Merchant Of Venice

Chapter 4

[At Portia's ballroom]

Portia was lost in her thoughts about Nerisa's words, when Nerisa elbowed her back into the real world. She realized that the first participant, the Prince of Morocco had arrived and was saying something. She gently nodded from her seat and pointed at a closed curtain, behind which were three caskets, a gold one, a silver one and a lead one, with a picture of Portia in only one of them.

"I hope you know the rules" Portia said, as he humbly bowed before heading towards the caskets. After a while of staring and mumbling, the Moroccan Prince finally chose the gold casket, only to be disappointed. In his defence, he believed that only gold was worthy enough to hold her picture.

Next came the French Lord, Monsieur Le Bon, who chose the silver casket, due to the words engraved on it "Whoever chooses me, gets what he deserves" but little did he know that he did not deserve Portia.

This goes for a while, until Gratiano walks in with her troupe. Portia was intrigued by Gratiano, even though she knew he was a friend of a participant. Her eyes drifted from Gratiano to Bassanio, who had dirty blond hair and a sharp jawline. She thought to herself that if this was how things had to go, she'd want him to pick the right box.

Something tugged at the back of her mind, as Bassanio chose the lead casket to reveal a picture of Portia in it.

Cheers of joy erupted throughout the room, everyone celebrated except for Bassanio and Portia.

Portia's mind was thinking about Nerisa's words, while Bassanio was thinking about Jessica.

"No!" exclaimed the both of them in unison, surprising the other and the celebrating troup.

Portia got up and announced "I will not marry someone who had won a game my dad had made. I control my life. Not my dead father. I am in love with Gratiano, and we have been in a secret relationship for about 3 years now, and I will marry him." With that, she walked out of the room, gracefully.

"And what about you? Why did you yell no?" asked Nerisa, who was not surprised by her announcement as she had already known about the illicit love. "I'm in love with Jessica, and I do not intend to marry Portia"

The room was quiet. Very quiet. Everyone was shocked.

This might seem like a win-win for both of them, but inside, Bassanio was angry. He had always been the guy every girl would fight for, and now he's been rejected by one of the finest ladies in town. A pang of jealousy hit him. An unreasonable hatred started to form towards Portia. He was mad at her for rejecting him, even though he would've called it off. He was prideful.