Misjudged Characters

The Prince of Morocco: Love Beyond The Casket

Exploring themes of love, prejudice, and the illusion of fairness in Shakespeare's work

One thing that completely baffled me upon reading The Merchant Of Venice by Shakespeare is the complete villainization of the Prince Of Morocco primarily for his skin colour, his theatrical idiosyncrasies (which might actually have been normal for princes at the time), and his wrong choice in casket. He wasn't a perfect character, but his love for Portia was purer than that of every other suitor including Bassanio. 

His pompous entry portrays him to be an arrogant character, which is Portia's first impression of him. That couldn't be farther from the truth. Morocco is a confident man who knows his worth and refuses to sell himself short- that kind of character is so rare to see that it is often misinterpreted as arrogance. And in spite of his high self-esteem, at that moment, he is insecure of himself. This man who takes so much pride in his skin colour, who has been the object of several women's eyes, wishes to change his skin colour solely to win Portia's affections. His love for Portia is that deep, but it is not blind; for he is fully aware of the fact that Portia was a stereotypical Elizabethan woman who would not choose a dark-skinned man such as him under normal circumstances. To prove himself worthy inspite of this, he needed to make Portia see his value beyond his looks. That is why speaking of his valour and conquests was necessary. While it proved ineffective, it was only Portia's narrow-mindedness that stopped her from seeing Morocco as the valiant soldier that he was. Morocco did everything in his power to convince her of it. My evidence from the text to support this statement is Portia's last dialogue as he exits after making the wrong choice when inspite of his several pleas to be seen for more than his complexion, she says, "A gentle riddance! Draw the curtains, go. Let all of his complexion choose me so."

 "Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath" was the inscription on the leaden casket. The inscription in no way implies that the risk must be taken for Portia. Morocco did no wrong in rejecting the casket stating that only a fool would make such an uncalculated risk as to hazard everything for a leaden casket. He was a brave man, but unlike Bassanio, he was not reckless. A man with a noble mind would not risk everything for nothingness. 

"Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves" was the inscription on the silver casket. He rejects the silver casket because even after listing all the reasons why he was worthy of Portia, there was still some doubt in his mind about it. Rejecting this casket further reiterates the fact that despite Portia's prejudices, he was not an arrogant man. 

"Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire" was the inscription on the golden casket. He thinks of the suitors coming from various parts of the world to win her hand. He thinks of the far Arabian deserts that have now become main roads for suitors to come from all the way to Belmont to woo Portia. He thinks of the many princes who cross the ocean like it was merely a brook to see her. The inscription on the golden casket described Portia perfectly. 

Another reason for choosing gold was that he believed a precious gem should never be enclosed in a less precious metal than gold. He compares Portia with Archangel Michael. It was a gold coin that contained that angel's picture. Hence, it should only make sense that an angel such as Portia should have her picture enclosed in a golden casket as well. He believed that Portia could not be encased in lead even in death, alluding to the Elizabethan practise of encasing dead bodies in lead. He did not believe that she could be encased in a silver casket either, for although silver was a precious metal, it was ten times less precious than gold. He chose gold because Portia was so precious to him that he could not imagine her portrait encased in a metal less precious than gold- not because he was drawn only to her exterior beauty. He did truly love her for all that she was, his only fault was failing to realise that "all that glisters is not gold," as the scroll explains. 

The casket test was not at all a reliable test for a man's love. The reason being, Bassanio would have chosen the leaden casket even if he did not love Portia. Bassanio had an unfair advantage over the other suitors because he was warned not to choose based on appearances by means of the song Portia played for him. Morocco was not given that warning, or he might have made the same choice. Another reason Bassanio was drawn to the leaden casket was that it "rather threaten'st than dost promise aught". Bassanio's peculiar proclivity for gambling ensured that the inscription on the leaden casket asking him to gamble everything he had without expecting a reward for it appealed to him immensely. He too did not know what he was gambling for, but gambling with low odds of victory is Bassanio's typical weekend- even if it puts his best friend's life on the line. Therefore, Morocco failing the casket test does not in anyway imply that his love is less than Bassanio's. 

It's a pity that Morocco's character only lasted two scenes. I truly believe that if Shakespeare had let Morocco win, a relationship between Portia and Morocco would have had a lot of potential. They even had something in common that they could have bonded over. For example, they both harp on the idea of chance, and he admits that the lottery has no consideration for heroism. Like Lichas won over Hercules in a game of dice, merely because of his good fortune, an unworthy man could win Portia's hand merely because of his good fortune. Portia is seen to have expressed similar thoughts to Nerissa earlier. Despite his rejection of the leaden casket, Morocco really was willing to risk everything he had for her- as long as he knew it was her that the risk was being taken for, not a lump of metal. He proclaims that for Portia's hand, he was willing to outstare the sternest eyes, outbrave the most daring hearts, take the young sucking cubs away from the mother bear and tease the lion as it roars for its prey. In summation, he was willing to risk his life for Portia. If that isn't the definition of "give and hazard all he hath", I don't know what is. If Shakespeare had given their relationship more time, they could both have changed each other for the better. Morocco needed to learn that a brilliant show does not always imply value, and Portia needed to learn that an unattractive face should not be the basis for her judgement of their character. Even before Morocco entered, Portia says to Nerissa, "If he have the condition of a saint and the complexion of a devil, I had rather he should shrive me than wive me." She never had any intention of falling for him even if he turned out to be a good person. Perhaps if she gave him a fair chance and actually got to know him, which she would have to do at some point if he were to marry her, then their initially hostile relationship could have blossomed into something beautiful. The only problem with that is, it wouldn't end well for Antonio.