Except Antonio's far from innocent. In their first scene together, we learn that Antonio and Shylock have had a long history, and that Antonio physically assaulted the man before spitting on him once. Remember, Shylock also believes that Antonio helped his daughter escape and remember again that his daughter robbed him blind and took almost everything he had, including the one thing he remembered his wife by. By the end of this play, Shylock has lost everything, including his identity.
I cannot tell how much I like the words of Antonio, when he tells his friends, that they could as well sue the roaring sea to be quiet than to implore mercy from Shylock, the Jew; not only that the verses are poetically very well crafted but one can also employ them in everyday life if one is being confronted with ridiculous demands like stop to using quotes or not to do that or say this and so on.
People empathise when he hobbles out of the court, having to support his daughter who betrayed him, Antonio, who bullied him constantly, winning against him, and the one thing he treasured most taken away from him, the one thing that made him clarify himself from others: his religion. A last scene in one of the films was of him staring into the synagogue, but he can't take go inside. Surely one could pity him then? But yes, he has an evil charcteristic too, but that is not his only attribute....
It just irritated me that one would promptly assume that Shylock was a bad-hearted person, by the old cliché of "goodie and baddie". Shakespeare develops both characters well. If I am correct, another playwright around this time wrote about the Jews also. I believe that the Jew who featured in that play was an evil human who longed for the suffering of others. However, we see Shylock's vulnerable and feeble side, and most of its audience or readers would feel some sympathy for the old broken man
