Giovanni J. Ciriello
Mr. Bruno
English 12
11/6/17
Christopher Marlowe Research Paper
Christopher Marlowe’s works as a playwright are perhaps some of the most known literary pieces in English history. He was born in 1564 and died in 1593. From Tamburlaine to Dr. Faustus, he has written many masterpieces that encompass numerous themes and styles. Marlowe reflects on Christianity, society, and even himself in his plays. His plays also often relied heavily on his use of poetry and vivid imagery for his themes and styles. There are many different positions people hold on the character of Christopher Marlowe, as he was an outsider in Elizabethan society. His views opposed the way of thinking at the time and his themes and styles reflected his stance.
His first reflection on the Elizabethan society he lived in came from Tamburlaine. As the world around him was very Christian, Marlowe consistently questioned the church. He was an outsider with great skepticism towards Christianity. Tamburlaine is the first of Marlowe’s work to question society therefore it is not his best reflection. It shows how Marlowe failed in conveying “criticisms of life” (Knights 367-370).
While also questioning Christianity, Marlowe also criticized the culture he lived in. The Elizabethan culture was that of greed, violence and power. Marlowe used these aspects in his works, including Tamburlaine, to condemn what he saw. The aspect of cruelty and violence against each other is prominently incorporated in Tamburlaine to show how people, during Marlowe’s time, yearned for supremacy and dominance. Many tenets of Elizabethan society, like violence and self righteousness, coincide greatly with pride and self assertion (Knights 367-370).
Tamburlaine’s pastoral imagery also relates to the society around Christopher Marlowe and its hierarchical system. In Tamburlaine, people could cross social barriers with ease. “Ambition, plainly, is the central theme of Tamburlaine”. It is a story of social mobility where a shepherd could become a soldier and even grow to prominence. This is the opposite for the Elizabethan society. Here, if someone tried to step outside of their social class they generally faced consequences. Marlowe’s society was not meant for upward mobility. Everyone had a role and could not change their social standing. Marlowe did not like this and used Tamburlaine to portray a society unlike his. Tamburlaine himself has broken through social barriers (Hopkins 134-135). While Tamburlaine put forth a solid argument criticizing society, it was Marlowe’s first attempt at it. His second attempt would build upon his disdain with society (Knights 370-371).
Christopher Marlowe’s second literary criticism on society came to fruition in his play, The Jew of Malta. Human “stupidity” and “hypocrisy” are constant themes in The Jew of Malta as well as corruption. The setting of this play is quite similar to the degree of susceptibility of corruption in sixteenth century England. The epitome of Elizabethan violence, lies, and greed are expressed in The Jew of Malta. There is an endless cycle of victimization and being victimized. There is no escape from this cycle. Even though Marlowe used themes which reflected his society, the outcome of the play “has no focus” according to L.C Knights. It attempts to bring out multiple wrongs in Elizabethan society without elaborating in detail on them (Knights 370-371).
Dr. Faustus is perhaps Christopher Marlowe’s greatest play. It is also his greatest criticism on his society. It is often compared to Macbeth in the fall of their respective characters. While their demise are different they both resemble a similar theme. Both stories reflect Elizabethan society and their hunger for power and pride (Ornstein 251). Both Macbeth and Dr. Faustus are very different. Macbeth yearned to become king and Faustus was very fearful and just wanted to have knowledge (Knights 371-372).
Dr. Faustus is a description of man’s search for limitless power and growth of the human mind. The criticism of society in Dr. Faustus, which has been present in Tamburlaine and The Jew of Malta, is portrayed better than any of Christopher Marlowe’s other works. Humanity’s demand for power and supremacy is another constant in Dr. Faustus. Marlowe used fantasy to try to explain the faults of true understanding and human growth. Human growth and need for power is also based on man’s insatiable desire (Knights 371-372). This use of “insatiable desire” is present among every Marlovian hero. Marlowe explains through his works that desire is hard to understand. Desire’s want to need never wavers especially between Marlowe’s heroes and power (Wall-Randell 250). Marlowe wrote Dr. Faustus with a strong anti man rhetoric. He was more “anti humanistic than humanistic” as opposed to other writers in his time where humanity was generally praised. Marlowe was an outlier in this sense. Both men and women could not bring him joy. His utter dislike for humanity was shown heavily in his poetic descriptions of men and women. He translated works of female beauty and sensuality into “metaphysical dread” and “incarnations of poetic aspirations” (Ornstein 250).
Christopher Marlowe quite simply believed the world he lived in was horrible. This feeling he had towards the world influenced his writing. His writings and depiction of humanity often show his distaste for life on this earth. Human qualities in any play written by Christopher Marlowe were dark and sardonic with very few characters of high moral standing. To Marlowe, everything around him was bad. He hated the way humans acted and condemned those actions in his writing. He could not enjoy the world and humanity because he felt “humans are worthless”. Marlowe’s dislike for humans derives from the death that constantly looms over them. Death traps them like criminals. This attitude is reflected in Marlowe’s characters. They begin each play loving the world but by the end they hate it. Their inability to accept death resulted in their change of attitudes toward the world. Marlowe’s characters fail to understand the destiny all humans have in death. Human death signifies how “their victory is denied” by the ending of the play. Christopher Marlowe tries to explain this and examine “why men must die” (Ornstein 250).
