How Antonio is a good man?

Answer 1

Which Antonio do you refer to? There are five of them in Shakespeare's plays, not even counting Mark Antony, after whom all the others are named.

Antonio in The Two Gentlemen of Verona is Proteus's father. He is neither a villain nor a victim.

Antonio in The Tempest is Prospero's brother and is a villain.

Antonio in The Merchant of Venice is the victim selected by Shylock to be the scapegoat for all the wrongs Christians have done to him. But he is also villainous; it is he that insists on Shylock's apostasy so as to destroy his soul as well as take away the use of his property, and it is also he that insists that Bassiano break his vow to his wife over the wedding ring.

Antonio is Twelfth Night is Sebastian's friend and a victim in that he suffers arrest for Sebastian's sake. It would appear that Orsino's hatred of him is unjustified.

Antonio in Much Ado About Nothing is Leonato's brother, a kindly old buffer who is neither victim or villain.

And to round things out, Antony is a villain in Julius Caesar but a victim in Antony and Cleopatra.

So, out of six Antonios, one is a victim, one is a villain, two are both and two are neither.