The Jew of Malta

by

Christopher Marlowe

Betrayal and Revenge Theme Analysis

Themes and Colors
God and Machiavellianism Theme Icon
Religious Hypocrisy Theme Icon
Anti-Semitism Theme Icon
Money and Greed Theme Icon
Betrayal and Revenge  Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Jew of Malta, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Betrayal and Revenge  Theme Icon

Betrayal is rampant in Christopher Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta. Malta’s Jewish community is betrayed by Ferneze, Malta’s governor, when he unfairly seizes their wealth to pay the tribute money owed to the Ottoman Empire. Furthermore, the play’s protagonist and Malta’s richest Jew, Barabas, betrays his fellow Jews when he fights for his own happiness and wealth while ignoring theirs. Barabas even betrays his own daughter, Abigail, and engineers a plot to murder her love, Don Mathias, as well as Ferneze’s son, Don Lodowick. Barabas is likewise betrayed, first by Ferneze and then by his trusted Turkish slave, Ithamore, who sells Barabas out for gold and the affection of Bellamira, a prostitute whom Ithamore lusts after. The play is also rife with revenge, as each character who is wronged seeks vengeance against those they hold responsible. Both Ferneze and Katherine, Mathias’s mother, are determined to avenge the deaths of their sons—but their attempts pale in comparison to Barabas’s desire for vengeance, which quickly spirals out of control. In The Jew of Malta, Marlowe underscores the ubiquitous nature of betrayal and revenge in broader society, and he ultimately argues that trying to avenge betrayal is a slippery slope that is best avoided. 

Most of Marlowe’s characters in The Jew of Malta are guilty of treachery and disloyalty, which highlights how common betrayal is in broader society. When Martin Del Bosco, the Vice-Admiral of Spain, comes to Malta selling Turkish slaves, Ferneze initially denies Bosco’s business “by reason of a tributary league.” Malta’s agreement with the Ottoman Turks prohibits the selling of Turkish slaves, a covenant that Ferneze quickly breaks when Bosco promises to help him retain the gold obtained to pay the Turks’ tribute and further protect Malta from war and Turkish retaliation. The promise of money and protection is enough for Ferneze to betray the Turks, which highlights how commonplace betrayal is in broader society. Barabas promises Mathias that he will ultimately be allowed to marry Abigail. “Thou know’st, and heaven can witness it is true,” Barabas tells Mathias, “that I intend my daughter shall be thine.” Mathias agrees. “Ay, Barabas, or else thou wrong’st me much.” Of course, Barabas cares very little if he wrongs Mathias or Abigail, and he easily betrays them when he later engineers the duel between Mathias and Lodowick, which kills them both and breaks Abigail’s heart. Again, the ease with which Barabas deceives his daughter suggests that betrayal is a common human practice. Before the duel between Lodowick and Mathias, the two men are close friends, but Lodowick betrays their relationship and pursues Abigail behind Mathias’s back. Barabas seizes the opportunity created by Lodowick’s betrayal, and Barabas’s machinations directly result in their deadly duel, but their strife begins with Lodowick’s disloyalty, which once more underscores the widespread betrayal present in broader society.

Revenge is likewise rampant in The Jew of Malta, a connection that implies vengeance is just as common as the betrayal that provokes it. After Ferneze confiscates Barabas’s wealth, Barabas swears revenge. “Having Ferneze’s hand,” Barabas says, “whose heart I’ll have; / Ay, and his son’s too, or it shall go hard.” Barabas wants Ferneze to guarantee the return of his wealth, either in writing or through a handshake. Barabas further wants Ferneze’s son, Lodowick, to propose marriage to Abigail to aid Barabas’s plan to kill Lodowick and avenge the theft of his gold. In other words, Barabas’s reference to Ferneze and Lodowick’s “hand” and “heart” mirrors Barabas’s desire for revenge. When Katharine and Ferneze find Mathias and Lodowick dead, they suspect someone put their sons up to the deadly duel, and they vow to exact their own revenge. “Hold,” Katharine says to Ferneze, “let’s enquire the causers of the deaths, / That we may venge their blood upon their heads.” For Katharine and Ferneze, there is no justice for their sons’ deaths without revenge. After Ithamore, Bellamira, and Pilia-Borza betray Barabas, he exacts revenge on them, too, by giving them a poisonous bouquet. “So, now I am revenged upon ‘em all,” Barabas says. “The scent thereof was death, I poisoned it.” With the flowers, Barabas kills Ithamore, Bellamira, and Pilia-Borza, which again reflects the widespread betrayal and revenge present in broader society.

