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Barabas

Edmund Kean portraying Barabas for the British Stage (1818)

Barabas is the protagonist of Christopher Marlowe's The Jew of Malta. He is a wealthy Maltese merchant and father of Abigail. After losing his fortune, Barabas plots his revenge against everyone who has wronged him. With the assistance of his Turkish slave Ithamore, this results in the deaths of many of the other characters, including Abigail, Lodowick and Mathias. Due to their similarities and the performance dates of their respective plays, Barabas has been listed as one of the main inspirations for the character of Shylock in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.

Name

Barabas’s name takes heavy inspiration from the New Testament figure Barabbas, a murderer who was released by Pontius Pilate instead of Jesus Christ by the “crowd’s” decision; an action that has historically been used to justify antisemitic prejudice as it lays the blame for the crucifixion of Jesus and his subsequent death on Jews, also known as Jewish deicide. This link with such an infamous character in Christian society helps the audience understand Barabas's main characteristics, specifically that he is a murderer and a Jew.

In the play

The play begins with Barabas in his counting-house, waiting for news about the return of his ships. He is called by three other Jews to the senate-house where he has all of his wealth confiscated by the island's governor, Ferneze, after refusing to forfeit half of his estate. He also has his house converted into a nunnery. Barabas vows revenge against Ferneze but first manages to recover some of his gold by persuading his daughter, Abigail, to infiltrate the nunnery. Barabas meets Lodowick, Ferneze’s son, who has heard of Abigail's beauty from his friend and Abigail's lover, Mathias. Barabas then deceives Lodowick into thinking that Abigail will marry him. He also purchases a Turkish slave, Ithamore, who he uses to assist him in his schemes. Barabas tricks both Lodowick and Mathias into thinking that he has betrothed Abigail to them and uses Ithamore to deliver a forged note to Mathias, supposedly from Lodowick, resulting in a duel to the death and both men killing the other.

When Abigail finds out about her father's actions, she is guilt-stricken which leads her to convert to Christianity properly, enraging her father. Barabas goes on to poison Abigail and the entire nunnery with a poisoned rice dish as well as kill two corrupt friars, Jacomo and Barnadine, who had found out about his crimes from a dying Abigail. After Ithamore attempts to extort him in order to get money for his prostitute, Bellamira, and her pimp, Barabas poisons all three of them with a poisonous flower while disguised as a French lute player and then fakes his own death once caught by the Maltese officials. He then colludes with the Turkish prince Calymath, whose forces are invading Malta, and assists them in infiltrating and taking over the city. He is then given the position of governor of Malta as a reward by Calymath. Barabas, fearing for his own safety, then plans to betray the Turks with the help of the Maltese residents, but he himself is betrayed by Ferneze, having his own trap used against him. He dies drowning in a boiling cauldron, confessing to his crimes and cursing everyone else, declaring “Damned Christians, dogs and Turkish infidels.”

Portrayal

Edward Alleyn

Barabas was first portrayed by English actor Edward Alleyn and would often be played as a clown. He is also characterised to fit many of the common stereotypes associated with Jews during Marlowe’s time. Physically, one of Barabas’s most distinct features is his nose, which many characters taking note of it, with Ithamore especially mentioning and making reference to it multiple times: “Oh brave, master, I worship your nose” (2.3.174) and "I have the bravest, gravest, secret, subtle, bottle-/nosed knave to my master..." (3.3.9-10). The Jewish nose is a defining feature of the stereotypical Jew, and the actor playing Barabas would have most likely worn a large prosthetic, possibly painted, nose, which was typical of depictions of Jewish characters at the time. The character was also depicted with 'fiery' red hair, with the actor wearing a red wig. This wig was used to signify a 'devilish' character and would be used by actors playing Judas or Satan, thus the wig was used to signify a sort of 'devilish kinship' to the audience. Barabas is also a highly wealthy merchant and one of his main motivations is amassing gold and jewels and satisfying his greed. Jews have often commonly associated with greed as they practiced usury during the Middle Ages due to being barred from other occupations.

When it comes to his personality, He is self-centred, cruel and cares little for anyone other than himself, even stating "Ego mihimet sum semper proximus," (1.1.193), which translates to "I am ever my nearest neighbour." He explains to Ithamore that his history is filled with cruelty as he would “…walk abroad a-nights/And kill sick people groaning under walls” (2.3.177-78) as well as poison wells and pit countries against each other.

An important figure in The Jew of Malta Niccolò Machiavelli, and the aspects of the Machiavellianism. Not only is the prologue of the play read out by the character Machiavel, but most of the characters could be described as "pseudo-Machiavellian," especially Barabas. He uses cunning and treachery for his own benefit in a ruthless fashion: he tricks Lodowick and Mathias into killing themselves after promising each of them Abigail as a wife, he promises Friar Jacomo that he will convert and give him riches before framing for Friar Barnardine death and executing him, and even attempts to assassinate Calymath after helping the Turks take over Malta. In fact, he says that "I learn'd in Florence how to kiss my hand" (2.3.23), Machiavelli's birth place and home state. He patiently bides his time when plotting his schemes, as seen when he tells Abigail "And time may yield us an occasion,/Which on the sudden cannot serve the turn" (1.2.240-41). Machiavelli was an infamous figure in the eyes of Elizabethan England, so Barabas's actions would be seen as a stark contrast to Elizabethan ethics at the time.

