COMPARISON OF FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN SEBASTIAN AND ANTONIO

AND BETWEEN BASSANIO AND ANTONIO

 

         First of all, we are going to place the characters of Sebastian and Antonio in the play Twelfth Night. Sebastian is Viola’s twin brother, he was lost in a shipwreck and he was found by Antonio. Both arrive to Illyria, where Sebastian’s sister is. When they arrive Sebastian realises that a lot of people think that they know him; probably because his sister has disguised herself as him (but he does not know this). Moreover, at the end of the story we can see that Olivia wants to marry Sebastian.

 

         In the Merchant of Venice, Bassanio is in love with Portia, but he needs money to go to Belmont, where Portia is, and chooses the right casket which will able him to marry her. Although he has not much money, Antonio loans Bassanio money but he borrows it from Shylock, a moneylender. If Antonio does not return the money in three months, Shylock will cut out him a pound of flesh. After these three months, Antonio can not return the money, so Bassanio returns from Belmont in order to avoid his death. Thanks to the help of a young law clerk, who is in fact Portia disguised, Antonio is saved. Then Bassanio returns to Belmont with Antonio, there he will have to explain Portia what has happened with her ring; since he had promised her that he would never part of it and he is not wearing it. So Portia is very disappointed since he has broken the promise. Nevertheless, as Antonio promises her that Bassanio will not give the ring again, she decides to give him another chance.

 

         Sebastian and Antonio are close friends the same as Bassanio and Antonio. The first common feature that draws our attention from these two couples is that the name Antonio is used in both. In Twelfth Night Antonio is the one who is fond of Sebastian (and he will marry Olivia), and in the Merchant of Venice Antonio is fond of Bassanio (who marries Portia). As we can observe and we will see, in these relationships there is not only friendship, there is something more beyond it.

 

         In the Merchant of Venice we know more about the relationship between Antonio and Bassanio than we do in Twelfth Night about Antonio and Sebastian. This probably happens because their relationship is important for the plot of the play and because both are important characters too. Even there are experts who think that the main action is focused on the fight between Portia and Antonio for Bassanio’s love. In Twelfth Night the relationship between Antonio and Sebastian is also important, but the plot focuses more on the relationship between Viola, Olivia and Orsino. On the other hand, in this play we could say that all the characters are important, there are not secondary ones. Probably this is the reason why the plot focuses more on the confusion between Viola (disguised as Cesario) and Sebastian and the consequences this has on the other characters.

 

         Now, we could pay attention to the first words of Antonio in the Merchant of Venice, which are very interesting:

 

                                               In sooth, I know not why I am so sad.

                                               It wearies me, you say it wearies you;

                                               But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,

                                               What stuff ‘tis made of, whereof it is born,

                                               I am to learn;

                                               And such a want-wit sadness makes of me

                                               That I have much ado to know myself.

                                                                                    (MV Act I.i, 1-7)

 

         As we can see, Antonio is sad, he does not know the cause, even he thinks that he does not know himself. But while we are reading the play, we will deduce that this sadness is due to Bassanio’s love to Portia. In my opinion, starting the play with Antonio’s feeling of pain indicates us that that is something important. So we start to know that this is more than a relationship of friendship.

 

         On the other hand, in Twelfth Night we can not find a statement of pain because of love. But what we find is disappointment, especially when Antonio defends Sebastian since he has risked his life defending him, and after this he is taken by Orsino’s officers and Sebastian does not do anything, even he acts as if he did not know Antonio. In fact it is true because it is Viola, dressed as her brother, who is there and not Sebastian.

 

                                               Thou hast, Sebastian, done good feature shame.

                                               In nature there’s no blemish but the mind:

                                               None can be called deformed but the unkind.

                                               Virtue is beauty, but the beauteous-evil

                                               Are empty trunks, o’er-flourished by the devil.

                                                                                              (TN Act III.ii, 317-321)

 

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