Assignment of Drama

Topic:

Comparison between the Merchant of Venice and Jew of Malta

Submitted To:

Respected! Sir Qamar

Submitted By:

Aqsa javaid

Roll no. :

20

Class:

M.A English-II (SS-1)

(Department of English Language and Literature)

Comparison between the Merchant of Venice and the Jew of Malta

It is clear to see the similarities between the plays The Jew of Malta by
Christopher Marlowe and The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. Marlowe
is thought to have been a contemporary of Shakespeare and he would have looked
towards Shakespeare and his famous comedy for inspiration for his own work. One of
the most significant similarities between the two plays is their Jewish characters,
Barabas from The Jew of Malta and Shylock from The Merchant of Venice.
However, it is said that Barabas is the more extreme version of Shylock. In this essay,
the similarities and differences between these two Jews will be discussed with reference
to the two plays.

I think the reputation of the Jew of Malta as an anti-Semitic play rests on the
absolutely immoral and stereotypically evil character of Barabas and the contrast with
the Merchant of Venice and its more nuanced portrayal of Shylock who can be and
now usually is portrayed sympathetically. No such sympathetic performance of
Barabas is conceivable. However, the key to the Jew of Malta is that none of the other
characters are any better -- indeed, all of them prove at least as bad if not worse than
Barabas himself. Ithamore, a Turkish Muslim slave purchased by Barabas, proves
more vicious, murderous and immoral than his master, although also much less
intelligent. The continuously invading Turks have a master plan to turn the entire
Maltese population into galley slaves. As for the Christians in the play, I would argue
that at every stage they outdo both the Jews and the Muslims in avarice, hypocrisy,
violence and sheer unmitigated badness.

Research on this topic spreads wide, with critics arguing for both sides of the
argument. Many dispute whether it is Shakespeare’s play or Marlowe’s that holds the
anti-Semitic tones. Other controversies arise when looking at how the Jew is used
within the play—as someone to look down upon or as a balance to the hypocritical
Christians in Italy. Evidence is in wide abundance for each side of the spectrum.

Both The Merchant of Venice and The Jew of Malta are set in Italy, as
noted in their respective titles. It’s late in the 16th century and Jews are looked upon
as money hoarders who will end up in hell because they do not believe that Christ is
the Messiah. The Jews, in turn, view the Christians as hypocrites, which leads to
Shylock’s speech in act 3, scene 1:

He hath disgrace me and rendered me half

A million, laughed at my losses, mocked my gains,
Scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my
Friends, heated mine enemies—and what’s his reason? I

Am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes, hath not a Jew hands…? (44-48)

If you prick us, do we not bleed? (53)

This speech allows the viewer to sympathize with the treatment of Shylock in society,
though this pity is later lost when his pound of flesh from Antonio demands Shylock.

In each of the plays, one of the central characters is a Jew who has a beautiful
daughter. In The Merchant of Venice it is Shylock and his daughter Jessica and in The
Jew of Malta it is Barabas and his daughter Abigail. The two Jewish men are similar
as they both deal with money, Shylock as a lender and Barabas as a merchant. They
both reside in Italy and have stakes in ships that are at sea, Shylock through the
money he has lent to Bassanio and Barabas through his own stock on ships.

Jo McMurty determined that Shylock and Barabas must have been derived
from the same closed-minded stereotypes of Jews that existed at the time, which
might explain the similarities between the two Jewish characters:

“They arranged loans at high interest and exhorted payments from helpless
victims. [Each also] had a beautiful Jewish daughter who wanted nothing more
than to be rescued from her cultural fate by a handsome Christian” (147).

Wilbur Sanders, in his book “Barabas and the Historical Jew in Europe,”
agrees with McMurty saying that the Jews in each of the plays were based on popular
myths of Jews at the time that said Jews

“Were in the habit of stealing Christian children, crucifying them, and using
their blood in the Passover ritual” (344).
 Research on this topic spreads wide, with critics arguing for both sides of the
argument. Many dispute whether it is Shakespeare’s play or Marlowe’s that holds the
anti-Semitic tones. Other controversies arise when looking at how the Jew is used
within the play—as someone to look down upon or as a balance to the hypocritical
Christians in Italy. Evidence is in wide abundance for each side of the spectrum.