Marlowe also takes on a particularly different philosophy on life which has a close relationship with humanity. The basis of Dr. Faustus is its search for knowledge. Man yearns to obtain a stronger understanding of the world in order to get a broader self reflection. Marlowe leads all knowledge obtained by his characters to connect with “knowledge of ends” (Brooks 373).
The interpretation of Marlowe’s philosophy has changed as critics have developed new knowledge and ways of thinking from the time Marlowe lived to the present day. The connection between the theme of knowledge in Dr. Faustus and present day knowledge of interpretation are quite similar. Throughout Marlowe’s plays, characters are open to new knowledge and understanding similar to the constant scholarly research critics use to gain a better understanding of Marlowe’s work (Ornstein 247-248).
Marlowe’s philosophy reflected the issues involved with an ever changing society that dealt with attempting to figure out present and future issues of his time. Christopher Marlowe knew that after his time there would be a culture shift. He presented this in his writing through depictions of “two cultures”. The preparation for “two cultures” as an underlying theme under the overtone of knowledge related to Dr. Faustus's inner battle between divine teachings and dark magic (Brooks 373).
Refusal to accept knowledge is another underlying tone Marlowe puts forth in conveying his theme of knowledge . This is another aspect of humanity Marlowe looks to criticize in Dr. Faustus. An example of this occurs when Faustus denies the existence of hell even though a reputable source had tried to tell him there was. He did not accept the knowledge that would have been beneficial to know during the latter part of the play. His reluctance to believe is most definitely a call to Marlowe’s dislike with the world. The idea that humans were simple and did not understand how the world worked, including its complexities, is depicted by this. The fact is, Marlowe felt man’s ignorance limited them greatly. While people do search for more knowledge, Marlowe believes it is wasted in human ignorance. This is depicted through Faustus’s endless search for new understanding of the world, yet once he acquires this knowledge it goes to waste in senseless activities. Faustus’s desire to obtain knowledge shows the “contradictions” that makes him a “human figure and even a more modern figure” (Brooks 374). This is another example of the variety of desire in Marlowe’s plays. The continuous search for more knowledge is another semblance of “unsatisfied desire” (Wall-Randall 250). Other types of desire like power (Knights 371-372), and even women, which will be elaborated on further into this paper, (Stockholder 323) express Faustus as an even greater modern human. There is a sense of constant modernity in Dr. Faustus. This is what makes Christopher Marlowe’s play, Dr. Faustus, a true masterpiece in respect to how human nature is conveyed. (Brooks 374)
Elements of desire in respect to women were also commonly introduced in Marlowe’s works. In Dr. Faustus, women and love were absent from Faustus’s life. The first image of a woman came to him in the form of a spirit. This reflects the “desire” aspect of women presented by Marlowe, but also “fear”. Women had a close relationship with forbidden magic in Marlowe’s writing which answers the question to why there was an aura of fear surrounding femininity (Stockholder 323). “The demonization of magic” in society brought with it a sense of danger in which Marlowe heavily used to convey fear and desire. By using magic in his writing, Marlowe went against the church, a common element in his writing (Bartels 361). The connection between women and magic also draws close to Marlowe’s theological views. Christopher Marlowe depicts Faustus’s choice of sensual desire that would be given to him by magic over an “asexual Christian heaven”. Man is willing to risk anything with dangerous magic for “love” over having safety in heaven. In Marlowe’s idea of Heaven and God, there is no sensual love. He pictures man easily choosing lust and sensuality through magic over being with God, even though forbidden magic could lead to condemnation. The idea of man’s urge for love is greater than his desire for God is depicted through Faustus (Stockholder 323).
Marriage is also questioned by Dr. Faustus. Faustus asks for a wife but grows fearful of the familial and sensual aspect of marriage. This symbolizes how Marlowe felt about women and marriage. In his own life, women and their sensuality were absent much like in Faustus's. His vision of women were dark and clouded and he felt marriage was unimportant and a waste. Mephistophilis from Dr. Faustus stated that “marriage is but a ceremonial toy. Marriage is also associated with “an alternative to heaven” as well as despair (Stockholder 324).
The great amount of homosexual imagery and themes present in Christopher Marlowe’s work hint to his own sexual orientation. The hidden identity in many of Marlowe’s works, such as Hero and Leander and Edward II, establish a mood of sexuality with a focus on homosexuality (Holmes 124). The beauty of women is covered up by man. This is another overtone of homosexuality (Stockholder 325). Marlowe often uses imagery praising the bodies of men and their features which relates with Stockholder’s view on women’s beauty. Marlowe’s use of homosexuality, stated by William Keach, is “‘momentarily essentializing the language homoertoticism’ in order to break apart ‘orthodox epistemology’” (Holmes 125). The idea of sensuality, presented by Christopher Marlowe, was created with a sense of restriction on it and “dark associations” with heterosexuality.
