Three Love-Affairs in the Play:
There are three-affairs in The Merchant of Venice. Each love-affair possesses its own peculiar quality. There is the love-affair of Bassanio and Portia. There is the love-affairs of Jessica and Lorenzo and there is also the love-affair of Nerissa and Gratiano.
Love-Affair of Bassanio and Portia:
When these three love-affairs are compared, it is found that the love-affair of Bassanio and Portia is the most outstanding. In his first speech of Antonio about his desire to win Portia as his wife, Bassanio does appear to us to be a kind of fortune-hunter or dowry seeker. It seems that he wants to win Portia as his wife because she is a rich heiress while he is a young man in straitened circumstances. But soon afterwards we find that he is not, after all, a money-grabber, or a greedy fellow looking for a wealthy woman by marrying whom he can enrich himself. He has found in Portia certain other qualities which have charmed him. That is why he becomes eloquent and poetic in comparing her to the golden fleece of ancient mythology and in comparing her to Brutus' Portia. And then, at Belmont, he really shows himself to be a true lover and not a dowry seeker. He does not wish to prolong his stay at Belmont unduly without trying his fortune. He feels that he would be undergoing a torture if he does not immediately enter the contest.
An Intense Love of Jessica and Lorenzo:
Jessica is a Jew while Lorenzo is a Christian. Knowing that her father would feel horrified and extremely angry at her having fallen in love with a Christian young man, Jessica runs away from home to marry Lorenzo. She has risked and hazarded all she hath. Fortunately succeeds in proving himself to true lover who recognises her excellence and who, therefore, resolves to remain always devoted to her. Any father in the position of Shylock would go mad with grief and anger. This is wholly romantic love which knows no bounds, no casteism, no religious boundaries. The truly romantic quality of this love-affair comes out in that moon-light scene in which they both speak alternatively about some of the famous love affair of ancient mythology.
Love-Affair of Nerissa and Gratiano:
In fact, there is nothing romantic in the love affair between Nerissa and Gratiano. Gratiano is fascinated by her refined manners and refined demeanour when he arrives at Belmont in Bassanio company. Gratiano is also a very intelligent man with a ready wit and a keen sense of humour. When Gratiano proposes marriage Nerissa gives a reply which is quite prosaic. She says that she would marry him if his lord namely Bassanio, is able to win her mistress, namely Portia. There is nothing poetic or intense in this kind of love. Both of them are practical minded. Their love is not a matter of passion. Though they love each other well enough but they are not madly or romantically in love as Jessica and Lorenzo. As a cheerful and witty spirit, Nerissa forms a good match with Gratiano, and that is why probably, they feel attracted towards each other when they meet at Belmont. Like Portia, Nerissa is equally ready-minded and humorous. Like Gratiano she is very wise and also quite shrewd in her insight into human nature and also in her observations about human character. Gratiano, though prosaic, in the love affair but he does not lack the sense of humour. When Bassanio wants to be known if he has secured any bride for himself, Bassanio's reply is remarkable-
"I thank your lordship, you have got me one,
My eyes, my lord, can look as swift as yours,
You saw the mistress, I beheld the maid,
You loved, I loved for intermission
No more pertains to me, my lord, than you.
Your fortune stood upon the caskets there.
And so did mine too, as the matter falls,
For wooing here until I sweat again,
And swearing till my very roof was dry
With oaths of love, at last-if promise last,
I got a promise of this fair one here,
To have her love, provided that your fortune
Achieved her mistress."
Finally, it can be observed that through love-affairs and the romantic elements of the play, we find Shakespeare's wise humanity, infectious gaiety or serene mirth, the piercing intensity of his passion and the splendour of his rhetoric, we must notice side by side, his amazing insight into human nature and the amazing fund of vitality with which he endows his characters. While reading we forget that the characters are more figments of imagination, puppets of poet's fancy and brain. They fall into stride beside us in the comfortable pathways of the world; their shadows haunt as forever; they become the companion of joys and sorrows, the object of our hopes and affections, the centre of our aspirations and passion
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