The Merchant of Venice (Folger Shakespeare Library)
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Premium Content The Role of Daughters in 'The Merchant of Venice'

By Eleanor Bance - January 19, 2003

The daughters of Elizabethan England were predominantly subject to their father's wishes. This is particularly evident in terms of the main female character, Portia, who must obey her father even after his death:

O me, the word 'choose'! I may neither choose who I would nor refuse who I dislike; so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will…

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