A Back Turn To The Masculine Shadow After A Temporal Win: The Illusion Of Women Empowerment In William Shakespeare’s “The Merchant Of Venice”

William Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice”, set in a Venetian patriarchal society, presents female struggles and limitations under the masculine shadow through the female characters such as; both Portia and Nerissa. While navigating in the male dominated world, the female characters challenge and subvert the concept of traditional gender roles (Russin, 2013). Disguising as a lawyer and clerk, both Portia and Nerissa outsmart the male characters in the court to save Antonio’s life from Shylock’s desire of a flesh bond. This win challenges the norms of a patriarchal society which ignore the capability of women. Though the play explores female empowerment related themes, it also confirms the patriarchal structures. The denouement, as marked by Graziano and Bassanio’s ring which symbolizes male authority and women characters’ willingness to go back to being household wives, shows the limitations of female autonomy in a male-dominated world despite the fact that they had temporally gained power and control. This paper aims to explore the illusion of women empowerment and the tension between the feminist elements of “The Merchant of Venice” and its conformation to social conventional gender norms, by providing a detailed perspective on Shakespeare’s critique on social power dynamics.