THE JEW OF MALTA

機関リポジトリ HANDLE Web Site

この論文をさがす

説明

There is a saying that all genius, whether religious or artistic, is a kind of excess, and it is natural that a genius, an excess himelf, should be attracted by excessiveness in others. Marlowe was a genius. Fascinated with the wild craving for absolute power of an ambitious Tartar conqueror, he wrote Tamburlaine, and, enchanted by the ardent thirst for knowledge of a legendary German scholar, he produced Doctor Faustus. Into Barabas in The Jew of Malta did he embody insatiable lust for "infinite riches" and their potential power. All the protagonists of these plays have excessiveness in common and may safely be called, in a sense, transcendent men. In the opening scenes Barabas is shown as a merchant prince with dignity and grandness, but when he has been wrongly deprived of his goods by the Christian Governor of Malta he changes into a monstrous incarnation of evil and vengeance, devoid of the slightest shadow of human nature. The subsequent scenes reveal a series of the crimes he commits by playing Machiavellian tricks of his own device-all murder, including that of his beloved and loving daughter. Marlowe, who is an excessive accuser of orthodox religious creeds, puts into Barabas's mouth cynical abuses especially against Christian hypocrisy. Consequently this play would be too repulsive and too horrible for an audience of ordinary men and women of the workaday world, if the effect were not mitigated by the comic and farcial touches which characterize some of its scenes. Some critics point out its lack of harmony in tone and regard it as a "savage farce", "serious farce", "tragic comedy" etc., but The Jew of Malta is essentially a tragedy, for what can be more tragic for human beings than losing human nature? The subplots of this play are so cleverly interrelated that it makes a fine structure as a whole, and in this respect it surpasses the other two of the triad.

収録刊行物

詳細情報 詳細情報について

問題の指摘

ページトップへ