On the surface, Antonio's willingness to borrow money from Shylock is an act of altruism. With his capital embodied in ventures abroad, Antonio can only help his friend and kinsman Bassanio by assuming a loan. Antonio is a "good" (Christian) man, but as we look deeper into the circumstances, both the nature of his favor to Bassanio and his dealings with Shylock raise questions. To begin, Bassanio is a spendthrift who has not repaid money he has borrowed in the past, a fact that he freely acknowledges by saying "That which I owe is lost" (I, i.). Moreover, the reason that Bassanio needs...
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