The Merchant of Venice

Pretend for a moment that you are Antonio. Based on Bassanio's arguments, would you also have loaned him the money?

In Act 1 Scene 1 of The Merchant of Venice, Bassanio persuades Antonio to lend him a sum of money so that he can woo and marry a rich women called Portia. Bassanio used many different approaches to persuade Antonio to lend him the money. In the end, Antonio agreed to lend money to Bassanio but since all his money was out in sea, Bassanio had to borrow money from a Jew moneylender. If I were Antonio, I would lend Bassanio the money, but only after thinking over it for some time. The reason why I would lend Bassanio the money because he would be able to return all the money he borrowed and Bassanio is, simply, my friend.

With enough money, Bassanio would be able to woo and marry a rich women Portia. Being Bassanio's good friend, I know that Bassanio is a spendthrift and often spends above his means. Thus, I am not the only person he has borrowed money from. If he really manages to marry Portia, he would be rich beyond measure and thus would be able to return all the dept he owns, including mine. Even though there might be some risk involved, I believe in Bassanio to manage to marry Portia and return all the money he owes me.

Secondly, Bassanio is my best friend, how can I just leave him to bury himself in endless dept? Besides, this might be the only time Bassanio can set things straight and free himself from all of his dept. Being a spendthrift, it would be nearly impossible to ask him to save money by himself. Thus, this might be the golden opportunity to allow Bassanio get out of his dept and also a golden opportunity for me to get back the money I lent him. The saying goes, "A friend in need is a friend indeed". Therefore, I would lend Bassanio the money he needs.

However, there were a few things I had to think over before I agreed to lent Bassanio the money. Firstly, I have already lent Bassanio money countless of times and he has yet to return the money to me. If he doesn't succeed in wooing and marrying Portia, all the money I had loaned him would be going down the drain and never returned back. Thus, some risk involved partially stopped me from lending money to Bassanio.

In conclusion, even though there might be some negative consequences of lending money to Bassanio, the benefits still outweigh the negative consequences, thus I would decide to lend money to Bassanio.