Problem
Identify two figures or tropes in the below passage from The Merchant of Venice that relate to ideas of sexual difference. In your response you must identify what kind of figure of speech it is (e.g. metaphor, personification, simile etc.) and discuss how the figures or tropes relate to ideas of sexual difference in the set passage and play. In your response you must also draw on ideas about sexual difference discussed in the Bennett and Royle chapter on "Sexual Difference".
"In Belmont is a lady richly left, And she is fair, and - fairer than that word - Of wondrous virtues. Sometimes from her eyes I did receive fair speechless messages. Her name is Portia, nothing undervalued To Cato's daughter, Brutus' Portia. Nor is the wide world ignorant of her worth; For the four winds blow in from every coast Renowned suitors, and her sunny locks Hang on her temples like a golden fleece, Which makes her seat of Belmont Colchos' strand, And many Jasons come in quest of her. O my Antonio, had I but the means To hold a rival place with one of them, I have a mind presages me such thrift That I should questionless be fortunate." (Act 1, scene 1, lines 161-176).