In Act 1, Scene 1 of The Merchant of Venice Bassanio finds himself in trouble: He is in debt up to his ears and he needs to escape his creditors. His plan is to ask the person whom he owes the most to lend him even more money for a new "get rich quick" scheme. As he explains to Antonio:
But my chief care
Is to come fairly off from the great debts
Wherein my time, something too prodigal,
Hath left me gaged. To you, Antonio,
I owe the most in money and in love,
And from your love I have a warranty
To unburden all my plots and purposes
How to get clear of all the debts I owe. . .
I owe you much, and, like a willful youth,
That which I owe is lost. But if you please
To shoot another arrow the self way
Which you did shoot the first, I do not doubt,
As I will watch the aim, or to find both
Or bring your latter hazard back again,
And thankfully rest debtor for the first. (1.1.134-41;153-9)
Notice how Bassanio characters his relationship to Antonio. They have a bond of "money" and "love" and their interaction is both affectionate and financial. This interconnection of money and love further emerges when Bassanio revels his scheme to erase his debts: to marry Portia and her fortune.
Is Bassanio "in love" with Portia or is he just "using" her to pay his debts? Is he really a friend of Antonio or just his "gravy train"? Or is it more complicated? What is this play saying about the values of money and love? Are the two opposing values? Is one more important than the other? Does, as the saying goes, "love conquer all"?
This play is sending a message that the values of money and love are inherently intertwined. More specifically, this play depicts the value of love to be more important than money, and sometimes money is the vehicle for which love is expressed. After Bassanio begs Antonio to lend him even more money so that Bassanio can win over Portia, Antonio replies, “My purse, my person, my extremest means/ Lie all unlocked to your occasions,” (1.1.45-6). Not only is Antonio offering Bassanio money, but he is offering to help him by any means necessary. There is no way that Antonio would offer these things is he thought that Bassanio was a “gravy train”. Rather, Antonio is willing to lend Bassanio his credit and his person because of the strength of their friendship.
ReplyDeleteBesides the relationship between Bassanio and Antonio, there are other examples of characters who have a relationship that is based in love, but still use money as a vehicle for that love. When Bassanio originally asks Antonio for a loan, it is for the purpose of going to Belmont on win over Portia. When he gets there, many conversations between Bassanio and Portia have some relation to money. Before Bassanio chooses a casket, Portia says,
“One half of me is yours, the other half yours…
…O, these naughty times
Puts bars between the owners and their rights!
And so though yours, not yours. Prove it so,
Let Fortune go to hell for it, not I,” (3.2.16; 18-21)
Here, Portia is using monetary terms such as ownership and rights to describe her relationship with Bassanio. She essentially is giving herself to him, and giving him the right to own her. She even mentions that she would let her fortune go to hell so that she could have Bassanio. Here it is evident that she loves him more than her money, but the monetary language that she uses shows how money is a vehicle for their love. After this speech, Bassanio expresses how miserable he feels to Portia, and that he feels as though he is being tortured by not having chosen a casket yet (3.2). If Bassanio does not truly love Portia, he would not feel as tortured as he says he does. Then, after he convinces Portia to let him choose a casket, Bassanio says, “But let me to my fortune and the caskets,” (3.2.41). Both Portia and Bassanio use monetary language to describe their relationship. This does not mean that their relationship is based on the money each one has, but rather that they express their love through fortunes. In this quotation, while it seems as though Bassanio only cares for Portia’s money, the word “fortune” could mean Portia herself. Throughout this scene, there are multiple other instances where Portia and Bassanio use monetary language, but this is not because they do not love each other, it is because that is the way in which they express their love.
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ReplyDeleteIn The Merchant of Venice, love and money are entwined in such a way that one doesn’t exist without the other. Between Bassanio and Antonio, their relationship clearly involves money, seeing that the first that we see of Bassanio is him asking Antonio for money, but towards the end of the play, once Bassanio already has plenty of money, Bassanio pleas to Antonio,
ReplyDelete“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.” 4.1.294-7
Bassanio exclaims his love for Antonio, without mentioning money whatsoever. Bassanio shows that he truly cares about Antonio, and while he may take advantage of this by asking for money all the time, the love in the relationship is still present. In regards to Portia, it is more unclear whether love is truly present from both ends, but it is clear that Portia loves Bassanio, and Bassanio loves Portia’s fortune. When Portia is looking at suitors who will take, all of them disappoint her, until she hears that Bassanio is coming. Portia declared,
“One half of me is yours, the other half yours—
Mine own, I would say—but if mine, then yours,
And so all yours.” 3.2.16-8
Portia tells Bassanio that she essentially belongs to him, even before he chooses the right casket. She tell him that she loves him, while we know that before Bassanio got there, he told Anonio that after he married Portia, he would be able to pay back all of his debt. Overall, we know that in the main relationships of Portia and Bassanio, and Antonio and Bassanio, both money and love play important roles, but neither truly outplays the other.
In The Merchant of Venice, love and money are entwined in such a way that one doesn’t exist without the other. Between Bassanio and Antonio, their relationship clearly involves money, seeing that the first that we see of Bassanio is him asking Antonio for money, but towards the end of the play, once Bassanio already has plenty of money, Bassanio pleas to Antonio,
ReplyDelete“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.” 4.1.294-7
Bassanio exclaims his love for Antonio, without mentioning money whatsoever. Bassanio shows that he truly cares about Antonio, and while he may take advantage of this by asking for money all the time, the love in the relationship is still present. In regards to Portia, it is more unclear whether love is truly present from both ends, but it is clear that Portia loves Bassanio, and Bassanio loves Portia’s fortune. When Portia is looking at suitors who will take, all of them disappoint her, until she hears that Bassanio is coming. Portia declared,
“One half of me is yours, the other half yours—
Mine own, I would say—but if mine, then yours,
And so all yours.” 3.2.16-8
Portia tells Bassanio that she essentially belongs to him, even before he chooses the right casket. She tell him that she loves him, while we know that before Bassanio got there, he told Anonio that after he married Portia, he would be able to pay back all of his debt. Overall, we know that in the main relationships of Portia and Bassanio, and Antonio and Bassanio, both money and love play important roles, but neither truly outplays the other.