ANTONIO’S SADNESS- THE KEYNOTE OF THE PLAY

                                             

What did Antonio say about sadness?

At the very beginning of the play Antonio took his friends Salerino and Salerio into his confidence and told them about a strange feeling of sadness plaguing him. He said that the feeling disturbing him was strange in the sense that it was alien to his nature.  He was at a loss to understand what it was born of and where it had originated from.

How will you interpret Antonio’s sadness?

Antonio’s sadness gives one a feeling of gloom at the very beginning of the play and seems to be germane to the play itself. That something ominous is going to happen is evident from the kind of sadness Antonio talks about. Consequently Antonio’s sadness strikes the keynote of the play.

How do you know that Antonio has surrendered to sadness? Give three examples from the play?

Antonio tells Gratiano that he has a sad role to play on the stage of life. This is a conscious admission of the way he has taken the decisive influence of depression on him for granted.

The second example of his sadness is in the letter that he sends to Bassanio in Belmont, taking about the inevitable end of his life.

Third example of Antonio’s sadness is when he says in the court that he wants to offer himself to the dagger of Shylock. He thanks Fortune that She will not make him suffer in an agonized manner in a state of poverty till his old age as the very cutting of his flesh by Shylock will ensure his instant death.

What did Salerino say commenting on the nature of the parting of Bassanio and Antonio?

Salerino commented on the nature of A               ntonio and Bassanio to give an idea of the love of the former for the latter. When Bassanio was about to start for Belmont, Antonio told him in unequivocal terms that he should not be in a hurry to come back, leaving his job unfinished. He should not allow his mind of love to be disturbed by the thought of the loan he had taken from Shylock by signing a bond. On the contrary, he urged Bassanio to concentrate on the objective of winning Portia’s love and consequently her hand in marriage by employing the necessary display of love. Then as he pressed the hand of Bassanio, he turned his face as tears had formed in them.

How will you contrast Antonio as a merchant with shylock as one?

Antonio as a merchant was wealthy but he was rash and impulsive. One can form an idea of the nature of his investments based on the assessment of them by Shylock. He had scattered his investments in many an enterprise both at home and abroad. But that his merchant ships were exposed to some obvious perils as pointed out by Shylock cannot be ruled out. His confidence in himself as a merchant had made him presumptuous. He lacked the necessary shrewd acumen of a business man and failed to see through Shylock’s sinister design. He was aware of the fact that Shylock was a man who harboured malice towards him. But the intention of the latter to make him sign a fatal bond did not arouse suspicion in him and he signed it straightway without any farsightedness. As a merchant he was generous and gave loans to people without charging interest but he was not in the least prudent to be able to realize the fact that he was digging his own grave.

ANTONIO’S ABSTRACT AND REAL DEPRESSION

The play of merchant of Venice begins on a note of depression and this feeling of gloom permeates the entire play. Therefore it can be said that the tone of depression in the voice of Antonio strikes the keynote of the play. Antonio’s admission of the nature of his strange depression is something that is not comprehensible to his friends. They try to offer explanations to him about the nature of his depression in a bid to cheer him up. But he eludes their explanations bordering on exaggeration and gives one an impression of his obsession with depression. This becomes evident when he says that the role that has been assigned to him on the stage of life is that of depression and he will continue to play it in his own way.

His assertion of depression prompts his friend to say that he is looking forward to a cheap way of popularity and should steer clear of this trend. Though Bassanio after his arrival tries to make light of this comment of Gratiano saying that it amounts to nothing but sheer nonsense, Antonio does not succeed in getting rid of this feeling of sadness.

Bassanio receives a letter from his friend and this feeling of depression permeates the letter, though it is for an obvious reason now. 

When the jailor allows him to come out of the cell to start a conversation with Shylock and he fails to persuade him to relent, he gives expression to his feeling of depression. Now he speaks in the light of the stark reality of the imminent death looking him in the face. He says that as a pound of flesh will be cut from his chest, he does not have the least prospect of life but he is ready to accept this end of his life only if Bassanio, the embodiment of his unconditional love, arrives there once to see him paying the former’s debt with his life.

The intensity of this depression rings in his voice again in the court when all the pleas to spare his life are not heeded by Shylock. He says that the sooner he can offer himself to the dagger of Shylock the Jew the better drawing consolation in an ironical manner that Fortune favours him by awarding him a quicker death than drawing it out till the old age in a state of agonized poverty.