BASSANIO

Word Bank
loyal spendthrift determined emotional loving dramatic
romantic peaceful materialistic irrational rash naïve
charming hopeless immature loyal devoted impetuous
desperate Foolish insecure sincere superficial devoted
admirable temperamental affable serious childish

Reliable mature courageous extravagant

Write a character description of Bassanio. Show how he has changed

throughout the play. Don’t forget to support what you say.
Plan your answer by using words from the word bank and find
quotes/incidents to support each word.
Focus on what the character does or how he behaves in each key scene.
What adjectives would you use to describe him? How does the character
react to situations?
At the beginning…
At the beginning of the play, Bassanio is seen to be selfish, irresponsible,
reckless and he is in great debt. His need to borrow money is the catalyst for the
play. We see his relationship with Antonio clearly from the very beginning. We
see their love for eachother and their unbreakable friendship. Bassanio speaks of
Antonio as ‘the dearest friend’ and ‘the kindest man’. When Antonio says he will
risk his life for Bassanio, he tries to stop him, but it is too late.
In the middle(development)…
As the play progresses, their friendship stays strong. The bad news about
Antonio’s losses and the dangers these expose him to ‘steals the colour from
Bassanio’s cheek’. When Antonio’s life is in danger, Bassanio hurries to Venice
to be at his side. We can question Bassanio’s intent on marrying Portia as he
describes her as ‘a lady richly left’ and, quite frankly, marrying her is the solution
to his problems as he will become wealthy too. However, his choice of casket
shows that he is clever and not fooled by outward appearances. Also, he does not
immediately claim his right to marry Portia which shows his respect for her.

At the end…
At the end of the play, Bassanio gets what he wanted – Antonio is safe, and he
achieves his goal by marrying Portia and becomes a wealthy man. However, he
may be caught in some sort of power struggle between his friend Antonio and his
wife Portia as he loves them both dearly but each of them feel entitled to more
love from him than the other.