The Merchant of Venice shows the dynamics of love and the extent to which humans will go to show their love, they will use their wealth and even be willing to give their lives for the people they 'they love. Antonio and Portia love Bassanio differently. Portia perceives Antonio's phileo in competition with his eros (the two forms of love will be defined later) and throughout the play she is seen trying to overcome Antonio's phileo and she does so by subduing Antonio , first with her wealth she offers to pay his debt to Shylock is three times the amount he had pledged, then she saves his life and finally teaches Bassanio that she can use her feminine powers to deny him the power consummate in marriage, through the saga of the ring. There are two reasons why this The article rejects the notion of homosexuality between Antonio and Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice. First, throughout the play there is no evidence that Antonio and Bassanio had an intimate physical relationship. The reason Bassanio wants to go to Belmont "for a richly left lady" is to have this intimate physical relationship with Portia, thus rejecting the idea that Bassanio has homoerotic feelings for Antonio. And secondly, the word love can have a multiplicity of meanings which, if not well understood, can lead to considering Bassanio and Antonio's friendship as homoerotic. For the purposes of this discussion, we will define the word love in terms of two Greek words, both of which mean love, but in two different senses. The two that are relevant to this article are phileo and eros. Love –phileo “means to have affection (a feeling or sentiment) for. A condition based in the heart. What the Greeks meant by love Phileo is what we normally mean when we say "brotherly love" (E...... middle of paper ......res leads us to betray our responsibilities and relationships" and this is exactly what Bassanio does to Antonio, to be able to establish an erotic relationship with Portia, he almost puts his friend's life in danger and at the same time he does not offer his wife the commitment she expects of him in their marriage this play also shows that marriage comes with a responsibility, that when you get married, you have to realign your priorities by giving primary importance to your partners And finally, Shakespeare in this play has placed a woman. above the patriarchy that wields much of the power in the play, whether Bassanio or Antonio His wealth and stealth to force Bassanio to realign his commitment shows that it is not only men who are capable of subjugating women. , but that women have the same capacity to do so. even.