Critical paper about Shakespeare's The merchant of venice & Marlowe's The Jew of Malta - Essay Example

Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice and Marlowe in The Jew of Malta have represented the Jews in an evil way while proving that the cause of their wickedness is the mistreatment they have been offered by the people around them. The characters of Shylock and Barabas are profoundly different from each other. A reader observes more roundness in Barabas as compared to Shylock. Barabas as a Jew has been portrayed dynamically. Although Marlowe can be accused of presenting the Jew in the negative light under the inspiration he received from the fallacies of the era, yet he was capable of doing it differently and purposely chose to satire the time’s common representations.

Presentation of Barabas not only falls in line with the portrayal of the Jews in any other Elizabethan drama (, but also carries a surplus layer of parody. Marlowe has, in a way, mocked the representation of the Jews in the society. Marlowe’s intention in portraying the Jew in such a way cannot be judged with objectivity, but the Jew seems to be an outsider for sure. He is an outsider because of being in the Elizabethan drama that is less than politically correct and theoretically tolerant.

The Jew is also an outsider because of his mode of thought and evilness. . Barabas does display certain characteristics that are classically Jewish, but his vices can be attributed more to a villain than to a Jew. The unique thing about Barabas’s villainy is that the audience feels motivated to almost glorify and respect him. In fact, his outsider status plays a role in drawing the audience’s sympathies and his cunningness that he uses to accomplish his evil plans colors him as a hero. Barabas cares for the results only without caring about the morality or justification of the means he adopts to reach those results, not even if he has to kill his own daughter in the course of realizing his objectives.

The villainy inculcated in the character of Shylock by Shakespeare is subtler than that done by Marlowe to Barabas. Shakespeare has assigned quite extensive role to his Christian characters whereas the characters of his Jew is domesticated and scaled down. Shylock lacks the insatiable ambition and grotesque acts that make the character of Barabas follow the lines of Faustus and Tambourlaine. An in-depth analysis of the characters of Barabas and Shylock suggests that Shylock is more stereotypical than Barabas in certain ways.

For example, while the source of great wealth possessed by Barabas is mainly the long-distance business ventures he has conducted like Antonio, Shylock possesses wealth through usury. “But both plays represent their Jewish protagonists as central to the commercial and political life of their host states in the face of religious and political prejudice” (Kitch 142). Other distinctions reflect in the relationships the two characters share with their respective daughters, Abigail and Jessica.

Both Barabas and Shylock love money