldier and he chooses the right casket. The speech that he makes just before his choice of a casket shows the immense possibilities of his character so long unknown to us. The father of Portia wanted such a self – sacrificing suitor as a son- in – law for his daughter. In “Arms And The Man” by Shaw we come across two beloveds and three suitors. The beloveds are Raina and Louka and the suitors are Sergius, Bluntschli and Nicola. Sergius is a major in the Bulgarian army and the captain of a cavalry force. This handsome and impressive young man is the fiance of Raina. This romantic young man earns romantic glory making a foolish and foolhardy cavalry charge on the Serbian artillery forces in the battle at Slivnitza. Sergius, the Byronic self- conceited romantic hero wins the battle fighting the wrong way and the opposition forces lost the battle fighting the right way. He becomes disillusioned about the romance of war when he is refused promotion to a higher rank by the Russian officers. Consequently he resigns his post as a cavalry captain and returns to his beloved Raina only to be disillusioned and disenchanted about love and marriage. Tired of his higher spiritual love with Raina, Sergius who is

basically a flesh and blood man but superficially a romantic lover starts flirting with Louka, the maid- servant of Raina. The maid- servant, however, plays upon the young hero’s weakness for her and very cleverly tricks him into marrying her. This young suitor has the blood of a soldier in him and challenges Bluntschli, his rival in love to a dual but marking the cold blooded great bravery of Bluntschli he withdraws not only his heroic challenges but also his romantic claims over Raina. Sergius’s notion of love was initially unreal and romantic. He looked upon Raina as his goddess, his queen and his heroine. Returning from the war, he meets his beloved like a knight meeting his lady- love. The beloved also welcomes the romantic hero as her hero, her king. This illusion of romantic love, however, gets shattered with the knowledge of truth and the truth is Sergius’s flirtation with Louka and Raina’s disillusion about Sergius’s higher love and her discovery of a better life- partner in Bluntschli. Bluntschli is a suitor of Raina but a different kind of suitor. He is an ideal Shavian suitor who ridicule the romantic illusion of love and war. He looks upon love as a sentiment from realistic point of view. He cherishes love for Raina but behaves wisely and honourably and declares his love for only when her suitor Sergion slips away from her and declares his decision to marry her maid servant Louka and also when Raina becomes disillusioned about Sergius and very mature in her attitude to life. He is carefully careless. He cures Raina and Sergius of their romantic notion of love and war. He looks upon love as a kind of folly and marriage s a biological necessity. He doesn’t find anything glorious and glamorous about love and marriage. Unlike Sergius, he is shifty and innocent in his attitude to Raina. Unlike Sergius he is reliable as a suitor, very much free, frank, bold, witty and humorous having keener insight into human character. Nicola is another suitor, the suitor of Louka. But he is not an emotional fool like Sergius. A man-servant of the Petkoff family, he has the genius and soul of a servant, very much polite, humble and decent in his behaviour. He is Shaw’s practical man. He has taken money from Petkoff to celebrate his engagement with Louka. But as he is very practical and business-minded, he is able to observe the changes in his beloved. He is marking her tendency to lean towards Sergius, a highly aristocratic and fashionable young man. Louka belongs to the lower social rank but mentally she is aristocratic. She wants to use her knowledge of the Petkoff’s / Petcoff family as a weapon and ladder to go up. But Nicola, a contrast of Louka is

happy with his lower rank and he would keep the secret of the Petcoff family as the secret of success in his service. A typical Shavian practical man, Nicola would keep quiet and serve his own ends or feather his own nest. He would never take advantage of that secret like Louka. He thinks that as a wife Louka would be very expensive but as Sergius’s wife and a customer of the goods of his new shop she would be more profitable. So even though he is engaged to her, he readily gives his consent to her marriage with the rich and fashionable young man Sergius. He would rather have her as a fashionable customer than as his costly wife. As a suitor Nicola is practical and commercial minded. He is like and unlike Bluntschli. Both are Shaw’s practical men. But while Nicola belongs to lower social rank, Bluntschli belongs to aristocratic social rank. Bassanio is a self-sacrificing lover. He is ready to sacrifice his all / all he has for the sake of his beloved. Nicola is not. He would rather withdraw his claim upon his beloved than sacrifice his financial interest. This is how we can attempt a simple comparative study of the different suitors of Portia, Raina and Louka. -0-