Deconstructing the Christian Merchant: Antonio and The Merchant of Venice

In The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare tests the viability in the contemporary world of a marriage of venture capital and Christian ideals. The question that the play implicitly asks is whether Antonio can be simultaneously a merchant and a Christian: that is, a merchant and not in some way also a Jew, a Shylock. This article shows that although Antonio remains a model of friendship, love, and care in his relationships with all his Christian acquaintances, his stature as a Christian, as well as his attempt to disassociate himself from usury, is undermined by his obsessive hatred of Shylock. Furthermore, the aura of aristocratic Belmont and Portia's complete victory over Antonio in the final two acts deal a serious blow not only to Antonio's image, but to the notion of merchantry as a noble and knightly venture. The self-serving dichotomy between evil Jewish usurer and good Christian merchant turns out to be an inviable one--a construct that, unlike Belmont, cannot be sustained through artifice and rhetoric alone.