The relationship between Portia and Bassanio is apparently a stainless romantic relationship in Shakespeare's romantic comedy The Merchant of Venice. But, if one looks closely, there appears to be some scars in it. Critics have also suggested a possible homoerotic communion between Bassanio and Antonio. Does Antonio want to marry Portia for her wealth or is it just a sublime love at first sight situation? The three caskets scene creates an anti-materialistic context for the kind of love he has for Portia, but then, is it not his cunning judgement and a mere display of self-effacing love?
Bassanio also gives Portia's ring to Portia in disguise of the lawyer. Thus, their relation seems to commence on a betrayal, as it were. Looking at it from Portia's side, it is not a neutral relation either. Cunning has a greater role to play in her relation than passion and emotion. The way she makes Bassanio financially dependent, accepting the opportunity of clearing Antonio's debts gleefully, shows her great intelligence. She turns the situation on its head and assumes all power on her own. Even in the courtroom scene, she normativizes the Christian virtue of mercy as a universal human virtue to exclude the Jew. The letter of the law is what she resorts to than the spirit of the law as she dupes Shylock through his own language by literalizing the language of the pact. Some critics also feel, she does all this to show her power over Antonio, in the process estranging the two males. so, as one can see, the Portia-Bassanio relation is strongly driven by self-interest and hidden power-games.
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