THE MERCHANT OF VENICE

In 1500, in Venice, there was a very hard-hearted merchant, called Shylock. He was a Jew, known as a usurer,
who had accumulated a large amount of money. For this, he was disliked by all the Venice people, first by
another merchant, Antonio, who wasn’t a cruel and insensible man: he was very generous, and he never
applied any interests in all his money lends. One day, Bassanio, the Antonio’s best friend, told him that he
wanted to marry a young and handsome woman, called Portia. She was the heiress of her father’s properties,
and she had inherited a big estate, called Belmont, in the outsides of Venice. Bassanio told to Antonio that
he needed 3000 ducats for the marriage, but Antonio didn’t have all of this money to pay him, so he decided
to go to Shylock, the usurer, to ask him for the money. When they went to Shylock’s office, he though that
he would never forgive him. But Shylock decided anyway to lend the money to Antonio, apparently not giving
him any interest lending them. So Bassanio, received the money was ready for the wedding: he caught a
beautiful train to Portia’s estate, and when he arrived there, he found that there weren’t any suitors, and
there was a man, called Gratiano, who was attending for him. Portia almost immediately accepted him as
her husband, but Bassanio confessed that he hasn’t got a fortune, and that he was poor, although he came
from a noble family. However Portia accepted him, even if he had no money, telling him that she was
illiterate, and that she would accept him not for the money but for the person he was, giving him a ring of
fidelity. So Portia went to Gratiano and Nerissa, her maid, to told them about the imminent wedding. The
happiness was broken by the entrance of a messenger, who gave to Bassanio a letter, in which there was
written that Antonio had been imprisoned for the debt he had with Shylock, because the day of the payment
was passed and Antonio didn’t give Shylock the money he borrowed to him. So Bassanio tried to give the
money to Shylock, but he refused them, wanting to take a pound of Antonio’s flesh as a payment. So Portia
decided to wrote a letter to an advocate, her friend, called Bellario, who answered telling them what they
had to do. Portia disguised herself as an advocate, called “doctor Balthazar”, with the robes and the wig of
Bellario, trying to defend Antonio from the accusations made by Shylock. He didn’t accepted the 6000 ducats
from Bassanio, but “Balthazar” told him that on the bond they signed there was written that he would take
only a pound of flesh, but in the act not a single drop of blood had to be spilled off. Because it’s impossible
to cut the flesh without spilling blood, the bond was forfeited. Balthazar and her assistant (Nerissa), wanted
their rings as payment, so they gave them to the two people. When both of them returned to Belmont, when
Portia and Nerissa wanted to see their rings, they had to tell the fact. So the two women told them the truth
and they gave back the rings. So Antonio and Bassanio are safe.