Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Jew of Malta, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
God and Machiavellianism
Religious Hypocrisy
Anti-Semitism
Money and Greed
Betrayal and Revenge
Summary
Analysis
Mathias enters, followed by Lodowick, who is reading a letter. Lodowick grows angry as he reads and asks what wicked man has dared to write such a letter. Mathias claims he wrote the letter and wants his revenge. The two men draw their swords and fight, as Barabas watches quietly from above. He rejoices as Lodowick and Mathias stab each other and fall to the ground dead. Barabas bids them farewell and exits.
Here, Lodowick is reading a letter, even though Ithamore specifically said he delivered a letter to Mathias. However, the original text, according to scholars, is doubtful and difficult to read, and some scholars argue the original publisher may have attributed the lines incorrectly. Either way, Barabas’s machinations were successful, and his revenge is underway.
Themes
Ferneze and Katherine rush in, along with a group of citizens, and find Lodowick and Mathias dead. Ferneze and Katherine are distraught, and they both swear to avenge their respective sons’ deaths. Katherine and Ferneze look to each other for revenge, but then they remember that their sons loved each other. Someone must have turned Mathias and Lodowick into enemies, Katherine says. She suggests they find the culprit and seek vengeance there. Ferneze agrees. In the meantime, he will have Lodowick and Mathias entombed in a single monument and visit them daily until the offender is revealed. Ferneze and Katherine exit with the bodies of their sons and their mutual grief.
Both Katherine and Ferneze want revenge as well, which again suggests that betrayal and revenge go hand in hand. For Katherine and Ferneze, revenge is justice, and following the deaths of their sons, revenge is their chief concern. Notably, Ferneze promises to entomb the men together and visit their monument daily until the offender is found. This distinction implies that Ferneze will stop visiting after he gets revenge, further underscoring the importance of payback in the play.
Themes
