For this assignment, I will be playing the role of Portia from William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar Act 2 Scene 1. Portia is the daughter of Cato and the devoted wife of Brutus. She is proud of her identity as related to two eminent families of Rome and takes her role as Brutus’s wife very seriously. She makes her first appearance in the act just after Caesar’s murder conspirators exit from their home. Portia is a beautiful and intelligent woman as well as a loyal and concerned wife. She is described as a woman who is dignified, beautiful, kind, clever, diligent, and possessing great dignity. Portia can be described as a woman trapped in the Roman male-dominant world. But besides this, she is not a typical tragic female character instead, she is strong-willed, courageous, and concerned enough to confront her husband. She is confident as well as observant enough to notice the detailed account of how her husband behaved and what is he going through. I see Portia as a very unconventional woman with a strong character presence who knows what she wants and how she can get it.
This scene starts when Cassius along with other conspirators, who were planning to kill Caesar, left Brutus' home. Portia came to Brutus to ask what is happening as she knows that something is bothering Brutus which he has been hiding from her and as a wife, she demands to know what disturbs him. Hence, she confronts him in the middle of the night and insisted on Brutus tell her the truth about what is going on with him and in his life. She responded to him logically stating that she will not accept any of his excuses that he was sick as if he were, he wouldn't be out in the rain in the middle of the night.
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She is persistently asking Brutus to tell her what is he going through and when he says he can't tell her about anything she uses her various persuasion tactics to make him tell. She compelled him to say that she is part of two prestigious families and that her father and husband both are powerful men, so she is strong enough to know his secret. She is selected by him as a wife and they took marriage promises, so it should be enough to tell her his secret. She even tries to put him guilty, saying that if he is not going to share his life with her and she is just there to eat and sleep, she may as well be his courtesan rather than his wife. Lastly, to impel Brutus she tried to show her physical and mental strength she stabs herself in the thigh with a knife. She tells Brutus that if she could withstand the physical pain, then truly Brutus can disclose his situation to her.
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Portia in ‘Julius Caesar’: Character Analysis Essay.
(2023, August 28). Edubirdie. Retrieved December 22, 2024, from https://edubirdie.com/examples/portia-in-julius-caesar-character-analysis-essay/
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2023 Aug 28 [cited 2024 Dec 22].
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