Its universally agreed that Shakespeare projects Portia (in The Merchant of Venice) as the essence of feminine presence of mind, humaneness, social commitment , and willingness to take on any role for the sake of ensuring joy for her husband--in short as an ideal wife any man could die for!Despite being the single child of a Venetian aristocrat, and heiress to untold riches on her own,with a palace to boot for residence, she insists on abiding conscientiously by her late fathers conditions for choosing her life partner--and she picks the middle class youth Bassanio. Though she creates history in the Venetian court as Barrister Balthazar from Padua,and is baptized by an admiring Bassanio as A Second Daniel come to judgment, she is great in her simplicity and modesty. She calls herself,An un-lessoned girl,unschooled , unpractised /Happy in this,she is not yet so old/But she may learn(Act III.Scene ii. 160) .Thinking of this description at a broader level, most Indian girls from good families--no matter their community-- are precisely of this mold at the time of wedding. Excluded from this group in my mind are the obviously criminal ones of female gender. Such a girl kid can groom herself into a wonderful hostess, an unforgettable mother and a beloved wife to her husband--as well as avoid almost all challenges that married women face at one time or another as emanating from their men folk-- if only--repeat if only- she views herself as willing to learn new things along with him, listen to him a bit, let herself be his playmate at times, and encourage him to\wards noble activities and thoughts. That is, if only she presents herself for his benefit as unschooled in lovemaking,housekeeping, child rearing etc,--while in reality being a well-read expert at all these on her own! You may call me as counseling hypocrisy,but this is is tact and diplomacy of a high level that all our women do need to manage their families as gems specially born for their mates in the female gender!(You may recall how Lord Krishna uses this tact to keep the egotistic Kouravas pleased and genial towards him at all times!).With this same diplomacy she can twist her mother/ father-in-law plus all the kids in the in-law household around her little finger too!This same tact and diplomacy will help her gain popularity too while ensuring promotion for her husband to high positions! And it costs nothing at all! No husband would take to the bottle or even think of going to another women --if he is lucky to have such a wife back at home!
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 11:30:04 +0000
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