Listen, you all know, I love Shakespeare, but holy shit I have never read one of his plays where I disliked every single "good guy" as much as The Merchant of Venice. ice-cold take but this play is skin-crawling. I don't regret putting off reading it for so long!
I DO regret that nobody ever mentioned what a complete piece of garbage Antonio is! All I ever heard is that he and Bassanio are kinda gay, which is true, but CHRIST does Antonio suck. Every single time he is given an opportunity to make a choice he goes for the worst one.