It is often observed that William Shakespeare's comedies feature uncomfortable scenes that leave the audience uncertain as to whether the characters are participating in a harmless theatrical farce or more mockery nasty that borders on cruel. Such scenes involve trickery that seems quite funny on the surface but, upon closer examination of the prankster's motivations, can slowly replace the reader's easy smile with an air of bemusement and concern. In Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, the comedy star is no stranger to the kind of jokes that seem to go too far. During the second half of the play, Portia orchestrates a prank in order to beat her future husband Bassanio, with the somewhat disturbing effect mentioned above. In Portia's case, however, the trick was not performed with depraved intentions, but in order to assert her dominance over her future husband. Although Portia appears to love Bassanio, he presents a threat both to her autonomy and to her control over her deceased father's estate and wealth. In order to maintain her power, Portia uses her trickery with the ring to position herself above Bassanio, belittling him by questioning and attacking his fidelity, sexual dominance, and masculinity before finally revealing that everything has been done as a joke. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Portia's first move in her campaign for Bassanio's domination calls his loyalty into question. Upon learning that Bassanio gave his ring to the "civil doctor" who defended the men in their trial against Shylock, Portia immediately denounces her future husband, calling his "false heart of truth" as empty as his ring finger (V.1.189 ). Although the lady then quickly invokes the threat of refusing to sleep with Bassanio until the ring is found, it is not until later in her speech that she fully uses sex as a weapon to enslave her man. Portia first focuses on Bassanio's lack of fidelity, turning her excuses against him in a mocking parallel form. When Bassanio tries to explain: If you knew to whom I gave the ring, If you knew for whom I gave the ring, And would conceive for that I gave the ring, And with what reluctance I left the ring (193-196). Portia retaliates accordingly, matching each justification with a sharp rebuttal: If you had known the virtue of the ring, Or half its value which gave the ring , Or your own honor in containing the ring, You would not then have parted with the ring. ring (199-202). Portia never even considers Bassanio's defenses; even though she knows they are true, she has chosen to reject them in order to break her fiancé into a more manageable form. She emphasizes the importance of the ring, her own value, and the honor bestowed on Bassanio as the ring's bearer before declaring that he has defiled them all by forfeiting his precious gift. Portia makes it clear that she means nothing to Bassanio if he gave up her ring, a betrayal she believes would not have happened if he had "defended her / With any zeal" ( 203-204). Here, irony and condescension leak from Portia's replies. Eventually, Portia begins in earnest to move sex from her cache of schemes to the front lines, claiming that Bassanio must have given the ring to another woman. By portraying Bassanio as an unfaithful lover who committed a serious breach of trust, Portia puts Bassanio on the defensive. Her plan to make Bassanio lose the ring creates a situation in which Portia has the power and the wayward fiancé musttrying to make amends. Portia, however, will not grant mercy or expose her prank without first completely belittling Bassanio. When he once again attempts to convince Portia that he gave his ring to the "worthy physician" and not to another woman, Portia challenges Bassanio's sexual domination over her (222). Because he so carelessly surrendered his ring to the civil doctor, Portia says that she will "become as liberal as" her fiancé with what he possesses through the contractual exchange of marriage: her body (226). She promises that she will sleep with this worthy doctor, if given the slightest chance. As Portia asserts her sexuality in this scene, she turns it into a sort of commodity, with a price equal to that of the ring Bassanio gave the doctor as payment. However, she does not fail to point out how this would affect Bassanio. She implies that sleeping with the doctor would emasculate Bassanio and usurp her right to Portia's body when she says that she will refuse the doctor neither her "body nor [her] husband's bed" (228). In the patriarchal system in which these characters operate, the wife is considered the property of the husband. Portia allowing another man to enter the marriage bed would be a blow not only to Bassanio's masculinity and pride, but also to his rightful ownership of the property he entered during the marriage ceremony (Portia) . Her entire speech here reads like a challenge, as she taunts Bassanio with promises such as "I will know him, I am sure" and warnings like "...look at me like Argus", a mythical character with a hundred eyes ( 229). -230). This demonstration of her ability to deflate Bassanio's power through sex outside of marriage is another step in Portia's plan to win over her future husband. Portia has changed her strategy from focusing on Bassanio's mistakes and belittling his character, to fully exercising the power she gains over her fiancé. Ironically, it is in forgiving Bassanio that Portia hurts him the most. After Bassanio's endless apologies who promise never to break his oath with his love again, Portia seems to give in. She accepts Bassanio's regrets and Antonio's role as guarantor, before giving him the ring he had given her. When a surprised Bassanio realizes that "it's the same ring he gave to the doctor", Portia speaks up, not intending to explain the confusion, but in order to carry out her final act of power (257). In a line that rings of contrived regret and almost offensive nonchalance, Portia says, “…Forgive me, Bassanio, / For because of this ring the doctor slept with me” (258-259). This prank is by far Portia's cruelest. It is true that the audience knows that there is no doctor and that Portia has indeed remained faithful to Bassanio, which gives the scene a touch of comedy and dramatic irony. Bassanio, however, is under the impression that the woman he is going to marry has slept with another man. By making it appear that she cuckolded Bassanio to get the ring back, Portia succeeds in asserting total domination over her fiancé. In Shakespeare's time (and arguably today), having an unfaithful wife was the ultimate form of emasculation. The cuckold's nature directs shame, mockery, and perhaps even blame toward the man in the relationship, because he is expected to control his wife. Bassanio is further demeaned by this trick because it implies that if he hadn't lost the ring in the first place, Portia wouldn't have had to sleep with the doctor. Unfortunately, the audience never hears Bassanio's reaction, as Gratiano interrupts this power play of humiliation and deception with the line: "What, are we cuckolded before we deserve it?" (265). This.