character sketch of ANTONIO in 250 words
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Answer:
Antonio is the merchant of Venice, the titular protagonist of the play. He is about forty years of age and has lived his life to the fullest. He is a successful businessman, owning a fleet of trade ships. Surprisingly, Antonio appears in relatively few scenes of the play, but he is the driving force behind much of the action.
Antonio is the model Christian, as defined by Elizabethan society. He represents, among other things, the ideal of nobility in friendship. He is also kind and generous, both to his friends and to the poor of Venice. Although he is now more philosophical, gentle, and quiet, he can still appreciate the frivolous nature of youth, as portrayed by his beloved friend, Bassanio. Aside from his love for Bassanio, he is unattached. Perhaps his lack of love is the reason for his melancholy.
Antonio's principles are against the borrowing or lending of money for profit. He reflects the medieval attitude that money should be lent for Christian charity. His noble generosity for his friend, however, leads him to cast aside these principles and to take a loan from the merchant, Shylock. He borrows money and pledges his flesh as the bond. When his ships are lost at sea, he cannot repay the loan and accepts the fact that he must pay Shylock with a pound of his flesh.
Answer:
- Antonio is a nice guy who lends money to people in need without charging them any interest. In this admiration, he gives Shylock a pending assessment that he is a loan shark. (A loan shark is a moneylender who charges inflated hobby prices for the loans he makes.) It is true that Shylock is an experienced lender and therefore has a fondness to pay for the loans he makes.
- Antonio, on the other hand, is not always a moneylender by profession. But the truth is that Shylock charges excessive fees for the hobby and Antonio lends people money, although he is not always a lender, and he lends money for free.
- While Shylock is a greedy guy, Antonio isn't always greedy at all. In fact, Antonio is almost detached from wealth. While Antonio is a human being worthy of our admiration for his agreeable qualities, he also suffers from one extreme defect.
- As a Christian, he points to a narrower intolerance towards Jews. He hates Shylock because he is a loan shark, but even more because he is Jewish. That religious or racial intolerance on his part puts him down quite a bit, in our opinion. In fact, Antonio does everything he can to insult and humiliate Shylock.
- In many activities he has abused Shylock or even spat on his clothes. His intention in dealing with Shylock because he is a loan shark and a Jew. And even when he's looking to mortgage Shylock, he says he might abuse and spit on him while driving. He tells Shylock that he wants a loan from him, no longer as a friend but as an enemy.
- In fact, it became a widespread prejudice against the Jews at the time. However, we can rest assured that a nice guy like Antonio is free from such prejudice. Antonio is a super gentleman, but his non-secular bigotry is absolutely a flaw in his character.
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