Gold Symbol Analysis

Nearly every character in The Jew of Malta lusts for gold, which in the play is symbolic of wealth, power and the greed that often comes along with it. Barabas is the richest Jew in Malta, and even though he is hated in 16th-centry Malta’s anti-Semitic society, he is respected for his wealth. Barabas’s enormous stockpile of gold gives him power in a bigoted society that otherwise dismisses him, and he would rather be hated as Jew than “pitied in a Christian poverty.” Ferneze, Malta’s governor, is also in search of gold to pay the tribute money owed to Selim-Calymath and the Turks, and Ferneze intends to pay using only the gold he exploits from Malta’s Jews. Of course, Ferneze keeps the money he takes from the Jews and never pays Calymath, a greedy decision not unlike how Bellamira (a prostitute) and Pilia-Borza (a thief) plan to extort Barabas’s gold through his Turkish slave, Ithamore. Indeed, most of Marlowe’s characters are motivated by gold, and in their unchecked greed, they will stop at nothing to secure the wealth and power that gold provides.

While his cast of covetous characters suggests that greed is an inherent human trait, Marlowe nevertheless implies that greed and the constant search for gold and wealth is a recipe for disaster that will likely lead to undue suffering, for it is the greediest characters in the play who meet the most gruesome ends. Friars Jacomo and Bernardine condemn Barabas as a Jew, but they try to convert him to fill their parish coffers with gold, and they are ultimately murdered—Barabas and Ithamore strangle Bernardine with a belt, and Jacomo is hanged for the crime. It isn’t long after Pilia-Borza visits Barabas and demands that he “must ha’ more gold” that Barabas murders Pilia-Borza, along with his greedy partners, Ithamore and Bellamira. Even Barabas succumbs to his desire for gold when he schemes with Ferneze to kill Calymath and the Turks in exchange for “great sums of money.” But Ferneze double-crosses Barabas and kills him instead of Calymath, dropping Barabas through his own trapdoor and into the boiling cauldron below. Like the other greedy characters, Barabas’s lust for gold ultimately leads to his untimely death, underscoring Marlowe’s warning against the dangers of greed and humankind’s innate tendency for covetousness.