Anti-Semitism Theme Analysis

Christopher Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta deals heavily with anti-Semitism. The play takes place in Malta, but Machevill, the play’s narrator, addresses an English audience in the prologue—and the rest of the play likewise reflects the bigotry against Jewish people that permeated 16th-century English society. English society has a long history of anti-Semitism: in 1290, King Edward I issued the Edict of Expulsion, which officially expelled all Jews from England. The Edict of Expulsion remained in effect throughout the Middle Ages and was not overturned until 1657, several years after Marlowe wrote The Jew of Malta around 1589. In Marlowe’s play, Jewish people in Malta are regarded with a general disgust, and they are referred to as “strangers”—meaning their status as Jews prohibits them from being actual Maltese citizens. The Jewish community is repeatedly insulted, marginalized, and exploited without restraint or apology, and there is no indication that this abuse is an isolated event or will come to an end any time soon. With the depiction of society in The Jew of Malta, Marlowe underscores the anti-Semitism present in England during the 16th century; however, Marlowe’s overtly prejudiced representation of Jews also perpetuates the same hateful opinions and misconceptions. 

The Jewish community is constantly mistreated and insulted throughout The Jew of Malta, which underscores the rampant anti-Semitism that Jews faced during the 16th century. When Ferneze, the governor of Malta, doesn’t have the money to pay the tribute owed to the Ottoman Empire, he issues a decree that “the tribute money of the Turks shall all be levied amongst the Jews.” Ferneze orders each Jew to pay half their total wealth, or else they forfeit their entire estate and must become Christians. Not only does Ferneze’s decree unfairly target the Jews, he also attempts to convert them, thereby decreasing the number of Jews in Malta. Ferneze’s decree reveals his general disgust for Jewish people and exposes a concerted attempt to eliminate Jews from society. Don Mathias, a local Christian, falls in love with Abigail, the daughter of Barabas, the richest Jew in Malta. However, Mathias is hesitant to act on his feelings. “I cannot stay,” Mathias tells Abigail, “for my if my mother come, / She’ll die with grief.” The implication here is that Katherine, Mathias’s mother, will not approve of Abigail because she is Jewish. As Marlowe’s target audience was 16th-century English society (which openly rejected the Jewish community in keeping with the Edict of Expulsion), they likely would have sympathized with Mathias’s mother. Thus, Katherine’s presumed “grief” again underscores the widespread bias against the Jewish community in 16th-century England. Lastly, after the Turks take over Malta and make Barabas governor, Ferneze openly laments his plight. “Oh fatal day to fall into the hands / Of such a traitor and unhallowed Jew!” Ferneze cries. “What greater misery could heaven inflict?” The conquering of Malta and Ferneze’s subsequent imprisonment is made worse by way of Barabas’s Jewish identity, once more illustrating the anti-Semitic sentiments of England during the 1500s. As Jews were largely condemned in England during the time the play was written, a Jew in a position of political power would have been viewed by the people of England as both absurd and detrimental to society.

Additionally, Marlowe’s protagonist, Barabas, embodies only the most offensive Jewish stereotypes, a representation that further bolsters the hateful prejudice that pervades the play, and, so it goes, real-life English society. Jewish people were not accepted in England during the 1500s, and they were often represented in offensive ways. As an Englishman targeting an English audience, Marlowe’s description of Barabas reflects this same bigotry. When Machevill opens the play, he says he will “present the tragedy of a Jew, / Who smiles to see how full his bags are crammed, / Which money was not got without my means.” Marlowe implies that Machevill is the ghost of Niccolò Machiavelli—a deceased Italian diplomat famous for his corrupt political practices generally known as Machiavellianism—and Machevill further implies that Barabas obtained his wealth through unscrupulous means, an implication that aligns with society’s anti-Semitic assumption that wealthy Jewish people are dishonest and conniving. Throughout the play, Marlowe repeatedly mentions Barabas’s enormous nose, which is a reference to the offensive stereotype that all Jews have a large, hooked nose. Many people of Mediterranean descent have the facial features Marlowe attributes to Barabas, not just Jews. Still, the representation of large and unattractive noses persists in the caricature of the Jewish community, which further reflects the widespread anti-Semitism of the 16th century. What’s more, Barabas is completely depraved and corrupt, and he murders an entire convent of nuns—including his own daughter, Abigail—without batting an eye. Barabas is a despicable man completely lacking a moral compass, and he is the epitome of the stereotypical “wicked Jew” that Marlowe’s Christian characters both despise and fear, a harmful representation that perpetuates the same hateful stereotypes.  

While many literary scholars have argued that The Jew of Malta depicts anti-Semitism to expose and overcome such hatefulness, Marlowe’s overtly stereotypical representation of Barabas complicates this interpretation. Barabas is ultimately killed at the end of the play (one of his schemes backfires and he falls into a boiling cauldron meant for Selim-Calymath, the son of the invading Turkish Emperor), but it is difficult to view Barabas’s untimely death as tragic. It is impossible to sympathize with Barabas and his contemptible ways, regardless of the unfair way in which he and the other Jews are treated. While it may be argued that Marlowe intended to condemn anti-Semitism through The Jew of Malta, his play undeniably bolsters the very same bigotry and harmful stereotypes he may have sought to expose.