Shakespeare's and Marlowe's Jewish Stereotypes Quiz

Answer: All of these answers are true.

Appropriately entitled "The Jew of Malta", Christopher Marlowe's play immediately sets itself up as a site of altercation. Originally produced in about 1589-91, even the play's title serves to reinforce the conventional stereotype that was predominant during Elizabethan England. Unlike "Tamburlaine the Great", "Doctor Faustus", and "Edward II", "The Jew of Malta" is the only focal figure not to be named in Marlowe's title pages.

Therefore despite referring to one particular individual, Marlowe places no emphasis on the unique personality and character of his Jew. For he represents a marginalized minority, whose shadowy presence angered many of the Christian inhabitants of Elizabethan England. Yet Shakespeare's play, which emerged some seven years later, bears the title of "The Merchant of Venice".

More importantly however, this merchant proves to be a Christian, and not a Jew. It seems then, that Shakespeare wished to avoid arousing the same suppositions that Marlowe had created through using the term Jew in the title of his play. For although "The Merchant of Venice" reflects the prevailing attitudes of the period, it also distorts them.

Answer: The Jew does not dominate the opening scenes of Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice".

The Jew does not dominate the opening scenes of Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice", which is largely due to the romantic comedy which also coincides with the story of Shylock. During the opening of "The Merchant of Venice", it is actually the Christian gentlemen who focus upon riches, relishing the success of Antonio's argosies, which sail "Like signors and rich burghers on the flood".

Answer: It establishes the basis for a subsequent contrast between them and Shylock.

As E. C. Pettet argues in "The Merchant of Venice and the Problem of Usury" (from "The Merchant of Venice: A Casebook"), the love and friendship that governs the lives of Shakespeare's Christian gentlemen provides the "opportunity for a full dramatic discussion of the whole subject of usury, which, next to the agrarian question, provided the principle economic controversy of the sixteenth century".

In addition to this, it also serves to highlight one of the major differences between the plays of Marlowe and Shakespeare. For Marlowe, the Machiavelli is more significant than Barabas's Judaism, which simultaneously merges with it.

However Shakespeare's interest lies in usury, which is largely explored through its impact on two opposite and opposing worlds.

In light of this difference, it becomes clear from the outset that Marlowe was restricted, (to a far greater extent than Shakespeare), to the usage of stereotypes. For although "usury" and "Jewry" were nevertheless considered to be virtually synonymous during the Elizabethan age, Shakespeare was free to develop the humanity of Shylock, something which is severely compromised by the Machiavellian aspects of Marlowe's Jewish character.

Answer: True

Shylock's first words are indeed of ducats, for Shakespeare chooses to introduce him at the precise moment Bassanio attempts to raise a loan on Antonio's credit. One of the main reasons that Shylock hates Antonio is because he "lends out money gratis", thus bringing "the rate of usance" down.

Indeed money dominates Shylock's world, to the extent that he keeps his servants "famished in his service" in order to avoid wasting one penny of it. Fiercely protective of his riches, he goes so far as pretending to be unable to "raise up the gross/Of full three thousand ducats" immediately, in order to preserve the true extent of his financial prosperity. For Shylock is accustomed to great riches.

Answer: To immediately become a Christian

Marlowe's Barabas is frustrated by the "paltry silverlings" of "those Samnites and the men of Uz", yearning instead for the custom of "the Arabians, who so richly pay/The things they traffic for with wedge of gold", hence the prevailing Elizabethan stereotype of the Jew as "a moneyed man".

When Barabas remonstrates against the decision, the government confiscate all of his worldly goods, on the grounds that "excess of wealth is cause of covetousness", which is "a monstrous sin". In this respect then Marlowe unconventionally imparts sympathy towards the Jew, by presenting Christian society to be the cause of his suffering.

Answer: Abigail's retrieval of Barabas' money bags.

