With reference to two plays, consider the significance of moments where characters themselves become spectators of the action taking place around them.

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James Bevan Renaissance Drama

"Much speculation surrounds how the playhouse audience experienced Renaissance drama; rather less attention is paid to onstage audiences. With reference to two plays, consider the significance of moments where characters themselves become spectators or auditors of the action taking place around them".

Several moments of self-reflexivity can be found in The Jew of Malta. The use of this dramatic device has several functions with the play. As well as altering the dynamics of the play, it is used by the dramatist to make comment, and blur the boundaries between theatricality and reality.

The use of Barabas' asides anchor his relationship with the audience. In breaking the fourth wall, Marlowe fabricates a liminal territory where Barabas can flirt between the world of the text and reality. This achieves a number of things. Barabas appears a lonely character as he fails to build any relations. His soliloquies function as a conduit to voice his social ineptitude and nefarious designs. We soon learn, via these evil soliloquies that his only concerns lie with his daughter, his money and of course, himself, "Let 'em kill all, So they spare me, my daughter, and my wealth"1 The audience is now put in a position of power because they are aware of Barabas' evil intentions before the characters in the text. Accordingly, the audience starts to feel accountable as the intrigues of the plot unfold. Barabas' fate ends tragically and his narrative is a testament to the failure as a man and of the Machiavellian principles he tries to emulate.
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Barabas demonstrates a command over the world of the text. Being Jewish and affluent alienates him from the Christian Maltese society. In a society of religious hypocrites, Barabas' honesty is alarmingly compelling. Again, it is through his asides that we see him orchestrating the development of the narrative even when he loses his money (and power - a term interchangeable in the 16th century). "It shall go hard but I shall see your death" (page 53, line 95). It could be argued that Barabas has elements of an anti-hero. Despite ultimately murdering his daughter, he confesses an admirable ...

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