o are each introduced as men of the noblest qualities, with one
flaw which events have not yet revealed. But Barabas the Jew is
deliberately painted as vile. We learn from his own lips of previous
villany atrocious enough in itself, without any of his subsequent
crimes, to justify his horrible fate. Moreover, he does not actually
lose his wealth. If that were all swept away we could understand
resentment boiling up into savage hate. But the truth is, he is so
little hurt financially that soon after the confiscation of his goods
he is able to say:

In spite of these swine-eating Christians ...
Am I become as wealthy as I was.
They hoped my daughter would ha' been a nun;
But she's at home, and I have bought a house
As great and fair as is the governor's.

Hence his action against the governor's son, Lodowick, is inexcusably
vindictive, quite apart from the vile share in it which he forces upon
his daughter. The nunnery crime, again, is monstrous in its gross
injustice to Abigail's constancy and in its Herodian comprehensiveness.
After this his other murders and intrigues seem more justified. The two
friars, his servant Ithamore and the rest can well be spared by any
exit; his betrayal of the town is not unreasonable, considering the
treatment meted out to him within it; and his proposed second treachery
is based on sound policy.--We may observe, in passing, that the
self-righteous governor takes no steps to prevent, by a timely warning,
the massacre of the enemy's soldiers, availing himself of the atrocity,
instead, to secure a victory for his side.--Consequently, when the final
doom does fall upon Barabas, we have begun to be vaguely doubtful
whether it is altogether deserved. Yet we feel that it is impossible to
let him live. Thus the conclusion, however horrible spectacularly,
neither excites pity for the Jew nor entirely satisfies justice. Barabas
is victimized by the governor at the beginning of the play; it seems
hardly fair that the two men should occupy the same relative positions
at the end. It may be urged that the early scenes do present Barabas as
meriting our pity, that our compassion does go out to him in his
oppression. But the sympathy that is won at first is falsely won by the
prominence given to his distress when he _fears_ all is lost: touched
by the pain caused by the governor's injustice, we almost overlook the
recovery effected by the Jew's cunning.

If we look for passages of