Is Bassanio worthy of being Portia's husband in The Merchant of Venice?

This is an excellent question that you are likely to
receive a wide range of answers for. However, my own personal feeling is that Bassanio
is yet another character in Shakespeare's plays that shows himself completely unworthy
of the wonderful, beautiful, intelligent and witty wife he ends up with. Let us just
review what we know about Bassanio: depending on how you wish to stage his relationship
with Antonio, he could be presented as callously manipulating Antonio into giving him
more money after he wasted the rest of the money he had from him. Let us remember that
it is this desire for money that leads Antonio to make his "merry bond" with Shylock in
the first place.

In addition, don't forget how Bassanio
talks about Portia when he reveals his plan to
Antonio:

There
is a lady richly left;

And she is fair and, fairer than
that word,

Of wondrous
virtues.

It is the wealth of
Portia that is mentioned first, then her beauty and virtues. Given the way in which
Bassanio has just admitted that he has wasted the money Antonio gave him before, it is
hard not to assume that he cynically wants Portia for her wealth alone. Even though
Bassanio manages to choose the correct casket, which perhaps indicates some good about
his character, it is Portia, not Bassanio, that engineers the revenge against Shylock
and the release of Antonio, and Bassanio is reduced to being a stand-in character during
the court scene whilst his wife takes the stage. Bassanio can be said to be nothing but
a weaker character when compared to his wife.