<P> Antonio is the title character in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice . An influential and powerful nobleman of Venice, he is a middle - aged bachelor and merchant by trade who has his financial interests tied up in overseas shipments when the play begins . He is kind, generous, honest and confident, and is loved and revered by all the Christians who know him . His willingness to die for Bassanio is a manifestation of his character . Antonio manifests his piety by cursing and spitting at Shylock (anti-semitism was common in Europe in Shakespeares days). </P> <P> Act 1 When we first see him commiserating with his friends Salanio and Salarino he is pondering the unknown source of his depressive state: </P> <P> In sooth I know not why I am so sad . It wearies me, you say it wearies you; But how I caught it, found it, or came by it, What stuff' tis made of, where of it is born, I am to learn And such a want - wit sadness makes of me That I have much ado to know myself . (MOV 1.1. 1--7)' </P> <P> His friends try to guess the origin and nature of his condition by questioning him . First they inquire as to whether or not he is worried about his investments . When he insists that is not the reason they ask if he is in love which he is also quick to dismiss . It is then speculated that perhaps he has a strange temperament as some people do . This pair quickly exits to make way for Bassanio who is accompanied by his friends Lorenzo and Gratiano . Lorenzo cannot get in a word for the boisterous Gratiano who makes sport of Antonio's melancholy telling him that he is too serious and that he himself would rather go through life acting foolish . After Lorenzo and Gratiano leave Bassanio tries to put Antonio: Well, tell me now, what lady is the same To whom you swore a secret pilgrimage That you today promised to tell me of? (MOV 1.1. 119--121) </P>

Antonio the real hero of merchant of venice