Both The Merchant of Venice and The Jew of Malta are set in Italy, as noted
in their respective titles. It’s late in the 16th century and Jews are looked upon as
money hoarders who will end up in hell because they do not believe that Christ is the
Messiah. The Jews, in turn, view the Christians as hypocrites, which leads to
Shylock’s speech in act 3, scene 1:

He hath disgrace me and rendered me half

A million, laughed at my losses, mocked my gains,
Scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my
Friends, heated mine enemies—and what’s his reason? I

Am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes, hath not a Jew hands…? (44-48)

If you prick us, do we not bleed? (53)

This speech allows the viewer to sympathize with the treatment of Shylock in society,
though this pity is later lost when his pound of flesh from Antonio demands Shylock.

In each of the plays, one of the central characters is a Jew who has a beautiful
daughter. In The Merchant of Venice it is Shylock and his daughter Jessica and in The
Jew of Malta it is Barabas and his daughter Abigail. The two Jewish men are similar
as they both deal with money, Shylock as a lender and Barabas as a merchant. They
both reside in Italy and have stakes in ships that are at sea, Shylock through the
money he has lent to Bassanio and Barabas through his own stock on ships.
Jo McMurty determined that Shylock and Barabas must have been derived from the
same closed-minded stereotypes of Jews that existed at the time, which might explain
the similarities between the two Jewish characters:

“They arranged loans at high interest and exhorted payments from helpless
victims. [Each also] had a beautiful Jewish daughter who wanted nothing more
than to be rescued from her cultural fate by a handsome Christian” (147).

Wilbur Sanders, in his book “Barabas and the Historical Jew in Europe,” agrees with
McMurty saying that the Jews in each of the plays were based on popular myths of
Jews at the time that said Jews

“Were in the habit of stealing Christian children, crucifying them, and using
their blood in the Passover ritual” (344).

There can be many similarities drawn to both the character Shylock in

Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, and Barabas in the Jew of Malta. However
besides the obvious fact that they were both Jews, and the common stereo-types that
were attributed to both of them such as being miserly and conniving, there are gaping
differences in the dynamics of the characters themselves.

“There are profound differences in Barabas and Shylock. The role assigned to by
Shakespeare to his Christian characters is far more extensive; his Jew on the other
hand has been scaled down and domesticated. Shylock has none of the insatiable
ambition that makes Barabas for all his grotesque acts, a character along the lines
of the great Faustus and Tamburlaine.”(Shylock,21)

There is a much greater roundness in Barabas then Shylock. Marlowe portrays

Barabas the Jew in a dynamic and somewhat curios manner. It is difficult to surmise
Marlowe’s intent when portraying the Jew, yet it is certain that there is more than what
seems topically apparent. It is very clear that he is an outsider, not only in the obvious
aspect that he is a Jew in the less than theologically tolerant and politically correct
Elizabethan drama, but he is also an outsider in terms of evil and his mode of thought.
He is obviously a villain, lying cheating, poisoning a entire nunnery, even killing those
we thought were close to him, including his daughter, yet through his Machiavellian
quest for power and riches we somehow become almost endeared to him and he
becomes an anti-hero. All these aspects combine to make Barabas a character that we
are somehow drawn to in the same way people are drawn to stare at a traffic accident.

Barabas too cares more for his money than for his daughter, forcing her to
become a nun in order to retrieve some of his fortune from his old house.

He is ecstatic when his daughter returns with his money in act 2, scene 1,
and cries “O girl, O gold, O beauty, and O bliss!” (54).

Though he is excited to see his daughter, his gold seems to be more important
than her. “O beauty, O bliss,” could refer to either his love of his daughter or his
money, though the latter seems more fitting for his character. Barabas sacrifices
Jessica a second time when he uses her beauty to play two men into killing each other
to exact revenge on Ferneze who made him hand over his money and his house.

The theme of Judaism versus Christianity exists in each of the plays. In The
Merchant of Venice, Shylock is shown as a grisly selfish Jew who refuses to take
even double the money owed to him, instead demanding the flesh. He only becomes
human when his own life is threatened, and even gives in and converts to Christianity
to save his life, but only as a last resort. Shylock uses his religion prior to his
conversion as a justification for asking for the flesh.