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Act 5, Scene 3
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Jew of Malta, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
God and Machiavellianism
Religious Hypocrisy
Anti-Semitism
Money and Greed
Betrayal and Revenge
Summary
Analysis
Ferneze enters with Martin Del Bosco and several knights. Ferneze readies the men for the feast and tells them to come to his aid only after they hear cannon fire. If the men do as they are told, Ferneze promises that they will be free. The men run off to await the cannon signal, telling Ferneze that they would rather die than live as slaves to the Turks.
Presumably, Barabas’s plan has nothing to do with Bosco and Ferneze’s men, and Ferneze’s order for the men to rush to his aid at the sound of cannon fire suggests that he is doing his own scheming and plans to betray Barabas.
Themes
