Just as Anya said, Portia is an extremely complicated character. She comes off as complicated because of her high level of intelligence. Along with being intelligent, Portia is independent which the reader is able to tell by her conversations with her servant assistant Nerissa.
Portia is introduced in the play as a woman who has to be married, but how her husband is being picked is unjust. When Portia is first portrayed, Shakespeare shows the reader her intelligence why making you feel bad for her. This is shown especially in Act I Scene ii, “The brain may devise laws for the blood, but a hot temper leaps o’er a cold decree. Such a hare is madness the youth-to skip o’er the meshes of good counsel the cripple. But this reasoning is not in the fashion to choose me a husband.” This passage shows exactly how intelligent Portia is. She understands that whatever she thinks, it is not going to help her find the man she wants, but instead she is locked in to her father’s wishes.
Shakespeare then makes the reader feel bad for her by stating, “O me, the word “choose!” I may neither choose whom I would nor refuse whom I dislike-so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father.” Shakespeare makes the reader feel like Portia has no choice over who she spends the rest of her life with. Shakespeare makes you feel like she is an extremely independent woman who is not going to be able to have her independence for much longer because of her forced marriage.