There is a good amoun of characters who might be the merchant of Venice. For starters, I always thought of a Merchant as being a seller of goods, food, etc. I also always thought that the merchants would be of the lower class in this day and age making them poorer. This theory knocks out characters like Portia (who is definitely not poor), Nerissa (who we hear talking and hangs around Portia but is not an important character), and Bassanio ( who is more of a borrower and buyer because of all of the money he took from Antonio leaving him broke).
First person up would be Antonio. Antonio was refered to in the court scene as "the merchant" by Portia when she asks: "which is the merchant here and which the Jew?". By "Jew" she meant Shylock because he is the only Jewish character in that scene and it narrows it down even more, when the Duke says: "Antonio and old Shylock, both stand forth.". Shylock is therefore labeled as "the Jew" and Antonio is labeled as "the merchant". This was just a thought that came to mind listening to the reenactment of this scene as portrayed by Mr. Gonzales and the class. He pointed to Isabella who was playing Antonio every time he said "merchant".
Second and last person would be Shylock. Shylock is a merchant to his own personal gain, by gain, I mean that he is so bent on revenge and on getting this poun of flesh from Antonio that he would spend almost every waking moment to kill him. He also cared more about his money and jewels than his daughter when she ran away with a good amount of his life's savings. These would be the two characters that would be winning either 1st or 2nd place as he merchant of Venice.
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