Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Christopher Marlowe was one of the most conflicted figures of the Elizabethan era. Nobody knows about his family or his date of birth, but he was baptized on 26 February 1964. It's just a coincidence that William Shakespeare was also baptized in the same year. Marlowe is known to set the blank verse as a standard for the literature of the Elizabethan era. Right from a young age, he was frequently in trouble for accusations of homosexuality, atheism, brawling, and other transgressions. And this notoriety continued to grow as he came to be known as a spy backed by the Queen herself and then there were rumors that he was a crypto-Catholic and double agent. Anyways, his life was short as he was murdered on 30th May 1593 at the age of 29. Imagine being an atheist in a society full of Puritan, Presbyterian, and Protestant zealots. Unlike other eccentric figures of later times, like John Wilmot, he wasn’t a libertine, he wasn’t looking for pleasure and fun in transgressions. Rather he was a sort of libertarian, looking, at and establishing his freedom as an individual, and for that, he was rebellious and was always at risk of suffering, pain, and attacks and that’s how he ended. He knew he was different from the whole pack of other lots in London and that prompted him to experiment through his dramas. He continuously used the stage to raise questions about racial, religious, and sexual inequalities in the British society of his time. This is why he successfully portrayed many diverse characters that were marginalized on fringes of the society or were completely alien to the people of England. The three most important Marlovian characters are Tamburlaine, Barabas, and Dido and all these three were alien to the British people. Except for The Merchant of Venice which was first performed in 1605, one will find it difficult to name any drama or piece of literature of that era depicting a Jew as the main character. Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta was however already performed in 1592 and established itself as a long-going successful drama, the play remained popular for the next fifty years until England's theaters were closed in 1642.
Barabas, The Jew of Malta
Marlowe was a rebellion against the norms and society in general. He used the stage to reprimand society for its ills. His creation of Barabas was to show the mirror to the British people in such a manner that they would accept it without any ruckus. Marlowe chose Barabas as a Jew, different from the common people of Britain that was his audience, and that offered narrative freedom to his Hero that any other character of the dramas of the Elizabethan era could not enjoy. Consider the protagonist of an English drama abusing his Christian neighbors in his scathing monologue at the beginning of the play as Barabas says, “Who hateth me but for my happiness? Or who is honour'd now but for his wealth? Rather had I, a Jew, be hated thus. Than pitied in a Christian poverty. For I can see no fruits in all their faith. But malice, falsehood, and excessive pride. Which me thinks fits not their profession”. Barabas recognizes that he is being hated and discriminated against for being a Jew, and wealthy. And he hits at the hypocrisy of the majority Christians among whom he lives as he asks Why on earth would anybody want to be a Christian? If you ask Barabas, all they do is talk about how righteous they are and then turn around and do the opposite. And they don't make good money.
Barabas could say something like that and still, get cheers from the Christian audience because he was behaving as was expected from a typical Jewish man. He is presented as a parody figure with a grotesque and laughable physical figure while Marlowe used this to ridicule and chastise all the others, who were the majority in the Audience. And this was the reason why Machiavelli offers the Prologue. Marlowe’s Machevill introduces Barabas as a comic glutton who "smiles to see how full his bags are crammed" and that his "money was not got without my means." There is nothing common in between Barabas and Machiavelli but he depicts all the personality traits that the Elizabethan audience could recognize as Machiavellian. He is strategic, dishonest, power-hungry, and irreligious. As Barabas was recognizable and acceptable to the Christian audience as an alien, Marlowe exposes the rest of the characters in Christian-dominated Malta through Barabas. This alienness of Barabas allows him to connive and scheme until he succeeds in his goals. He is so stigmatized that the audience doesn’t feel a sense of disgust or revolt while he does all the mean things. It was a general perception of Jewishness that they are nothing but money-grubbing friends. So when Barabas wants to be a money-grubbing fiend, the Protestant audience wouldn’t find it off the mark. Replace Barabas with someone from any other religion, who will be questioned and criticized for loving money more than their own daughter. “My gold, my fortune, my felicity. Strength to my soul, death to mine enemy! Welcome, the first beginner of my bliss! O Abigall, Abigall, that I had thee here too!” Barabas says to Abigail. Barabas treats his daughter as nothing but a tool to get his fortune back and yet, he gains applause as a hero for succeeding at his trick because it is normalized that Abigail is nothing but another piece of property, another means to end. However, she is not as profitable property as Barabas could otherwise have. Instead of standing with her father for his revolt and revenge, she prefers her love for other men and when he is murdered, she prefers to turn to Christianity. In doing so, she becomes forfeit property, a replaceable that can be sacrificed. Barabas does not feel the need to humanize his daughter, because he does not feel the need to humanize anyone. If flesh and blood are property to him, then Barabas has nothing to lose but his fortune, a recoupable commodity. Marlowe makes the most of Barabas’ Machiavellianism, and his ability to act without restraint.
Barabas convinces Abigail, to pose as a convert and gain access to the nunnery now taking up residence in his home. “Who’s this? Fair Abigall, the rich Jew’s daughter Become a nun? Her father’s sudden fall Has humbled her and brought her down to this” Friar Barnadine makes fun of Barabas when Abigail goes to the nunnery. Instead of recognizing the discrimination and exploitation, Barabas faces for being a jew, an alien, the Friar forces him to convert. Barabas utilizes his alienness as a way to fly under the radar of the Christians persecuting him so that he can lay his trap. A Christian character, no matter their class, could never have crafted the plan’s inverse scenario, in which they converted to Judaism as a cover-up, simply because a European Christian converting to another faith would be outside of expectation and draw too much attention. Thus, Abigail’s turn to Christianity was applauded. This allows her and her father to carry out their plan in secret, aided by their differences rather than hindered by them.
Barabas then shakes hands with the attackers and acts as a traitor to his own city. However, this accusation of being a traitor appears mild because right from the beginning, he was never accepted as a citizen of Malta from the start. He was taxed more than what could be called appropriate for not only just being a jew but for being a straightforward person who could demand equality in eyes of the law. He was forcefully made to realize that he is alien to society, and to the land, thus the accusation of being a traitor doesn’t sully the character of Barabas, and he succeeds in appearing as the Hero. His end is also no less Heroic. Marlowe’s final act in The Jew of Malta gives the audience a choice when Barabas is caught in his own trap. “And, villains, know you cannot help me now. Then, Barabas, breathe forth thy latest fate. And in the fury of thy torments strive. To end thy life with resolution”. Barabas dies with an unusual gracefulness as if he is a noble character. He accepts his fate and takes responsibility for the actions that have led him here, all while staying true to his prior beliefs and moral code.
Marlowe makes the audience think if Barabas was the bad guy, or if was he one of the bad guys among many others engulfing him. He was a money-grubbing jew but he could use the greed of Friars to instigate them and quarrel. The men in service of God had so much greed for Barabas’s gold that Friar Zocomo gets killed and Friar Barnadine is accused of the murder. The false letters of a girl could make two close friends enemies of each other to the extent that they kill each other. Marlowe uses Barabas and offers him the freedom to express everything that Marlowe himself wished to comment on. He brings forth the corruption of the clergy, the immoral discrimination of the state against the marginalized section of the society, and all other immoral behavior hidden in the Christian society of England as Barabas ridicules them and make use of them.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected to the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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