The Evolution of Jewish Representations from The Jew of Malta to The Merchant of Venice from the Perspective of New Historicism

Ying Jiang

doi:10.6918/IJOSSER.202610_9(10).0005

Authors

Ying Jiang School of Foreign Languages, Chongqing Jiaotong University, Jiangjin 402247, China

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6918/IJOSSER.202610_9(10).0005

Keywords:

New Historicism; Jewish “Other”; The Jew of Malta; The Merchant of Venice; anti-Semitism.

Abstract

In the 16th century, there was a deep-rooted anti-Semitic cultural soil in Britain. Taking New Historicism as the analytical framework, this paper examines the representation of the Jewish “Other” in Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta and Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. Marlowe simplifies Barabas and Abigail as cold symbols lacking in immanence. On the contrary, Shakespeare embeds Shylock and Jessica in the humanized emotional spectrum and psychological struggle. The differentiation of the two dramatists at the level of characterization is not only a literary projection of the ideological changes of their respective times, but also a reflection of the complex interaction mechanism between literary practice and social history.

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