Merchant of Venice Essay: Antonios Love for Bassanio -- Merchant Veni

Antonios Love for Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice Antonio feels closer to Bassanio than any other character in The Merchant of Venice. Our first clue to this is in the first scene when, in conversation with Antonio, Solanio says, Here comes Bassanio, your most noble kinsman, / Gratiano, and Lorenzo. Fare ye well / We leave you at once with better company (i. i. 57-59). Once Antonio is alone with Bassanio, the conversation becomes more intimate, and Antonio offers an indebted Bassanio My purse, my person, my extremest means (137). We find out later that Bassanio needs money to woo Portia, a noble heiress who Bassanio intends to marry. And though Antonio is not in a position to loan money at the time, he does not disappoint Bassanio N each gestate I money, nor commodityTo raise a present sum therefore, go forthTry what my credit can in Venice doThat shall be racket, veritable(a) to the uttermost,To furnish thee to Belmont, to fair Portia. (124-128) Antonio does not make these of fers to any other character in The Merchant of Venice. In fact, there is only one scene in which Antonio is present and Bassanio not in act 3 scene 3, and even then Antonio ends the scene with a plea for Bassanio Pray God, Bassanio come / To see me give way his debt, -- and then I care not (iii, iii, 35-36). Antonio expresses love for Bassanio to him several times throughout the play (You know me well, and herein spend but time / To spark advance about my love with circumstance i, i, 154 Commend me to your honourable wife / Tell her the process of Antonios end / Say how I loved you iv, i, 273-275). But whether the love Antonio holds for Bassanio is either sexual or platonic is never overtly answered, which leaves speculation ... ...of Venice. Shakespeare Quarterly 37 1 20-37. Granville-Barker, Harley. The Merchant of Venice. Shakespeare Modern Essays in Criticism, Leonard Dean, ed. New York Oxford University Press, 1967. Kahn, Coppelia. The Cuckoos Note anthropoid Friendship a nd Cuckoldry in The Merchant of Venice. Shakespeares Rough Magic, Peter Erickson & Coppelia Kahn, eds. Newark University of Delaware Press, 1985. Patterson, Steve. The Bankruptcy of Homoerotic Amity in Shakespeares Merchant of Venice. Shakespeare Quarterly 49, 1 9-32 Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. The manage Works of William Shakespeare. Oxford Shakespeare Head Press, 1998. Sinfield, Alan. How to Read The Merchant of Venice Without Being Heterosexist. Alternative Shakespeare Volume 2, Terrance Hawkes, ed. New York Routledge, 1996