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?