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Hwang, Byung-Soo. “An Exploration into Manifold Genres in The Jew of Malta.” Studies in English Language & Literature. 38.1 (2012): 163-185. Christopher Marlowe dramatizes his vision of tragedy through the unavoidable doom of Barabas’ single-minded efforts to enjoy great wealth in The Jew of Malta. He enhances the main action of his tragedy by reducing it to various absurd scenes with a bitter satire. The inconsistencies of their words and actions function as an important factor of farce, the lower form of comedy. While the self-contradictory absurdity of human efforts is quite tragic, it can be farcical. He grasps these two aspects of his characters, and dramatizes the tragic elements juxtaposed with farcical elements. By mingling the tragic and farcical elements, he shows sympathy and contempt as well as pity and fear, and maximizes their reciprocal effects. These alleviate tragic tensions as a comic relief and furthermore show the meaning of human life which is inherently absurd and farcical. As a consequence, he provides the audience with serious meaningfulness by leaving it still open to various types of genres: Machiavellian tragedy, tragedy of revenge, tragedy of irony, farcical tragedy, melodrama, tragic farce, black comedy, city comedy and so forth. (Gangneung-Wonju National University)