In A Merchant of Venice, is Portia the one who saves Antonio from Shylock's condition to the debt?

To answer your question you need to return to Act IV scene
1 of this great play. This is the famous court scene, where Antonio is taken before the
Duke to hear the case that Shylock has against him and Portia, dressed as the young
learned lawyer, seeks to defend him from Shylock's completion of the debt that he so
foolishly made. Portia shows herself to be incredibly skillful in the wording of the
law, as it is her discovery of the loophole in the bond that Shylock is so determined to
hold on to that effectively allows Antonio to escape his punishment. Note what she says
that saves him:

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Tarry a little; there is something
else.

This bond doth give thee here no jot of
blood;

The words expressly are "a pound of
flesh."

Then take thy bond, take thou thy pound of
flesh;

But in the cutting it if thou dost
shed

One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and
goods

Are by the laws of Venice
confiscate

Unto the state of
Venice.

With these words, it
is Portia, disguised as the lawyer, who saves Antonio from having a pound of his flesh
removed from his body by Shylock, who is intent on vengeance.