noted and praised for creating outstandingcharactersthat were far more developed and complex and realistic than any of those characters created by his contemporaries, the character of Rosalind is thereby particularly noteworthy.InMerchantthe character ofPortiabecomes the commanding presence of the play and the one upon whom the men of the piece must rely to sort out their problems and to resolve all hostilities. And, like Rosalind, Portia disguises herself as a man; for the time of the English Renaissance was still primarily a man’s world despite being ruled by a queen for nearly half a century. And like Rosalind, Portia reveals that she is every bit as capable as any man – and more capable than most – in functioning in that man’s world; yet she never for a moment loses her own identity and charm as awoman.
Not surprisingly, becauseThe Merchant ofVenicedoes have these similarities to both one major tragedy and one major comedy, a number of Shakespeare scholars classify the play as atragicomedy(tragic comedy). However, the play was classified simply as acomedyin theFirst Folio(a collection of Shakespeare’s plays published in 1623). Shakespeare himself did not worry so much about categorizing his plays. A play with a happy ending, despite having serious or nearly tragicscenesoccurringbeforethatending,wasstill