The Jew of Malta: Analysis of Setting
"The Jew of Malta" is a play set on the strategically significant island of Malta, located in the Mediterranean Sea. This island has a rich history of foreign occupation, notably by the Ottoman Turks, who are depicted as besieging Malta during the play's timeframe, which is governed by the Christian Knights of St. John. The setting is crucial as it reflects the tension between different cultures and religions. Central to the narrative is Barabas's house, the residence of a wealthy Jewish merchant named Barabas, who finds himself at odds with the local government after refusing to convert to Christianity. His home transforms from a symbol of his wealth into a Roman Catholic convent after the governor seizes his property as punishment. The dual levels of the convent create a dramatic interplay between characters, particularly between Barabas and his daughter Abigail, who both navigate themes of loyalty and betrayal. Throughout the play, Barabas's desire for revenge and the retrieval of his hidden wealth drives the plot, illustrating the vulnerabilities of both the island's inhabitants and their physical spaces. The setting not only serves as a backdrop but also enriches the themes of conflict, identity, and moral ambiguity present in the narrative.
The Jew of Malta: Analysis of Setting
First published: 1633
First produced: c. 1589
Type of work: Drama
Type of plot: Tragedy
Time of work: Fifteenth century
Asterisk denotes entries on real places.
Places Discussed
*Malta
*Malta. Small Mediterranean island group south of Sicily on which the entire play is set. Because of its strategic location in the Mediterranean, Malta was occupied by a succession of foreign powers, including the Ottoman Turks, who are besieging the island at the time in which the play is set, when the island has a Christian government ruled by the Knights of St. John.
Barabas’s house
Barabas’s house. Home of the wealthy merchant of the play’s title, Barabas, who alienates Malta’s governor by refusing to convert to Christianity or to give the government half of his property. The governor seizes his property to punish him, and transforms his home into a Roman Catholic convent, in which Barabas’s daughter Abigail is entered as a novice. Much of the play’s plot revolves around Barabas’s efforts to retrieve sacks of gold he has hidden under his house’s floor and to exact his revenge.
The convent’s upper and lower levels make for an effective scene on the stage with two voices in the dark. Barabas is on the lower level eulogizing his gold; Abigail is above eulogizing her father. Like the island itself, this protective enclosure is vulnerable; Barabas poisons everyone within his house, including his own daughter.
Barabas also has a second house, which he uses as a secret center for plotting against the city, its officers, and the nuns who occupy his first house.
Bibliography
Bartels, Emily C. “Malta, the Jew, and the Fictions of Difference: Colonialist Discourse in Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta.” English Literary Renaissance 20 (1990): 1-16. An excellent Marxist reading of the text that posits imperialism as the controlling discourse and Malta as the object of the colonizer’s lust.
Bowers, Fredson Thayer. Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy: 1587-1642. Gloucester, Mass.: P. Smith, 1959. Asserts that Barabas fails as a tragic hero because he avenges a material wrong with murder, because his motives are petty and treacherous, and because his demise is unconnected to his revenge.
Danson, Lawrence. “Christopher Marlowe: The Questioner.” English LiteraryRenaissance 12 (1982): 3-29. Argues that the play is written in an interrogative mode. Characters ask questions without pausing for answers. These rhetorical questions draw the audience into the answering process.
Deats, Sara Munson, and Lisa S. Starks. “‘So neatly plotted, and so well perform’d’: Villain as Playwright in Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta.” Theatre Journal 44, no. 3 (October, 1992): 375-389. Examines the significance of the play’s metadramatic elements, its ambivalent attitude toward the theater and toward role-playing, arguing that these elements are a reflection of the violent debate raging in Shakespeare’s time about the moral worth of the theater, and that they shed new light on Barabas’ motives.
Rothstein, Eric. “Structure as Meaning in The Jew of Malta.” Journal of English and Germanic Philology 65 (1966): 260-273. Views the play as ironic parody and demonstrates this reading through an analysis of language and action. The play parodies the Bible, the pastoral, the code of friendship, and Catholicism, using Barabas to expose the weaknesses of other characters.