Is Shylock Really the Greediest Character in The Merchant of Venice?

Introduction: Money and Relationships in the Play

William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice is a play primarily concerned with the importance of money and with how placing too much value upon wealth can disturb relationships in society. At the beginning of the play, Bassanio wishes to marry the heiress Portia, primarily because he needs money. He appeals to his friend Antonio, the merchant of the title, for enough funds so that he can at least appear wealthy when he presents himself as a suitor to the rich Portia. Antonio cares deeply for Bassanio and is willing to risk everything for him, valuing their friendship above money. To give Bassanio what he needs, Antonio must borrow from Shylock, a Jewish moneylender.

Antonio places his physical safety and reputation below his love for Bassanio — unlike Bassanio, who is willing to put his friend at risk and to pursue a love match for purely mercenary purposes. This contrast establishes the play's central irony: the character most commonly assumed to be driven by greed is, in fact, one of the least money-obsessed figures in the story.

Shylock: Moneylender but Not Purely Mercenary

Like Antonio, Shylock places love above wealth — despite the fact that, as a Jewish person in a largely Christian society, he is automatically assumed to be avaricious. When Shylock's daughter Jessica runs away from home and converts to Christianity, her father is naturally angered by her theft of his ducats. Yet when his friend Tubal tells him, "One of them showed me a ring that he had of your daughter for a monkey," Shylock replies with unmistakable anguish: "Thou torturest me, Tubal: it was my turquoise; I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor: I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys" (3.1).

This moment reveals that, although Shylock is a moneylender who uses his financial position as a means of defending himself in an antisemitic Venice, he ultimately places his emotional bonds above money. The ring connecting him to his dead wife Leah is worth more to him than any sum. He is even willing to sacrifice his professional reputation in court as long as he can exact revenge on Antonio for what Christians have done in breaking up his home. His grief over Leah's turquoise is more serious, and more revealing, than his theatrical wish that his daughter were dead with the ducats in her ear.

Bassanio: The Truly Money-Driven Character

It is the Christian Bassanio who is, ironically, the most money-conscious character in the play. When Portia presents her suitors with the famous three-casket test, Bassanio chooses lead — ostensibly the correct choice, since the man who selects lead is supposed to be one who hazards all he has for love. But in truth, Bassanio has hazarded nothing. It is Antonio who has taken every real risk. Bassanio desires Portia's gold, not her person, and it is his friend who now faces mortal danger as a consequence.

Shylock, enraged by the loss of his daughter to a Christian suitor who freely spends the ducats she stole from Shylock's coffers, resolves to call in the bond Antonio made in apparent jest — a pound of flesh. The jest-like nature of this bond was underscored when Antonio remarked, "The Hebrew will turn Christian: he grows kind" (1.3), implying that Shylock's decision to ask for no monetary interest on the loan was itself an attempt to build a genuine relationship with Antonio rather than profit from him. Once again, Shylock's behavior shows a man who does not always put money before human connection — yet whose goodwill is destroyed when Christians sunder his family.

Conclusion: Hollow Victories and True Values

Portia marries Bassanio, but only after learning how quickly he is willing to sacrifice the ring she gave him — surrendering it as payment for the legal services that saved the very friend who lent him money at the beginning of the play. Her victory, like so much else in The Merchant of Venice, is hollow. Shakespeare leaves the audience with a portrait of a society in which the character condemned as greediest is, in truth, one of its most emotionally driven figures, while those who claim to act from love are frequently revealed to be motivated by gold.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. "The Merchant of Venice." MIT Classics Page. 2006.