Portia is an intelligent, resourceful, three-dimensional character who develops over the course of the play.
When we first meet Portia in Act 1, Scene 2, it is clear that she is discontented and slightly depressed. She tells Nerissa, her waiting-woman and confidante, ‘my little body is aweary of this great world’ (lines 1–2). We learn the fact that her father has restricted her choice of potential husband has contributed to her malaise (unease):
I may neither choose who I would nor refuse who I dislike; so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father. (Act 1, Scene 2, lines 23–25)
However, Portia proves herself light-hearted and good-humoured in this scene as she playfully mocks the many suitors that have come to woo her.
