Like the moneylender, the merchant struggles to find a place in the play’s whitewashed romantic world of Act 5: as so often, these adversaries are more similar than they initially appear. There is no place for Antonio at the end of the play, no marriage partner to bookend his opening declarations of sadness with contentment. One reason that there is no resolution of the play’s central triangle may indeed be unrequited homosexuality in the character of Antonio – and perhaps of Bassanio too. Another might be the structure of mercantilism itself. Throughout the play its titular merchant adds
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