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At the beginning, Bassanio is a good-natured but irresponsible young man who has gotten himself into debt by living beyond his means. He hopes to get out of debt by marrying a wealthy heiress, but he first needs to court Portia in the fashion she will expect.
- Bassanio Quotes
Bassanio thinks aloud as he chooses among the boxes,...
- Portia
When Bassanio arrives, however, Portia proves herself to be...
- Antonio
Further evidence of the nature of Antonio’s feelings for...
- Character List
Read an in-depth analysis of Jessica. Bassanio. A gentleman...
- Bassanio Quotes
Bassanio is the merchant Antonio’s “intimate friend” and the wealthy heiress Portia’s favored suitor. A young nobleman of Venice, Bassanio admits to living beyond his means. This has...
Bassanio, coming onto stage at that moment, accepts the gift of doves and tells Lancelot that he may leave Shylock and join his service. He then orders one of the men to get Lancelot a new uniform to wear, and sends Lancelot away.
Bassanio is a young man from a respectable Venetian family, with a lifestyle of leisure and pleasure-seeking with a group of friends of the same class. Consequently, he lives from hand to mouth and languishes in debt. That doesn’t bother him until the need for cash becomes a burning issue.
- Shylock. A Jewish moneylender in Venice. Angered by his mistreatment at the hands of Venice’s Christians, particularly Antonio, Shylock schemes to eke out his revenge by ruthlessly demanding as payment a pound of Antonio’s flesh.
- Portia. A wealthy heiress from Belmont. Portia’s beauty is matched only by her intelligence. Bound by a clause in her father’s will that forces her to marry whichever suitor chooses correctly among three caskets, Portia is nonetheless able to marry her true love, Bassanio.
- Antonio. The merchant whose love for his friend Bassanio prompts him to sign Shylock’s contract and almost lose his life. Antonio is something of a mercurial figure, often inexplicably melancholy and, as Shylock points out, possessed of an incorrigible dislike of Jews.
- Jessica. Although she is Shylock’s daughter, Jessica hates life in her father’s house, and elopes with the young Christian gentleman, Lorenzo. The fate of her soul is often in doubt: the play’s characters wonder if her marriage can overcome the fact that she was born a Jew, and we wonder if her sale of a ring given to her father by her mother is excessively callous.
A nobleman from Venice, who is a kinsman, close friend, and longtime debtor of the merchant, Antonio. Because he wants to woo the noble Portia , but cannot himself afford to do so, Bassanio borrows 3000 ducats from Shylock , with Antonio as his guarantor.
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Bassanio is immediately and extremely concerned over the fate of Antonio and is anxious to do whatever is possible for his friend. Here, the situation is melodramatic and calls for a romantic, seemingly impossible, rescue mission.
