The Jew of Malta
28. Christopher Marlowe, The Jew of Malta
In this play, written by one of Shakespeare’s most famous contemporaries, the eponymous Jew is a greedy man named Barabas. He has spent his life amassing a vast fortune and is now the richest man in Malta - that is, until the governor decides to seize half the wealth of all the Jews in Malta so that he can pay off a debt to the Turks. When Barabas refuses to give up half his wealth, the stern governor decides to take it all. Enraged, Barabas concocts various dastardly schemes of revenge that eventually lead to widespread death and destruction.
I was very impressed with the multiple layers of meaning in this play. Even on the most superficial, obvious level, there’s an interesting plot with lots of action (and quite a bit of gore!), but there are also several literary and religious allusions which I found extremely interesting. Although Barabas is unquestionably an evil character, I don’t see this play as anti-Semitic at all; while there are plenty of slams at Jews, there are an equal number of insults directed at Christians! Barabas may be a “villain,” but he is clearly not the only one - in fact, none of the characters come off very well, with the possible exception of Barabas’ daughter Abigail. I was also interested to see many little parallels between this work and some of Shakespeare’s (Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, and especially The Merchant of Venice). Since I don’t know the exact chronology of the plays, I don’t know who was stealing ideas from whom, but I couldn’t help but laugh when I noticed some of the similarities. I think that fans of the Elizabethan era should definitely read this play!