The bigger you are, the harder you fall?

If I were to be creating a commonplace book for just Act I of The Merchant of Venice, a category that I think would be quite fitting would be that of "Suffering & Wealth." Typically, suffering is not something that one might attribute to being wealthy, but is something that is portrayed again and again throughout the three scenes in Act I. Graziano says it well when addressing Antonio who seems to be melancholy.

You look not well, Signor Antonio.
You have too much respect upon the world.
They lose it that do buy it with much care.
Believe me, you are marvellously changed. (1.1.73-76)

In this passage he is telling Antonio that people with too much invested in the world hurt and suffer more than others. Antonio is a very wealthy man with big ships carrying precious cargo all over the world. This kind of wealth gives one great power. However, what Graziano is saying is that someone that possesses as much as Antonio stands to lose more than someone without these possessions. I happen to think that he is right but still cannot help but to consider how ironic it is that we, as humans, strive on power and money. In fact, it is nearly impossible to live without money. Graziano's insightful advice to Antonio implies that having money and power isn't all that it is cracked up to be because the more you have, the more you can lose. We see another instance of this very principle later in Act I when we meet Portia and learn of her situation.

In 1.2 we meet Nerissa and Portia for the first time. Nerissa, while speaking to Portia, offers the same insight that Graziano had offered to Antonio.

You would be, sweet madam, if your miseries were in the same abundance as your good fortunes are; and yet, for aught I see, they are as sick that surfeit with too much as they that starve with nothing. It is no mean happiness, therefore, to be seated in the mean. Superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer. (1.2.3-8)

Nerissa is telling Portia that one with too much fortune suffers just as much as someone with less fortune. She offers that it is best to be in the middle and that you'll live longer if you can find yourself in the middle. Portia, like Antonio, is a wealthy person. She is an heiress who also happens to be bound by her father's will after his death. She is someone that has so much and nearly nothing at the same time. She has great wealth and therefore power but it all means nothing because she doesn't have choice. She isn't able to choose the life she will lead since her father's death and she isn't able to choose her husband because her father has made it so he does it for her even after death. Like Antonio, Portia is a great example of losing more because you have more.

I also find it somewhat curious that both Graziano and Nerissa offer such insightful advice to Antonio and Portia. Curious because it is quite apparent that both Graziano and Nerissa are not as wealthy as Antonio and Portia and therefore their arguments may help them to find acceptance of their less-fortunate situations. It is also ironic that Graziano and Nerissa end up getting married later in the play. If they live by the logic they have set forth for Antonio and Portia, they should live happily ever after...I just wonder if Portia and Antonio will?