Shakespeare and Spark Notes

I just finished reading The Merchant of Venice yesterday and besides the seeming anti-Semitism it's a good show. While reading Shakespeare's history plays I got in the habit of reading a synopsis of the play after finishing it to see if I had it all straight in my head, a few plays back I discovered Spark Notes (SN) and I wish I had found it when I first started reading my way through Shakespeare, it's really a great resource. The SN page address the antisemitism in this play and shows that in the context of the plays of Shakespeare's time he actually presents a human side to what would be considered a stock character (the evil Jew). It's this Jew (Shylock) that utters the now famous line, "If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die?" So while Shylock is the heavy in this show and is stereotypical he also elicits some sympathy. Another point that SN highlights that I completely missed is the possibility that Antonio (the title merchant) has a repressed homosexual attachment to the lead male, Bassanio. The female lead, Portia, is a great character and according to SN one of Shakespeare's first strong female roles. It's neat to note that the three main women of the show go in drag at one point or another, a regular Shakespearean device, which would have been very funny in his time since, of course, all the female roles were played by men. So you had men playing women dressed as men. In the end all is well and everyone is happy and in love, except for poor Shylock and Antonio.