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Variation 6 (603 words) by seekingferret
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Merchant of Venice - Shakespeare
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jessica/Lorenzo
Characters: Jessica (Merchant of Venice), Lorenzo (Merchant of Venice), Tubal (Merchant of Venice)
Series: Part 7 of The Jessica Goldberg Variations
Summary:

The one where Jessica plays the casket game.

In high school I wrote an essay arguing that Portia hinted Bassanio through the casket game, and to a large degree I still believe it. The casket game is one of the most horrifying things in a play that includes literal blood libel, but it's always been problematic to me that it was Portia who spends most of the play complaining about it. She comes from a background of such privilege. She spends the whole play living in a beautiful castle, attended by numerous servants and complimented by numerous handsome men. She has no obligations and no respect for anyone outside her background. She is casually racist and anti-semitic. Obviously this doesn't mean I condone the casket game, or suggest that she deserves it, but it is hard to find her all that sympathetic.

So I wrote a story where it happens to Jessica instead, and tried to dredge out the subtle differences that would emerge.