Prince of Arragon

Themes
1) Social Prejudice
2) Appearance and Reality

1) Social Prejudice
To believe that you are superior to others due to rank, education,
status, or taste.

2) Appearance and Reality

How things appear is not what they are really like.

At first it appears that the Prince of Arragon is wiser than the

Prince of Morocco.

“Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.”

You shall look fairer ere I give or hazard.

Hazard = risk

Just like Morocco, Arragon believes that lead is not “fair”

(beautiful) so it is not worth risking everything for it. Just like
Morocco, Arragon judges things by their appearance. The irony is
that he actually believes that he does not judge by appearance.
This becomes clear in the next lines when he comes to the gold
casket.
What says the golden chest? Ha, let me see.
“Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.”
What many men desire”—that “many” may be meant
By the fool multitude that choose by show,
Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach;
Which pries not to th' interior,

Arragon will not choose the golden casket because it is something

that “many” men desire. By “many men” Arragon assumes is a
reference to common people who make up the majority of society,
normal ordinary people of lower rank who serve the upper class
lords like himself. Because he does not want to be associated
with the lower classes, Arragon does not choose the gold casket
that “many men” desire since he believes he is better than the
common people.

I will not choose what many men desire

Because I will not jump with common spirits
And rank me with the barbarous multitudes.

Jump = follow
Common spirits = ordinary people
Rank me = make myself equal to
Barbarous multitude = the savage and ignorant lower class
majority of the population

One of the reasons Arragon judges the common people to be

below him is not just because of their lower class status, but
because, in his socially prejudiced opinion, they like things
because of how they appear and not how they really are.

fool multitude that choose by show,

Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach;
Which pries not to th' interior,

fool multitude = foolish common people

Choose by show = choose something based on appearance
Not learning more than the fond eye doth shows = not seeing
more than the what their eye enjoys looking at
Which pries not to th’interior = that does not look at the true or
hidden value of anything

The irony is that it is Arragon himself who does not look below the
surface. In his opening lines he dismisses the lead casket
because it does not look beautiful and then goes on to call
ordinary people foolish because they judge things by appearance,
yet he is exactly the same.
Arragon refuses to pick the golden casket, not because he is wise
but because he is an arrogant snob who will not do the same
thing as the common people.
He also lack self-awareness and wisdom because he cannot see
he is making the same mistake as those he believes he is
superior to by judging the lead casket by its appearance, exactly
what he said one should not do.
Ultimately, Arragon chooses the silver casket.

Why then, to thee, thou silver treasure house.

Tell me once more what title thou dost bear.
Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.”

And well said too—for who shall go about

To cozen fortune and be honorable
Without the stamp of merit?

cozen fortune = cheat fate/cheat truth

be honorable without the stamp of merit = pretend to be
honorable when they don’t deserve honor
Let none presume
To wear an undeservèd dignity.
Oh, that estates, degrees and offices
Were not derived corruptly, and that clear honor
Were purchased by the merit of the wearer!
How many then should cover that stand bare!
How many be commanded that command!
How much low peasantry would then be gleaned
From the true seed of honor! And how much honor
Picked from the chaff and ruin of the times
To be new varnished! Well, but to my choice.
“Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.”

This whole speech is about how the world should be an ideal

place where only the worthy get what they deserve and the
unworthy who are faking their own merit are cast out.
This may seem to make Arragon look like someone who is
genuinely honorable and concerned about truth and reality versus
appearance, but there are two problems with this.

Firstly, just before choosing the silver casket, he had referred to

the common people as the fool multitude incapable of looking
under surface appearances, but in his speech about the silver
casket he says that peasents will be raised up because of their
genuine worth, completely contradicting his view of the lower
class as being unworthy.

And how much honor

Picked from the chaff and ruin of the times
To be new varnished!

Completely unaware of his contradictory attitude, criticizing the

common people and then suggesting they could be worthy,
Arragon reveals himself to be extremely shallow while believing
himself to be superior. His speech is more about striking a moral
attitude to make himself look superior, rather than genuine
concern about an unjust world.

Secondly, to much of Shakespeare’s audience that consisted of

poor people as well as the wealthy and powerful, the idea of a fair
and honorable world would have appeared as idealistic nonsense.
People were usually trapped in the class they were born into and
most people did not have the education or opportunity to raise
their status.
I will assume desert.

Without doubting anything about himself, Arragon automatically

assumes he deserves Portia. Even Morocco tried to figure out
whether he deserved Portia or not, Arragon is so arrogant he just
believes he is automatically worthy.
The picture inside the silver casket sums up Arragon’s flaw:
What’s here? The portrait of a blinking idiot
Presenting me a schedule! 

A schedule is a timetable in which everything fits neatly into place,

just like Arragon’s apparent desire for a perfect world where
everyone gets what they deserve. However, that is not how reality
is, especially in Shakepeare’s time. Life is not a perfect as a neaty
organized schedule, life is messy and complicated. Anyone who
thinks otherwise can be considered a fool, according to the silver
casket.