Christopher Marlowe As A Dramatist

Christopher Marlowe as a Dramatist
The most important dramatist before Shakespeare among the University Wits
was Christopher Marlowe. He is really the greatest figure in pre Shakespearean
drama. He has left behind powerful tragedies – Tamburlaine, Doctor Faustus,
The Jew of Malta and Edward II. Marlowe, more than Shakespeare, was the
representative dramatist of the Renaissance period. In his four plays we have a
full- blooded expression of the entire age with all its new aspirations, hopes and
dashing adventure. Marlowe is the dramatist of the Renaissance period par
excellence and his plays are an epitome of what the Renaissance people felt and
lived. Marlowe touches almost all aspects of the Renaissance in his works. Each
one of these tragedies reflects the Renaissance spirit and revolves round the
central personality who is consumed by lust for power. Marlowe’s tragedies are
one man type of tragedy in which the hero dominates over the rest of the
characters and drafts them by his towering personality.
Marlowe’s ideal of a man of the Renaissance is pictured by him in the figure of

Tamburlaine, the Scythian conqueror. In Marlowe’s vision the man of the
Renaissance were expected to be –
Of stature tall, and a sprightly fashioned
His lofty brows in folds.
The pleasure of the earth and material values of life, which the man of the
Renaissance held dear are given full scope in Tamburlaine where the dramatist
says:
“A god is not so glorious as a King, I think the pleasure they enjoy in Heaven
Cannot compare with kingly joys on earth.”
In his second play Doctor Faustus Marlowe presents a man of learning and a
man running mad after the pursuit of worldly power. Doctor Faustus if the
master of varied knowledge ranging from philosophy to economics, but he is
dissatisfied with all his knowledge and practices necromancy to acquire worldly
power. So great is his love for power and pleasure that he sells his soul to the
Devil for enjoyment of worldly pelf and power. Doctor Faustus, a German
scholar and physician, signed the fateful contract with Mephistopheles, the
agent of Devil that he would readily allow his soul to be taken wherever
Mephistopheles wanted, if for twenty four years he was at his command and
carried out his borders according to his liking. For twenty four years
Mephistopheles served Doctor Faustus as faithfully as the magician (Doctor
Faustus) wanted him to do, but after the expiry of twenty four years, his soul
was forcefully dragged by the devils to hell where it was perpetually consigned
without any hope of redemption in the future. The tragedy of Doctor Faustus is
extremely pathetic and the cries of agony emerging from the lacerated heart of
the Doctor at the last moment of his departure to hell are sufficient to rend even
a stony heart to pieces.
In the third tragedy The Jew of Malta we have another expression of the love of
wealth and precious stones which fired the imagination and vision of the
Renaissance men and women. Barabas, the Jew is a typical Renaissance figure
in his love for wealth. He employs all his energy to accumulate “infinite riches
in a little room”.
Barabas is a terrible old-leader, who in his craze for wealth and his general
capacity of temper strongly suggests Shylock in Shakespeare’s Merchant of
Venice. The Jew had made plans to hold an entire city to ransom, but the evil
reconciled upon him and he fell a prey to his sinister machinations. He fell into
a boiling cauldron which he had prepared for another, and died blaspheming, his
only regret being that he did not commit all the crimes that he had kept stored in
his mind. The Jew felt no compunction at the time of his death and was tortured
by no qualms of conscience. “Let me be envied, but not pitied” was his dying
farewell to the people whom he had sought to ravage.
The love for the world finds a different expression in different form in Edward
II. In Marlowe’s last play Edward II the love and lust for the world takes the
shape of sensuous pleasures. Gaveston gives expression to this spirit when he
says –
I must have wanton poets, pleasant wits, Musicians that with touching of a
string
May draw the pliant king which way I please.
The defined tone of the Renaissance adventurer is heard in the speeches of

young Mortimer when he is commuted to the tower.
What Mortimer, can ragged stony walls, Inmure they virtue that aspires to
heaven! No, Edward, England’s courage, it may not be; Mortimer’s hope
surmounts his fortune far.
It is a tragic study of a king’s weakness and misery and brings out the irony of
kingship. Edward II is murdered in the castle in cold blood and his tragic end
moves us in sympathy for his unhappy lot. The utterances of the king in the
prison are tinged with true regret and have potency in them to move us to tears.
In point of style and dramatic construction, this play is best of all Marlowe’s
attempts in the field of tragedy.
Thus, Marlowe was, in fact, the mouthpiece of the new age of the Renaissance.
He was himself a lover of all those values which were held dear by the people
of the Renaissance.

Christopher Marlowe As A Dramatist

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Christopher Marlowe As A Dramatist

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Christopher Marlowe As A Dramatist

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Christopher Marlowe as a Dramatist

Marlowe’s ideal of a man of the Renaissance is pictured by him in the figure of

Of stature tall, and a sprightly fashioned

His lofty brows in folds.

The defined tone of the Renaissance adventurer is heard in the speeches of

You might also like