Comparison of Marlowe's Barabas and Jonson's Volpone (Studying the main characters from "Volpone" and "The Jew of Malta")

Christopher Marlowe?s The Jew of Malta, written around 1590, sh ars m each raise comparableities with Ben Jonson?s 1605 play Volpone. some(prenominal) works follow a alike(p) narrative structure and also shargon common themes and graphic symbolic representation types. Greed as a char fountizationer trait is trus dickensrthy altogethery important in the plot of twain plays, as argon wit, deception, and questionable or absent morality In f accomplishment, Jonson?s reference point Volpone is named from the Italian word for ?fox,? telling us dear a demeanor that machination and slyness be his defining dispositionistics. two(prenominal) of the plays focus on a main(prenominal) example who uses his recognition and ability to grass as a counseling to touch his covetousness. It is in the main characters of the plays (Volpone and Barabas) that we hold in the superlative similarity amongst the deuce works. The similarities, as well as push aside differences mingled with these two characters and plays, depict us some of the dividing and defining characteristics of the playwrights themselves. both(prenominal) Barabas and Volpone ar driven to their questionable moral decisions In these two characters, we see workforce who possess an uncanny ability to grass n proterozoic e rattlingone they come into contact with. They lie and get through spurious promises to many varied community, and are able to obtain their webs of fraudulence intact when one mis bring forth, or one individual nurture the truth, would completely destroy their intricate plans. This is perhaps dress hat prove by Volpone, who is able to keep quadruple different people convinced that they give work heir to his fortune, go store gifts and richesiness from each of them through place. His scheming involves pretense somber illness, disguises, convincing rhetoric, and a really helpful consideration in Mosca. If any one of the quartet ?birds of prey? who unavoidableness his fortune were! to hold fast kayoed the truth, Volpone would lose e realthing. In The Jew of Malta, Barabas is a rich Judaic merchant who has his assets seized by the government. He is enraged by this, and plans to keep back his wealth and exact r rasege on the Governor Firneze. He also utilizes disguise, lies and false promises to everybody involved, and likewise enlists the help of opposites (his daughter Abigail and his put in ones back Ithamore), but ends up sweep awaying both of them in the extension of his scheme. As Volpone and The Jew of Malta draw to a turn up, the similarity of the plots continues as both characters attain what they proclivityd. Barabas regains his wealth and becomes governor of Malta after(prenominal)ward share the Turkish Army conquer the island, replacing his oppositeness Firneze in the process. Volpone escapes twilight after an amazing deception of the Venetian courts by his servant Mosca, and is able to continue bleeding wealth bring out of h is four dupes. However, the elaborate schemes of both characters ultimately fail, be draw they pull in their plans too far. Ignoring Mosca?s advice that they should rest after their close call, Volpone continues the deception by feigning death and naming his servant the heir allowing him to fully bring low his dupes. In doing this however, Volpone?s power and wealth is usurped by the even more cunning Mosca. Volpone is on the verge of losing everything, and the only way to regain pull strings is to confess in front of the court, which results in his life imprisonment. Barabas, alternatively of cosmos kernel when named Governor of Malta, strikes a deal with his enemy Firneze to take part in a scheme to pop out Calymath, the Turkish leader who he had fair(a) aided to victory. Firneze plays along, but deceives Barabas in the end and coiffures him to fall into the madly trap planned for Calymath. In both plays, the characters? avarice drives them to pass water intrica te and sure-fire schemes, but also becomes their d a! vowfall as they cannot be circumscribe with their gains when the scheme reaches the breaking point. The sympathy of the listening toward these two characters is very similar as well. In both plays, the main character is initially back up by the audience. In the early stages of The Jew of Malta, we feel that Barabas has sincerely yours been wronged by the government, and we support his desire for the rehabilitation of his wealth and his plans for punish. Also, he seems to us, one of the only upright characters in the play. He lies to early(a) characters, but he is preferably up-front and skilful in explaining his motives to the audience, while we see rampant deceit from the characters he is plotting against. In Volpone, we understand that the character is acting completely out of greed, with no higher motives. However, we delight in the enlargement and improbableness of his ruse. We olfactory property past the questionable morality of his duping four new(prenomin al) characters into giving him their possessions; in fact we support it be slip the other characters are obsessed with their greed understand that they are world taken utility of. However, our sympathy leaves these characters when their bodily processs become too offensive to look past. Volpone attempts to rape Celia?one of the only innocent characters in the play?and subsequently has her put in jail after deceiving the court. With Barabas, the honesty he submits the audience cannot counterweigh the increasing death-toll he causes. He also killings an innocent character: his daughter Abigail. Along with this truly horrible act, we see him: convince two young men to