Compare and contrast the characters of Portia and Calpurnia.

Julius Ceasar is a famous tragic play by William Shakespeare. Here we find that there is a sharp contrast between the characters of Portia and Calpurnia. Portia is the wife of Brutus. She is the daughter of Cato. On the other hand, Calpurnia is the wife of Cassio. She appears in one single scene in the play. She is a level-headed woman. She is very brilliant.

Portia is an excellent creation. Her father was a famous Roman patriot and idealist. She appears in the play in only two scenes. In the first scene, she shows her wifely anxiety about her husband's state of mind. She is a woman of extraordinary courage and fortitude who is deeply and genuinely devoted to her husband. She loves her husband very much. Indeed by her love and by the dignified manner in which she speaks to Brutus, she shows herself to be a wife of whom any man would feel proud. In this scene, we see Portia as a personification of the virtues which an ideal wife is expected to possess. In the second scene, we notice Portia's essential femininity and her lack of that stoutness of heart. When Caesar is murdered by the conspirators, she is feeling utterly miserable. She feels so oppressed by her husband's secret and by her anxiety about her husband's safety that she finds herself on the verge of fainting. Later in the play, we learn from Brutus' talk with Cassio that Portia has committed suicide. On the other hand, Calpurnia is the wife of Cassio. She is a minor character in the play. She appears in one single scene in this play. She is a level-headed woman. She is very brilliant. During the night she had seen a dream in which she had cried out for help because she had seen Caesar being murdered in the dream. In fact, she had cried out three times during the night because of the dreadful dream which she had seen. In the morning when she finds Caesar getting ready for the Senate meeting, she tells him that he must not stir out of his house on this day because the watchman had witnessed some horrid sights in the course of the night. 

However, Calpurnia loves her husband as sincerely and deeply as Portia loves hers. She feels terrified by the omens and by her own dream. She feels terrified not for herself but for her husband's sake. She says that the omens have been sent to foretell the death of Caesar. That is why she entreats him not to invite disaster by going to the Senate-house. In short, Calpurnia is an admirable wife. She is a weak person devoid of firmness. She is a minor character in the play, Julius Caesar. Portia is also seen in two scenes.