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  • Submitted By: owtas101
  • Date Submitted: 06/10/2013 10:15 PM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 1004
  • Page: 5
  • Views: 100

Prince Morocco’s final choice of the gold casket has something to do with his characteristics. His monologue reveals what kind of person he is. Proud is the most obvious quality of him. His reason of not choosing the lead casket is because he thinks that “A golden mind stoops not to shows of dross”. He refers himself as gold, proudly saying that he, as a prince whose social status is of great value, won’t risk himself for something worthless. Also, as he ponders over the message of the silver casket, he considers himself absolutely deserve Portia in every way he can think of. In these two examples, we can see that Morocco is very conceited. He takes proud of his birth, his wealth, and his status.
He is superficial as well. First of all, he pays much attention to the appearance. Just in his first line in the play, “Mislike me not for my complexion”, shows that he cares much about his exterior. Also, as he faces the three caskets, the gold casket first catches his attention. I think potentially he has made his choice at the first sight of the gold one, so that’s why when the silver one seems to be his choice as he thinks that “What if I stray’d no further, but chose here?”, he cannot help but go for the gold casket. Second, when he evaluates himself to see whether he deserves Portia, all he thinks of is the superficial things like his birth, graces, fortunes, and qualities of breeding, but except for love. He puts love together with those shallow words; he doesn’t even mention the inner characters at all. I think it implies that his love is superficial. He thinks he deserves Portia because he is rich. Doesn’t it suggest that the reason why he suits Portia is just because she owns a huge heritage from her father and she is beautiful? He thinks he deserves Portia in terms of monetary conditions; he loves Portia not for her person but for the monetary benefits from marring her. Third, he is a literal and simplistic thinker. Everything has two layers of meaning, like...

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