The Significance of Walls in Christopher Marlowe's The Jew of Malta: Analytical Perspectives

Abstract

Christopher Marlowe's The Jew of Malta is analyzed in this paper for its juridical and biopolitical significance. It was the goal of early modern city planners to prevent diseases from spreading across the city's public spaces. By protecting the politic body from sickness, Malta's walls help differentiate between the physical and metaphysical world. In Marlowe's view, the national body is a living thing threatened by alien bodies. According to the play's medical discourse, pathogenic infiltrations of Turks and Catholics are eradicated by another invading entity, a Jew.