Antonio is brought before the Duke, he hopes that his debt will be forgotten and he will be

able to go back to his home peacefully. He could not be more wrong, he may have thought for
a while that he would have to pay Shylock back a much bigger sum, but, for sure, he could
not predict what would happen shortly after his arrival at the court. The Duke calmly tells
Antonio that there is no way to get out of that contract in which he agreed to sacrifice his
pound of flesh. The merchant suddenly feels his heart pounding, he starts to mutter something
under his breath. He asks the Duke if there is something that he could do in order to avoid his
punishment, Antonio starts to worry about his life. He suggests to give Shylock his whole
fortune just to spare his life. Nevertheless, the Duke says that he cannot make this decision as
Antonio signed the contract and, in fact, agreed to this, so in this case only Shylock can make
the ultimate decision. The Jew finally arrived and Antonio’s cries did not make him hesitate
even for a second. Although, he did find Antonio’s fortune quite tempting, his desire to
punish his enemy was far too strong at this point. At the same time, Bassanio informed his
friend that someone is coming in order to save his life. Antonio finally felt relieved, he
actually felt confident and started to talk back to Shylock. The Jew became furious, the Duke
tried to calm two men, but did not succeed. Shylock sharply took out his knife and came
towards the merchant. Antonio once again felt his heart pounding and his life flashed in front
of his eyes. He felt someone pushing to the left, he fell down to the ground and when he
opened his eyes he saw wounded Bassanio. His friend still had the knife in his body, blood
running down his torso and thighs. Time has stopped for Antonio, the friend he adored and
had feelings towards just sacrificed himself in order to safe him. However, this is not what
was important at that time, he soon after realized that the love of his life is literally dying and
it is his own fault. Time suddenly started running again, but it did with double speed.
Bassanio falls down next to Antonio, he mouths “help me” without any voice. He lightly
caressed his face and let his tears fall. The merchant immediately tries to handle his friend’s
wound, but with no success, Bassanio not long after let out his last breath. Antonio felt rage
rushing him forward and right away took out the knife of Bassanio’s dead body and stabbed
Shylock who stood there in shock of what had happened. Antonio pushed the knife into the
Jew’s body continuously until he collapsed on the floor. Terrified with his actions, the
merchant stood there in front of the Duke covered in blood not knowing what to do now. The
love of his life is gone, his enemy too, he actually murdered a person and obviously will be
punished. Suddenly, something struck him, in this moment there is no better way to escape
this mess than to kill himself. And so he did, collapsed on the ground and left everyone in
shock.