kill each other, poison all the nuns in a convent, kill a priest and lay the blame on another, kill his servant along with two others, and plot a final scheme in which he will kill the Turkish commander and all of his soldiers. By the fourth act in each play, we want these characters to fail, even though we had back up them earlier. Even with all of these clo! se similarities, there are differences to be seen between the two main characters. The first of these lies in the contest and purpose that lies behind their schemes. In Volpone, we see the main character?s aim when he discusses his gold in the enterp hornswoggle lines. ?Yet, I glory / More in the cunning promise of my wealth / Than in the glad possession? (I.i.30-32). From the beginning, we see that Volpone finds look upon only in his ability to deceive and take spare of people, not in the calculable results of that deception. This attitude of Volpone?s is unvarying throughout the play. For Barabas however, he begins the play seemingly content with the wealth he has, although he is certainly greedy to get more. His devotion lies in the possession of wealth. After his estate is taken from the government, he has a born(p) desire for reclamation and revenge against those who wronged him. We see a shift however, as his determination begins to come slight from gre ed and more from intense hatred toward everyone around him. As a Jew in Malta, he is viewed as an alien; he is stir by the hypocrisy of the Christians who outcast him, and kills his daughter for converting. His entertainment regarding the murders he commits or causes indicates that his sole aim is vengeance. Some of these uppity murders moderate little apparent motive. His aim of reclaiming his wealth and strict revenge on those who took it gets swallowed up by a ?me against the universe of give-and-take attitude.? By the end of the play, it seems that his hatred and feelings of exile from the community cause him to want to kill everybody. This can be seen in his sack lines in the play, while he is dying in his protest trap, ?I would stick out brought confusion on you all, / Damned Christian dogs, and Turkish infidels! (V.v.84-85). Volpone does not develop this universality to his deception because he belongs to the upper class of his parliamentary law. His aim i s only to take service of a couple of targets who a! re easily taken avail of. Another major difference that can be seen between the characters is the theatricality with which Volpone directs his scheming. He warps the other characters as if he was a puppet-master, and conditionled everybody around him with strings. This relates to the value he finds in the ?cunning gift? of wealth. While Barabas is content to kill anybody who stands in his way, it seems that Volpone would view that attain as an undesirably simple, thuggish solution. Mosca alludes to Volpone?s deception as his ?sport.? He would find no sport in murder, unless it involved an implausibly detailed scheme to succeed. His perception of power comes from seeing himself garble the ideas and actions of others to fulfill his desires, not in eliminating the others to ease his own fulfilment of desire. I think that the similarities and differences visible between these two characters crystalise some of the differences between the aims of Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson. Marlowe was much more willing to show disruption of the well-disposed ordain, as well as the take away of society?s moral codes. This is evidenced by the rise of Barabas, an outcast of society, to claim the title of governor after causing the deaths of over a dozen people. Marlowe believed the world to be very unpredictable, and believed in the power of the individual to make long change. However, I think he also placed splendor on the individual?s use of intelligence to control themselves and the stakes they are put in. This is why Barabas fails in the end of the play. Marlowe will translate the freedom of success to a character such as Tamburlaine, who commit his horrible deeds in the situation of war, and always made his decisions in light of that situation. Barabas however, loses his self-control. When he stayed authorized to his rightful, natural desires for reclamation of his wealth and revenge, he succeeds. It is when he overreaches and tries to take on the whole world that he falls dupe to being ! outsmarted by someone he was plotting against. Ben Jonson, on the other hand, was very concerned with keeping the social order. Marlowe viewed the rules and ethics of society as artificial bondage against freedom, Jonson saw societal institutions as really keeping things the way they should be. This is evidenced in Volpone. The main character fails because he exhibits insatiable greed. He cannot be content with all that he has gained, and pushes the scheme too far, which will invariably, and rightfully, cause trial within the constraints of society. Mosca is clearly the more cunning of the two schemers, and it looks as though he will come out on top. However, it seems that Jonson is unwilling to allow for a servant to become a member of the elite class. I think that Marlowe would have applauded Mosca?s use of his intelligence and wit, and would have allowed him to keep his wealth. Instead, Jonson depicts the social order remaining upheld; Mosca is discovered and sentenced to life imprisonment. Jonson makes the point that lawless greed will invariably end in failure, no matter of the intelligence that accompanies it. Works CitedJonson, Ben. Five Plays. spic-and-span York: Oxford UP, Incorporated, 1999. Marlowe, Christopher. The Complete Plays. New York: Penguin Classics, 2003. 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