and challenges the fate that supposedly awaits Antonio.
Shakespeare apparently enjoyed the complexities ofgender identityin his play.Inother comedies, notablyTwelfth Nightwith the character of Viola andAs You Like Itwith the character of Rosalind, Shakespeare also employed the device of women disguising themselves as men. Shakespeare, in many ways, was an earlyfeminist, well aware of and sympathetic to the trials and tribulations that women faced in his time. More importantly, Shakespeare wrote his comedies at a time when a woman, Queen Elizabeth, sat on the throne of England. That ruler of England surely would have experienced great delight and pleasure in seeing clever female characters like Rosalind and Portia on thestage.
Moreover, the shift in identity was particularly practical in increasing thecomic potentialof the play during the time of the Renaissance; for men and boys played the parts of the women. Thus, a young male actor would play the female Portia who is then disguised as a young man. Audiences, swept up by the illusion of the play, might temporarily forget or ignore the fact that a female character was played by a male actor. But the shift or change of identity could shake that illusion.
In addition, although the other characters of the play are fooled by the disguises, the audience is in on the joke. The audience laughs at the male characters who are fooled by the disguised females