Analysis:
0:22-29 When Portia says that she is free and not trapped at home, it refers to the fact that until Portia decided to pretend to be a man, she was stuck at her large mansion all day. It was only by dressing up as a man was she able to then go out and do whatever she wanted. This displays a contrast from Portia at the beginning of the story and end of the story. At the same time, it highlights the gender inequality that existed in the European society at the time.
0:47- 1:06 Here, Jessica describes her quick elope with Lorenzo from Shylock, which caused Shylock to be very angry but Jessica to be very happy.
1:15-1:30 At this point, Portia explains the difference between her cross-dressing and Jessica’s cross-dressing, which is something important to note. While Jessica cross-dressed purely to run away with her love, which only proved that a women had to become a man if she wants to have free will. However, Portia’s cross-dressed to save a man which proved that women could be as smart, if not smarter, than men
1:40-2:10 Portia mocks the men for being the dumb characters as portrayed in The Merchant of Venice. Shakespeare hints this as the men couldn’t recognise their own wives and were helpless against Shylock.
2:16-2:42 Jessica continues to mock that men are easy to pretend and this alludes to what Portia says in Act 3 scene 4 when Portia claims that she can disguise herself very well as a man. Shakespeare thus suggests that man are not really hard to pretend. Furthermore, the part where I take off my mask and speak easily in my normal voice is to show how the actors back then could easily pretend to be a woman who was pretending to be a man as all the actors were men back then.
2:48-3:09 Portia explains another role of cross-dressing back then. It was simply to make the audience laugh! After all, it is always funny to see a man pretending to be a women speaking in a female voice, which is cross-dressing itself. Then it is even more funny when the female character in the story cross-dresses to become a man. Essentially, a double cross-dressing!
3:14-3:52 Jessica points out that in the Merchant of Venice, it is actually a female character who saves the day and not a male character (something uncommon back then). Something ironic though is that the Queen Elizabeth I was the ruler of England when Shakespeare was alive yet men and women still did not live on equal terms, perhaps Shakespeare was also trying to highlight this irony that existed by using cross-dressing. Finally, Portia concludes the whole story by talking about how one of the main purpose of cross-dressing and the play was to show the gender inequality that existed back then, and the audience should take note of that.
Reflection: This was probably the most difficult piece of work I did for College Writing. The reason was because by the halfway mark of the recording process, my throat was dry and it was very hard to continue singing and speaking in falsetto. However, this piece was very fun was to do as I was able to show my creativity through music but at the same time honor the significance of cross-dressing in the Merchant of Venice.
Samuel Kwan's Writing Portfolio 
Hahaha!
LikeLike