Bassanio. A gentleman of Venice,

grasping but proud

intentions of much discussion

Bassanio's love for the wealthy Portia leads him to borrow money from Shylock with Antonio as his guarantor.

An ineffectual businessman

Takes interest from the people who borrow loans from him

personality : clever and charming, but addicted to pleasure. Because of his fun-first lifestyle, Bassanio suffers from both debt and great guilt.

'Tis not unknown to you, Antonio, How much I have disabled mine estate, By something showing a more swelling port Than my faint means would grant continuance. ...

Thou art too wild, too rude and bold of voice— Parts that become thee happily enough And in such eyes as ours appear not faults.

Shylock is a Jewish moneylender in Venice. He is unpopular with other characters who accuse him of practising usury. This means lending money with outrageously high rates of interest . The merchants, such as Antonio, curse and spit at Shylock because they believe this way of making money is immoral.

Portia is a protagonist of William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. A rich, beautiful, intelligent heiress of Belmont, she is bound by the lottery set forth in her father's will, which gives potential suitors the chance to choose among three caskets.

An influential, powerful, and wealthy nobleman of Venice, he is a middle-aged man and a merchant by trade who has his financial interests tied up in overseas shipments when the play begins.

He is a spendthrift who wasted all of his money in order to be seen as a respectable man. To regain his fortune, he is determined to marry Portia, a wealthy, intelligent heiress of Belmont.

a suitor to Portia's hand. Dark-skinned, he is a great and boastful warrior, whose grandiloquent language overbears all before it. He is aware that the color of his skin may not overly please Portia, but he is not ashamed of it.

Launcelot Gobbo is viewed as cunning, cheerful, and a joker, he is Shylock's servant and a good friend of Jessica. Athough he is not a main character in this play, he still provides an important role.

A Old Gobbo is the father of Launcelot Gobbo, the clown in The Merchant of Venice. Although he only appears in a brief comedic segment in Act II, Scene II, we find out quite a bit about him; his wife (Launcelot's mother) is named Margery, and he owns a "fill-horse", or plow horse, implying that he may be a farmer.

Balthazar is one of Portia's servants. She sends him to bring her letters to Bellario, and to meet her and Nerissa on the way to Venice with the law-clerk clothes Bellario will give him. Portia steals his name for her disguise as a boy.

Leonardo is one of Bassanio's servants. He is sent out to do some shopping for his master when the latter receives the money from Shylock.

Stephano is a servant of Portia's. He announces her return to Belmont, supposedly from her religious retreat.

Solanio is a companion of Antonio and Bassanio. He tries to uplift Antonio's spirits and says that if he was a ship merchant, he would take up leaves of grass and try to judge the direction of the winds.