In "The Merchant of Venice", for Shylock "Sufferance is the badge" of his tribe, and indeed he duly bears his persecution "with a patient shrug". Daily termed "misbeliever, cut-throat, dog", he is kicked and spat upon, and "all for use of that which" is his very own. Thus the stereotype of the blood-thirsty Jew is made increasingly intricate, due to the many forces that beset Shylock. Yet Shylock's "My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter", bears a striking similarity to Barabas's own "O girl, O gold, O beauty, O my bliss!", which complicates matters further, as it therefore serves to highlight the magnitude of Shylock's miserly greed.

More importantly however, it is also likely to have been directed at those that had witnessed a previous performance of Marlowe's "Jew of Malta".

Answer: True

False, credulous, inconstant Abigail!
But let 'em go; and Ithamore, from hence
Ne'er shall she grieve me more with her disgrace;
Ne'er shall she live to inherit aught of mine,

Within this short speech Marlowe has successfully managed to condense the central elements of Barabas's character. It is significant that he reckons only the material consequences of Abigail's conversion, for it is solely material wealth that he deems important. Moreover he does not lament the actual "loss" of his daughter, but rather the irredeemable disgrace of the fact that she has turned Christian. At the beginning of the play he is bound by three considerations, that of himself, his gold, and his daughter. However there is no disputing the hierarchy of the three. Ultimately it is Barabas's loyalty to himself which comes before anything else.

Answer: Friar Barnardine and Friar Jacomo.

Tempting the friars with the thought of his own "chests of gold" in bullion and in coin", Barabas successfully distracts them away from accusing him of his crimes. However the farce is suddenly transformed into a quarrel, which results in the death of Friar Barnadine.

This slapstick comedy thus begins to take on a more sinister role. For amidst the humorous cries of "Then I'll make thee, rogue", the friars' lack of dedication to Christianity becomes apparent. Faced with Barabas's blatant bribe, neither of them seem to possess the power to resist, despite both declaring the strictness of their own laws, in which they "wear no shirts", and "go barefoot too". Thus Marlowe reveals the hypocrisy, greed and malice, which is often hidden behind religion. Yet although the friars fall from grace, it is Barabas who remains responsible for it.

He is the main instigator, the devil in one of his guises, for it is he that plays the penitent, potential convert in order to destroy the two friars.

Answer: The Merchant of Venice

During the Elizabethan age, "Certainly the Jew is the very devil incarnation", would have been an image that would have been fixed by centuries of Christian teaching. Indeed no Elizabethan audience would have needed reminding of the hatred the Jews were supposed to have shown towards Christ.

In the eyes of this Elizabethan audience then, all Jews supposedly bore the responsibility of Christ's crucifixion, despite no direct allusions being made to it in "The Merchant of Venice". Nevertheless, for an Elizabethan audience, Shylock would have remained a deeply threatening figure, as he persistently lusts after the enactment of his bond.

He will "not be made a soft and dull-eyed fool". Nor will he shake his head, "relent, and sigh, and yield" to his "Christian intercessors". For his desires are "wolfish, bloody, starved", and above all, ravenous.

Answer: Hell

Barabas shows no remorse for his murderous deeds. Nor does he repent at all. On the contrary, he ends his life cursing all "Christians, dogs, and Turkish infidels". Thus the cauldron which he falls into is an apt representation of the iconography of Hell. For now "the extremity of heat" begins to pinch, "with intolerable pangs". Similarly then, the ending of Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice" also serves to reinstate the dominant Jewish stereotypes of the Elizabethan age. Like Barabas, Shylock is also prevented from achieving his goal, although he does not die in the process.

Intent on mutilating Antonio's body, he is nevertheless continually frustrated in his attempts, for the bond allows "no jot of blood" to be shed. The words expressly are "a pound of flesh". "One drop of Christian blood", and all of Shylock's "lands and goods/ Are by the laws of Venice confiscate". Thus Shylock leaves the play as the alien figure he was when he entered it.