Women and Shakespeare... Julie Scott

I was semi-shocked when I read act four, when Bassanio said he'd offer his own life and WIFE as some sort of payment, like a business deal to save Antonio. I was even more surprised that the women were not more offended by this gesture. I realize that the women were undercover as men/lawyers and if they got caught they would have been in extreme amounts of trouble, yet what I had trouble believing what that Portia , who is obviously from a higher social class in this society,did not get extremely upset or even offended that her husband would just offer his wife up like a piece of property. When I read her response to what Bassanio said, I read it kind of as, " Oh well your wife wouldn't like that very much but whatever". To me it was kind of like Portia brushed it off. What shocked me more was that Portia knew what he husband was doing and she even knew that he was offering her to to prove his love and loyalty to another man. This act of love proves what we said in Act one, that the bond and and status between a homogeneous realtionship is considered stronger and higher than a heterosexual realtionship in this time period, even when it involves man and wife. I also thought it was interesting that at the end of Act four, Bassanio gives up his ring to somebody that he doesn't even know, which according to Portia's agreement when she gave him the ring, symbolically means that he is giving up his wife and her love. I'm still slightly confused, even though I have a theory, on why the women asked their husbands for the rings when they were disguised as men but I'm sure we'll discuss that in class. I think Shakespeare put these parts in the play to make a subtle point on how women were treated in this era. Shakespeare may have also put these parts in the play to show that even though male characters in the play see the women as insignificant, women are important. Nerissa and Portia end up saving the day and are ultimately very important characters in the play. I read the comments on one of the last blog posts and I agree with the points that Shakespeare may have not been fond of Jews/foreigners because there may not have been many "different" people around and because that was the popular way of thinking at this time period. So his plays probably reflect what was going on in society at this time. This was probably why Shylock is treated and portrayed the way he is in the play but what about the women? Could the images of women portrayed in this play reflect Shakespeare's personal thoughts on how women should be treated and behave? Did Shakespeare himself think that women should have a lot of responsibility and still be treated like second class citizens? Or did Shakespeare just write the play this way to please his male audience, so that they would continue to go to his plays?