Antisemitism

Antisemitism is prejudice against Jewish people. On the Elizabethan stage, Jewish characters could be presented as greedy, deceptive villains. Christopher Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta, written around 1589–1590, features Barabas, a wicked Jewish villain.

There are strong reasons to argue that the play reinforces antisemitism: it uses the Jewish moneylender as a threat, contains repeated dehumanising insults and makes his defeat part of the comic resolution. Actor Tracy-Ann Oberman has emphasised its antisemitic legacy.

The play has also been used to promote antisemitism. In Nazi Germany, it was broadcast for propaganda after Kristallnacht in 1938, and staged in productions including Berlin in 1940. These uses emphasised hostile stereotypes; they demonstrate what particular producers did with the play, rather than proving a single, inevitable meaning.