Once Barabas decides to seek revenge for the unfair theft of his wealth, he will stop at nothing to avenge his lost fortune, and his desire for vengeance quickly gets out of control. Barabas’s desire to exact revenge on Ferneze informs his sinister plan to kill Ferneze’s son, which just so happens to involve the additional death of Mathias, the love of Abigail’s life. Barabas sacrifices his daughter’s happiness in the name of his revenge. And when Abigail later joins the nunnery (a move she says is in response to her sins but is likely her private revenge for Barabas’s involvement in Mathias’s death), Barabas exacts revenge against Abigail, too, killing her and all the nuns in the convent with a gift of poisoned rice. Once he begins down the road of vengeance, Barabas is helpless to stop, which illustrates the disastrous course of action that Marlowe implies is implicit in revenge.

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Betrayal and Revenge Quotes in The Jew of Malta

Below you will find the important quotes in The Jew of Malta related to the theme of Betrayal and Revenge .
Act 1, Scene 2 Quotes

Ay, policy? That’s their profession,
And not simplicity, as they suggest.
The plagues of Egypt, and the curse of heaven,
Earth’s barrenness, and all men’s hatred
Inflict upon them, thou great Primus Motor.
And here upon my knees, striking the earth,
I ban their souls to everlasting pains
And extreme tortures of the fiery deep,
That thus have dealt with me in my distress.

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker), Ferneze
Page Number: 27
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2, Scene 3 Quotes

In spite of these swine-eating Christians,
Unchosen nation, never circumcised;
Such as, poor villains, were ne’er thought upon
Till Titus and Vespasian conquered us,
Am I become as wealthy as I was:
They hoped my daughter would ha’ been a nun:
But she’s at home, and I have bought a house
As great and fair as is the Governor’s;
And there in spite of Malta will I dwell:
Having Ferneze’s hand, whose heart I’ll have;
Ay, and his son’s too, or it shall go hard.

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker), Ferneze, Abigail, Don Lodowick
Related Symbols: Gold
Page Number: 44
Explanation and Analysis:

Yonder comes Don Mathias, let us stay;
He loves my daughter, and she holds him dear:
But I have sworn to frustrate both their hopes,
And be revenged upon the—(Governor).

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker), Ithamore, Abigail, Don Lodowick, Don Mathias
Page Number: 51
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 3, Scene 2 Quotes

Oh bravely fought, and yet they thrust not home.
Now Lodowick, now Mathias, so;
So now they have showed themselves to be tall fellows.

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker), Don Lodowick, Don Mathias
Page Number: 65
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 3, Scene 4 Quotes

Stay, first let me stir it Ithamore.
As fatal be it to her as the draught
Of which great Alexander drunk, and died:
And with her let it work like Borgia’s wine,
Whereof his sire, the Pope, was poisonèd.
In a few, the blood of Hydra, Lerna’s bane:
The juice of hebon, and Cocytus’ breath,
And all the poisons of the Stygian pool
Break from the fiery kingdom; and in this
Vomit your venom, and envenom her
That like a fiend hat left her father thus.

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker), Ithamore, Abigail, Don Lodowick, Don Mathias
Page Number: 77
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 5, Scene 5 Quotes

Ferneze: Should I in pity of thy plaints or thee,
Accursèd Barabas, base Jew, relent?
No, thus I’ll see thy treachery repaid,
But wish thou hadst behaved thee otherwise.

Barabas: You will not help me then?

Ferneze: No, villain, no.

Barabas: 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:
Know, Governor, ‘twas I that slew thy son;
I framed the challenge that did make them meet:
Know, Calymath, I aimed thy overthrow,
And had I but escaped this stratagem,
I would have brought confusion on you all,
Damned Christians, dogs, and Turkish infidels;
But now begins the extremity of heat
To pinch me with intolerable pangs:
Die life, fly soul, tongue curse thy fill and die!

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker), Ferneze (speaker), Don Lodowick, Don Mathias, Selim-Calymath
Page Number: 129-130
Explanation and Analysis: