Antonio’s dealings with Bassanio provide an interesting contrast to those with Shylock. With Shylock, he is honest and straightforward. He does not hesitate to spew his venom or to declare his genuine opinion that the Jew is a “villain ... rotten at the heart” (13). On the other hand, he extends saccharine courtesies concealing clandestine blackmail to his best friend and love interest Bassanio. For example, he writes to Bassanio, “if I might but see you at my death ... if your love do not persuade you to come, let not my letter” (54), which is obviously a test of Bassanio’s loyalty and dedication to him. Later, Antonio’s true intention is revealed: “Pray God, Bassanio come to see me pay his debt, and then I care not!” (56). Thus, his true wish is not to see Bassanio but for Bassanio to see his death. In other words, he does not value his relationship with him as much as he does manipulating his friend into a subservient position through the inculcation of guilt. Furthermore, Antonio urges Bassanio to “let him [Portia] have the ring: Let his deservings and my love withal be valued ’gainst your wife’s commandment” (76). He utters his plea after Bassanio reveals the pledge which his wife extracted from him, “...when this ring parts from this finger, then parts life from hence” (50). Only a day into the marriage and Antonio is attempting to disrupt the newlywed’s relationship, with a glimmer of hope yet in his heart that he may claim exclusive rights to Bassanio’s love. However, to vocalize his true intentions would spell the death knell for his relationship with Bassanio.

Reminiscent of Antonio, Portia is also deceptive with Bassanio. She poses as an ing�nue, an “unlesson’d girl, unschool’d, unpractised” who is “happy in this, she is not yet so old but she may learn” (49). However, she is much too astute, resolute, and witty to be effectively “curbed by the will of a dead father” (7), or the will of anyone else, for that matter. It is no surprise that she circumvents her father’s arrangement by her own ostensibly innocent song which intimated to Bassanio the correct choice of casket. Portia rejects all her previous suitors, but rather harps on the “scholar ... and soldier” Bassanio (10), who is financially and socially underprivileged compared to the others, e.g., the Prince of Morroco, the Prince of Arragon, the Baron Falconbridge, the County Palatine. They are all dignified, wealthy, landed nobleman, with whom there would be precious little independence or self-assertion. She opted for Bassanio because he was relatively meek and humble. That he confesses he “lives upon the rack” (45), and yet exclaims “O happy torment” (46) convinces her that his notions of chivalric love provide ample material for exploitation. Doubly, his declaration foreshadows the sadistic power which Portia later exercises over him. The ring scheme is an outstanding example of manipulating her husband into an acquiescent state of guilt. She warns him, “Let it presage the ruin of your love, and be my vantage to exclaim on you” (50), yet Bassanio is much too exuberant over having “won the fleece” (52) to consider the ramifications with self-possession. When Portia and Nerissa disclose their identities as the lawyer and the clerk, respectively, their revelation hardly detracts from the discomfort, but rather adds insult to injury. Now, not only have the husbands proven themselves unfaithful to their day-old engagement, but they have been duped by their own wives. Gratiano’s light-hearted humor at the end is simply a convenient distraction from the humiliating reality.

       

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