The Story Archive

The Jew of Malta

Christopher Marlowe · c. 1590 CE · Play · English · Renaissance

Malta owes Turkey ten years of unpaid tribute, and the governor decides the island's Jews will pay it, taking half of every estate and the whole of the richest. The merchant Barabas answers with his daughter, a bought slave and a run of revenges that widen from the men who robbed him to anyone standing nearby. A prologue spoken by the ghost of Machiavelli frames the whole thing as a lesson in policy.

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Lineage

Attributes

Genre
TragedySatirePolitical
Theme
Wealth & GreedJustice & RevengeBetrayalPower & Corruption
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
Anti-HeroAvengerVillain / TyrantScapegoat
Plot structure
Revenge CycleIronic ReversalRise and Fall
Emotional arc (story shape)
Fall–Rise–Fall (Oedipus)
Quest object (Greimas)
Justice / Revenge
Symbol / motif
Gold / TreasurePoisonThe CityThe Cross / Altar
Conflict
vs Personvs Society
Mode / tone
TragicSatiricalIronic
Culture / tradition
English

Closest analogues