Antonio

In Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, Antonio acts as a multifaceted character.  On the surface, or at least to his friends, he seems like a kind, compassionate being.  He treats his friends with the utmost respect and would do anything for them: "Within the eye of honor, be assured my purse, my person, my extremest means lie all unlocked to your occasions" (I.i.137-139).  In the end, when his dear friend, Bassanio, needs money to pursue his love, Antonio signs the loan.  The punishment of that loan would be losing a pound of his own flesh.  It is clear he must feel very fondly of his friends and that friendship is extremely important to him.  In fact, there is even a time when he tells Bassanio that doubting their friendship is even worse than making him bankrupt: "And out of doubt you do me now more wrong in making question of my uttermost than if you had made waste of all I have" (I.i.155-157).
Though to his friends he will sacrifice all that he has, including his life, Antonio is not accepting of others, especially Shylock and other people of the Jewish faith.  He often implies that Jews are not nice like Christians are, such as when he says, "The Hebrew will turn Christian.  He grows kind" (I.iii.175).  He continues saying that it is truly impossible for Jewish people to have soft hearts, saying that "You may as well do anything most hard, as seek to soften that--than which what's harder?--His Jewish heart," which is fairly ironic and hypocritical considering how cruel that is (IV.i.78-80).
The reader is then forced to question how nice of a character Antonio actually is.  Though he would sacrifice anything for his friends, he refuses to like Jews.  This goes hand in hand with the argument about Shakespeare himself being antisemitic; Did he view poorly of Jews, or was it just the overall societal viewpoint of the group?

Complexity in The Merchant of Venice

Shylock from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice is entirely filled with complexity.  He is the embodiment of the antisemitism of the time period. The reader is made to not like him as a character since he is portrayed as a cruel brute, following different Jewish stereotypes.  First of all, he is seen as unkind and not accepting of others: "I hate him for he is a Christian"  (I.iii.36).  In addition, he stereotypically worships and loves money, especially in comparison to his daughter: "I would my daughter were dead at my foot and the jewels in her ear!  Would she were hearsed at my foot and the ducats in her coffin" (III.i.75-77).  He views his money and jewels as much more important than his daughter's life which is a stereotypical view of the Jewish people.  His complexity really is portrayed when he begins to question all of these negative views of him.  He asks questions that would even be considered relevant to Jews, or any other minority group, today: "Hath not a Jew eyes?  Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?  Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed with the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is?  If you prick us, do we not bleed?  If you tickle us, do we not laugh?  If you poison us, do we not die?" (III.i.48-54).  For simply a moment in the whole play, Shylock is seen as something other than a brute.  He questions humanity like we as a people do every day, just with different minorities.