[简答题,10分] Give a brief analysis of Portia, a character in The Merchant of Venice.

Portia is the most ideal and brilliant woman character ever created by Shakespeare. She is the daughter of Renaissance who loves deeply and genuinely only for her lover’s god quality and for love’s sake. She is beautiful, prudent, cultured, courteous, courageous, determined and very clever. She is brave enough to save her husband’s friend from the evil plot of the most cunning and wicked Jew Shylock with the wise interpretation of the bond, which would otherwise kill Antonio. She embodies all the elements of humanist, that is, love for this world and happiness existing in human life. She gets happiness from true love and true friendship and is ready to defend them with her wit. To a great extent, she is even clever and more capable than all the males in the play. And more important, she is very independent. After hearing Antonio’s misfortune, she rises to the emergency instead of crying for men’s help. She knows her ability and does better than all the men in the play. In addition, she is very optimistic. She keeps optimistic even in the face of the most powerful enemy, because she is very confident of her intellect and ability. Through this heroin, Shakespeare expresses his belief in humanism and his confidence of the victory of the rising bourgeoisie.