The Jew of Malta and the Diabolic Power of Theatrics in the 1580s

This essay shows the meaning of Barabas's impersonation in the politico-religious context of the 1580s. This is the period when the nation was facing the crisis of Spanish invasion and enhancing domestic surveillance of seminary priests. Impersonating a Protestant or a Catholic had a political significance. The Jew of Malta seems to share the prevailing sentiment in Elizabethan society around that time: a popular anxiety about missionary priests who have exceptional powers of theatrics. Marlowe juxtaposes this critical situation of England with that of Malta and analyzes the power of theatrics operating in the political struggle.