In Shakespeare's The Merchant of
Venice, Bassanio strongly encourages Antonio not to agree to Shylock's
bond.
In Act One, scene three, Bassanio has gone to
Shylock, a Jewish money lender, to take out a loan in order to woo Portia, and win her
hand. Antonio has already given Bassanio money and has no qualms about lending him more,
but his assets are tied up in four shipping vessels that have yet to arrive home to
provide him with an increased cash flow. So Antonio goes with Bassanio to basically
co-sign the loan. (Shylock does not care much about Bassanio, but wants revenge against
Antonio.)
To help Bassanio, Antonio agrees to guarantee the
loan from Shylock. These two men have had difficulty in the past: Shylock lends money
for interest; Antonio lends money without interest—it's his way. (Secretly Shylock hates
him because he is a Christian, and lending money without charging interest causes
Shylock to lose money because interest rates drop.)
Shylock
adds a clause into their agreement, where he will change no interest, but should Antonio
fail to repay his debt in the time allotted, Shylock will take a pound of Antonio's
flesh, from whatever part of his body he chooses.
Antonio
is unconcerned by this stipulation, which Shylock insists is simply a joke. Antonio is
sure his ships will return a least a month earlier than the bond is
due.
Bassiano, however, does not want his friend to risk
anything for his sake, especially with Shylock, who is a greedy,
nasty man. And although Bassiano repeats his request of Antonio, stating he'd rather go
without, Antonio still agrees for the sake of his
friend.
We learn in this segment of the play that Bassiano
values Antonio's well-being even more than getting the money he
needs to win Portia's hand. His own success is not as important as his friend's welfare.
We can assume Bassanio is a caring, loyal and selfless friend.
No comments:
Post a Comment