As the protagonist, Barabas has the most prominent role in the story. He appears in 12 of the 22 scenes that make up The Jew of Malta and has 1096 lines.

Other representations

Due to some speculation that he was working as a Catholic spy, Marlowe’s play has also been read as a criticism of Anglican Christianity through the guise of a farcical comedy, using the character of Barabas to point out the hypocrisy and cruelty of attitudes and behaviours towards Jews at the time. Over time, some portrayals of Barabas changed from a purely humorous, malicious villain to a more serious, complex character. Edmund Kean’s 1818 production portrayed Barabas more as a "victim of society," which was done by omitting the poisoning of the nunnery and treating Barabas’s history rather as a "rhetorical test to Ithamore" more than his actual past. Kean's performance also omitted the red wig, instead replacing it with a black wig and beard.

There was a noticeable shift in how the play was performed less as a straight comedy and more as a mixture between comedy and seriousness after the events of World War II and the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany. In the Royal Shakespeare Company 1987 production of The Jew of Malta, Barabas, played by Alun Armstrong, is portrayed as a "fine comic performance" against a more “ruthless and hard-faced” Ferneze, played by John Carlisle. By the play’s end, Ferneze’s final speech ended with him taking off his wig to reveal himself to be Machevill, which some say implies that that he is the real villain himself.

Over the years, The Jew of Malta has been adapted and performed by many different groups with a multitude of actors taking up the titular role. On 2 October 1993, Michael Fox's adaptation was performed on BBC Radio 3 with Ian McDiarmid playing the role of Barabas, who went on to perform it again at the Almeida Theatre in 1999 and was described as "boundless, even manic, extroversion bursting his wiry frame." Jasper Britton took on the role as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company's production, who was said to have combined "a lively current of smarts, swifter and more irreverent than the characters around him, with a deep vein of emotion."

Comparison to Shylock

Shylock

Due to the similar elements of their plays and backstories, as well as being regarded as symbols of antisemitism, critics have drawn parallels between Barabas and the character of Shylock from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice: both are very wealthy with occupations centred around money (Barabas is a merchant while Shylock is a money-lender), both are scorned by the Christian characters in their respective plays, both have daughters who defy them and convert to Christianity and both swear revenge, but fall victim to their own stratagems. They even give off similar cries when referring to their daughters and wealth, with Shylock lamenting “Oh my daughter! Oh my ducats!” (2.8.17) to Barabas crying out “Oh girl, oh gold” (2.1.55). Barabas and Shylock also, at some points in their plays, decry Christian hypocrisy and the treatment of Jews. Each character also plays an important role in the economics of the plays: Barabas has all of his wealth confiscated in order to pay tribute to the Turks while Antonio and Bassanio take a loan out from Shylock in order for Bassanio to pursue Portia.

However, others point out that these two also have clear differences that outnumber their similarities. One of the main examples given is that Barabas is much crueller and more egotistical than Shylock, as he swears revenge against and harms anyone who has slighted him, including his own daughter, whereas Shylock, despite all those who have treated him poorly, only swears revenge on Antonio. Shylock also abides by the law as part of his revenge and does not view what he is doing as wrong, as he states "What judgement shall I dread, doing no wrong?" (4.1.91) whereas Barabas goes against the laws and actively uses corruption, bribery and murder, even going so far as to boast about his own evil, exclaiming "Why, was there ever seen such villainy/So neatly plotted and well performed" (3.3.1-2), leading to the argument that Shylock is more integrous of the two. Barabas also places much more value in wealth and gold, even stating “Rather had I a Jew be hated thus,/Than pitied in a Christian poverty” (1.1.113-14) and actively hoards it, while Shylock displays no such tendencies, as his wealth is much more accessible to Jessica, who is even gifted the keys to his house, than Barabas's is for Abigail. Israel Davidson argues that his love of gold and possessing wealth makes Barabas much more of a 'miser' than Shylock.

Barabas is also a much more physically present character in his play, compared to Shylock. In total, Barabas speaks, both to other characters and as asides, a total of 1096 lines and appears in 12 out of the 22 scenes in The Jew of Malta. Shylock, however, only has 355 lines and only appears in 5 of the 19 scenes in The Merchant of Venice.

Over the years, theatre companies, such as the Royal Shakespeare Company, have run parallel shows of The Jew of Malta and The Merchant of Venice due to their similar characters and themes. Actors in these performances were often cast in parallel roles, including playing both Shylock and Barabas.