antonio's character in act 1 scene 1 in merchant of venice
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When we first see him commiserating with his friends Salanio and Salarino he is pondering the unknown source of his depressive state:
In sooth I know not why I am so sad.
It wearies me, you say it wearies you;
But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,
What stuff ‘tis made of, whereof it is born,
I am to learn
And such a want-wit sadness makes of me
That I have much ado to know myself.
His friends try to guess the origin and nature of his condition by questioning him. First they inquire as to whether or not he is worried about his investments. When he insists that is not the reason they ask if he is in love which he is also quick to dismiss. It is then speculated that perhaps he has a strange temperament as some people do. This pair quickly exits to make way for Bassanio who is accompanied by his friends Lorenzo and Gratiano. Lorenzo cannot get in a word for the boisterous Gratiano who makes sport of Antonio's melancholy telling him that he is too serious and that he himself would rather go through life acting foolish.
Antonio: Well, tell me now, what lady is the same
To whom you swore a secret pilgrimage
That you today promised to tell me of? (The Merchant of Venice 1.1.119–121)
Bassanio then proceeds to tell Antonio of his depleted financial state due to his own excesses, making sure to note that he is aware he already owes him money. He laments his ill-fortune but cheers at the thought of solving his problems by marrying Portia, a woman who has come into a sizeable inheritance from her father and whom he thinks is predisposed to choose him. He compares himself with Jason and his quest for the Golden Fleece. He beseeches Antonio to back this venture knowing he is not likely to be refused by his generous benefactor. Indeed, Antonio, despite the fact that his capital is already at risk elsewhere, gives him a letter of credit and wishes him well.
Later Antonio enters the Rialto to assure Shylock that he will be bound for the 3,000 ducats Bassanio wishes to borrow. Antonio has belittled and harassed Shylock in public, and he loathes him because when Christian friends of his owed money to the Jews he paid off the debts, thus depriving them of their interest. Far from lamenting his ill-treatment of the Jew who accuses him of spitting on him and calling him a dog, Antonio replies resolutely "I am as like to call thee so again, /To spet on thee again, to spurn thee." (MoV 1.3.127–128) He agrees to pay with a pound of flesh if he forfeits the bond in lieu of the usual interest.
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