So far, Portia and Anne can be seen as complete opposites of each other in terms of their development and their actions. At first Anne appears defiant and unfeminine in her acts of spitting at Richard and cursing him to die a painful death or to kill himself. However, Anne becomes a weak yet pious figure at the end of Act 1 thorough her refusal to kill Richard herself with a knife that Richard gave her and refusing to repeat her wish of Richard committing suicide. Anne demonstrates through her refusals her strict following of God’s commandment that “Thou shalt not kill” as Anne refuses to kill Richard either directly or indirectly and prefers to accept the ring from Richard, her worst enemy for having killed her husband and father-in-law, than commit one of the worst sins. Richard’s flattering may have also affected Anne’s decision to not be the person responsible for Richard’s death.

Portia, on the other hand, is not afraid to commit deeds that others look down upon such as cross-dressing as a male doctor of laws since women were not allowed to uphold these kinds of prestigious positions. Portia goes as far as to humiliate and reprimand Bassanio for having given away the ring she gave him. She creates this scheming plot of retrieving the ring to get back at Bassanio for talking ill of her in declaring that he would give her up in order to save Antonio’s life. Portia is successful in attaining the ring as the doctor of laws and then shows the very same ring to Bassanio as herself in Belmont while falsely declaring her infidelity towards Bassanio by having slept with the doctor by telling him, “For by this ring the doctor lay with me” (5. 1. 259). The last act of the play is mostly comedic with snide remarks such as “Ay, if a woman live to be a man” (5. 1. 160) said by Nerissa and a joke well received by the audience because they know of Portia’s plan and to make fun of Bassanio’s and Gratiano’s cluelessness and astonishment throughout this act.

It is interesting to note that rings are present in both plays and that the rings are used in a way to humiliate someone. Richard maliciously enjoys having been able to woo Anne while she was still mourning and burning with rage over Richard’s acts. Richard later mentions how easily Anne has forgotten that he murdered two of her loved ones and that she quickly accepted the ring especially after admitting that he murdered King Henry because “t’was [Anne’s] beauty that provoked me” (1. ii 180).

P.S Watch this video, which proves that Portia is misunderstanding God’s commandment by refusing to let Richard die. This has to do with the difference between the words “kill” and “murder”. I think this video provides solid evidence especially in the way the commandment has been mistranslated. http://www.prageruniversity.com/Ten-Commandments/Do-Not-Murder.html#.VP8HCLDF8rM

This other video is what the murderers accuse Clarence of committing. Find out the correct meaning of this commandment by watching this!

http://www.prageruniversity.com/Ten-Commandments/Do-Not-Misuse-Gods-Name.html#.VPzQj7DF8rN