1 / 11

Portrayal of the Jewish Character on the Elizabethan Stage

Portrayal of the Jewish Character on the Elizabethan Stage. Kerri Murphy. Thesis. To show that many of these Elizabethan ideas were based on myths and stereotypes perpetuated by Christian fears. Background Information. Wearing badges Expulsion

brier
Download Presentation

Portrayal of the Jewish Character on the Elizabethan Stage

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Portrayal of the Jewish Character on the Elizabethan Stage Kerri Murphy

  2. Thesis • To show that many of these Elizabethan ideas were based on myths and stereotypes perpetuated by Christian fears.

  3. Background Information • Wearing badges • Expulsion • The “Jew Bill” of 1753- Impact on The Merchant of Venice

  4. Myths and Stereotypes • Poisoning the Christians (Black Death) • No Jews in England • Ritual murder • Usurer • Circumcision

  5. The Jew of Malta • Written by Christopher Marlowe • Main character Barabas • Jewish myth of poison • Where Marlowe’s idea came from

  6. Shakespeare and the Jews • Title of Shapiro book • Circumcision- Antonio’s pound of flesh • “Hanged by the neck, and being alive cut down, and your privy members be cut off, and your bowels to be taken out of your belly and there burned, you being alive.”

  7. No Jews in England • Shakespeare based his plays off myths and other plays • The Orator • Usury- linked to prostitution

  8. Blood Relations: Jew and Christian in The Merchant of Venice • Janet Adelman • Fear of Jewish religion • Circumcision = Ritual murder reminders

  9. Ritual murder originations • Langmuir- William of Norwich as spoken about by Thomas of Monmouth (1150) • Yuval- Christians attacking Jewish Communities in the Rhineland (1096)

  10. Hermann Sinsheimer • New opportunity for a Jewish character- keeps with the myths • Judas’ betrayal of Jesus • Interesting point in The Merchant of Venice • Jewish family life

  11. Conclusion • It is my opinion that the Christians in Elizabethan time feared the many myths about the Jewish religion such as circumcision and ritual murder, and were set upon believing the stereotype that Jews were usurers and charged obscene amounts of interest on loans, and so therefore portrayed the main Jewish characters in both The Jew of Malta and The Merchant of Venice in such a poor light to keep anyone in the audience from truly feeling any sympathy for the religion.

More Related