True Love in The Merchant of Venice Essay - 1130 Words

True Love in The Merchant of Venice Among the various themes presented in the Merchant of Venice the most important is the nature of true love. The casket plot helps illustrate the theme. Through a variety of suitors the descriptions of the caskets, Shakespeare shows the reader how different people view true love. He also shows what is most important to the suitors and in some cases it is not true love, but material things and outward appearance. The first suitor who tries to win Portias hand is the Prince of Morocco. When he first arrives in Belmont, the reader can see how arrogant the prince is, He says, The best regarded virgins of our clilme/ hath loved it too...†¦show more content†¦The scroll warns, all that glitters is not gold... (2.7,66) and that wealth is not the most important thing. The Prince, having shallow reasoning only wanted to marry Portia because of her wealth. He leaves, having promised, as all the suitors had, to remain celibate if he should pick the wrong casket. Portia then awaits the next suitor who will try to win her hand in marriage. The Prince of Arragon, the next suitor to try his hand at choosing the correct casket, is not much better than the previous. As his name suggests, the Prince is quite arrogant and vain. When he reads the inscription on the gold casket, he comments that the many men are most likely those who ...choose by showe...(2.9,27). He says he will not choose the gold casket because he is not like everyone else; he is better than the others are. He looks at he inscription on the silver casket: who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves (2,9,37). After reading this he assumes that he deserves the best and chooses the silver casket. The Prince opens the casket and finds a picture of a fool and a scroll that read, with one fools head I came to woo/But I go away with two.(2.9, 78- 79). He received nothing, but a fools head, which is all that he deserved due to his cocky, self-involved attitude. 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