The Merchant of Venice

Portia is a wealthy heiress residing in Belmont. Prior to her father’s death, he arranged for Portia’s husband to be “chosen” by way of a scheme involving three caskets. The suitor who chooses the lead casket rather than the gold or silver casket will win Portia’s hand in marriage; the assumption is that a worthy husband will look past appearances.

With respect to Bassanio, it is unclear how much Portia views her marriage as transactional. Though she clearly states that Bassanio is worthy, she may view him as a merely adequate mate who will save her from the dismal lineup of suitors, none of whom have caught her eye. She gestures at this possibility in Act V, when she muses about how an ordinary man may look like a king when there are no other suitable comparisons.

Though she finds herself as Shylock’s adversary in the duke’s court, the two characters share some qualities. They are both intelligent and cunning, with an acerbic wit at their disposal. More importantly, they are both oppressed to varying degrees. Despite Portia’s wealth and status, she is manipulated into a ludicrous marriage scheme by her father from beyond the grave. In a comment that reflects how little agency she as a 16th-century European woman, Portia says, “So is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father” (1.2.24-25).

While dressed as a doctor of the law, Portia delivers the famous “quality of mercy” speech to Shylock. The extent to which Portia believes her own words, however, is debatable. The speech is less a plea and more an ultimatum, and when Shylock declines, she absolutely ruins him with biting rhetoric and an advanced knowledge of Venetian law.

Bassanio is a Venetian nobleman who squandered his fortune through poor judgment and profligacy. At the beginning of the play, he calls on his best friend Antonio for a loan of 3,000 ducats, which he will use to fund a trip to Belmont. There, he plans to win Portia’s hand in marriage.

Bassanio’s intentions with respect to Portia are suspect at best. He makes it clear early on that his highest loyalties belong to Antonio, to whom he owes massive sums of money. He explicitly frames his trip to Belmont as a way to secure enough money to repay all his creditors, including Antonio, to whom he is most indebted. Later, at the trial, he even tells Antonio, “I am married to a wife / Which is as dear to me as life itself, / But life itself, my wife, and all the world / are not with me esteemed above thy life” (4.1.294-97). These and other instances have led to some scholars to view Bassanio and Antonio’s relationship as romantic in nature, while others point to the fact that Elizabethan noblemen commonly spoke of one another with such extravagance without belying a romantic or sexual relationship.

Antonio is a shipping merchant who becomes indebted to Shylock on Bassanio’s behalf. Although the play’s title refers to him, he is not the protagonist—that label belongs to either Bassanio if the play is considered a comedy, or Shylock if the play is considered a tragedy. Some early versions of the play were in fact called The Jew of Venice, but Shakespeare may have changed the title to differentiate his work from Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta.

A vocal anti-Semite, Antonio constantly impugns Shylock’s virtue and livelihood. In turn, Shylock views his demand of a pound of Antonio’s flesh as just retribution for a lifetime of anti-Semitic barbs. The tension between Antonio and Shylock represents broader tensions in 16th-century England between merchants who traded in real tangible items and moneylenders who traded in intangible currencies or futures.

At the court proceeding, Antonio offers what he views as mercy by allowing Shylock to keep his fortune until his death, at which point it will be transferred to Jessica and Lorenzo. Yet this mercy is contingent on Shylock’s conversion to Christianity, which would cause him to be cast out of his community. Thus, the supposed dichotomy between Christian mercy and Jewish wrath is undermined by Antonio’s actions.

Jessica is Shylock’s daughter who robs her father, elopes with Lorenzo, and converts to Christianity. Although she is enormously unhappy living with Shylock, she never cites any specific acts of cruelty Shylock committed against her. Moreover, her conversion to Christianity is less an act of piety and more an act of teenage rebellion and young love. This is made clear by her attitude at the time of her escape, when she lingers at Shylock’s estate to grab as many valuables as she can.

At the same time, it is very possible that Jessica simply does not want to live as a second-class citizen anymore. Given what Lorenzo’s friends say when they first meet her, it is reasonably suggested that Jessica can “pass” as a gentile. Viewed through this lens, Lorenzo offers Jessica the same kind of escape from patriarch-determined circumstances that Bassanio offers Portia.

Lorenzo is one of Bassanio’s friends who elopes with Jessica after helping her escape from Shylock. Unlike many of the characters, his love for Jessica seems entirely nontransactional. Shakespeare devotes two scenes to them simply lounging around and expressing their love for one another. Theirs is perhaps the only functional romantic relationship in the entire play.

Lorenzo also represents a rebuke to the capitalist schemes of most of the other characters. Although he is an active participant in Jessica’s plot to rob her father, his ultimate ambition is to escape Venice and the betrayals that necessarily grow out of the pursuit of profit.

Another of Bassanio’s friends, Gratiano is said to be rowdy and raucous; Bassanio even warns him to tone down his personality when they visit Belmont. Gratiano and Nerissa are said to have fallen in love with one another, though their courtship is never portrayed in the play.