Among many homosexual themes Christopher Marlowe presents sensuality in a dark and twisted way. In Dr. Faustus, the image of the marital act is associated with children and their parents. This brings disgust to Faustus as he begins to lose understanding of sensuality. God’s father like image, presented by Marlowe, inspires rebellion against God and his teaching because of the sensuality surrounding family. This depicts man turning away from God and a yearn for a different type of sexual knowledge (Stockholder 325).
The epitome of sexual knowledge comes from Marlowe’s installment of the character Helen in Dr. Faustus. Her sensual aura is different from others in the story. Her sensuality is depicted as full of fear and evil. There is also fear in the future a woman (Helen) brings with her when becoming intimate with a man. Helen is the perfect example of Marlowe’s feeling about women. He relates dark magic to them the same as he relates magic to condemnation. Helen represents, according to Marlowe, “fearful punishments and self loathing” (Stockholder 326; Bartels 361). As Marlowe had many provocative thoughts towards women and sexuality, his views on God and Christianity created even more controversy.
While many accused Marlowe of being an atheist, there is evidence for his belief in God. Some scholars even think that he presented atheist viewpoints in order to “incite malice” among society. Marlowe’s atheism writing comes directly from his criticisms of the Church as well as other circumstances in his life. The irony in Dr. Faustus lies in its protagonist’s great fear in hell even though he deliberately defies God’s doctrine which would ultimately condemn him (Ornstein 248). Dr. Faustus also “dramatizes blasphemy” through its use as something heroic. By dramatizing it, he also creates a romantic sense around it as opposed to his other works where their story comes off as “unacknowledged blasphemy (Barber 386).
By Marlowe depicting Hell to be true, he is in a sense proving his belief in God. The deliberate use of Christian heresies in his writing comes from his defiance against society (Ornstein 249). This relates to Knights’ research that points to Marlowe as an outsider in society. Christopher Marlowe’s hate for society is only matched by his desire to cause controversy. From denouncing man to also denouncing Christian teaching, Marlowe was defiant against society (Knights 372; Ornstein 249).
In Marlowe’s criticism of the Church, he questions man’s destiny. A fault in Dr. Faustus is that the question of human destiny does not enter back into the play after it was introduced in the prologue. This limits Marlowe’s ability to express his religious message about “human limitations” , but does not take away from what was intended to be conveyed. There is still a Christian message used in the prologue (Ornstein 249).
Marlowe's philosophy for life pertains to why men must die instead of learning how men die like many other thinkers. His philosophy begins to search for man’s ultimate destiny. The traditional stories of God are used in Dr. Faustus to explain the play’s rebellion against God through the sins of Satan and Adam. Faustus’s whole inner rebellion does not just go against God, but also goes against the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Also, instead of explaining original sin, he relates Greek mythology to his play’s disobedience to higher orders. This is another example of Marlowe’s disregard for societal norms. It also points to his search for human destiny by presenting a life with multiple Greek gods instead of the God. In other words, Marlowe “set the standards against the heavens” (Ornstein 249).
Marlowe's take on Christianity is severely different from the Church’s view on it. The main tenet of Christianity is forgiveness, yet Christopher Marlowe purposefully chooses to forget it in order to further his message of condemnation. An example of this comes from the protagonist in Dr. Faustus never asking for forgiveness due to getting caught up in his fear of condemnation. This presents the idea that man is doomed and reflects human disillusionment to their own sins and forgiveness (Ornstein 249). This also relates to man’s fear in ever present darkness of condemnation (Kott 378). Kott’s examination on the fear of the devil gives proof to Ornstein’s belief in man’s misguidedness in condemnation and forgiveness.
The truth of forgiveness lies in Christian scholars who state that true theology would make the case that Faustus was not destined to be condemned. Even as Faustus had realized, through his growing self and moral understanding, he still believed doom awaited him. Faustus’ defiance in God was the reason for his demise, yet in true Christian doctrine he would be saved if he asked for forgiveness. (Ornstein 251) This is the biggest difference between Marlowe’s God, who is dominate and dark, and the real God, who represents love. The true understanding of God is that he loves and forgives us. Marlowe’s depiction of God can be best explained through the “Seven Deadly Sins”, where committing a sin will result in demise. This is a dark and ominous reflection of God (Kott 380).
On top of the various themes that separates Christopher Marlowe from other writers, his styles and techniques defined him as well. Marlowe’s work has been praised for its excellent use of poetry. Many scholars believe that Marlowe put an emphasis on his poetry instead of developing a middle for many of his plays (Brooks 377). Unlike traditional tragedies, Marlowe elects to not focus greatly on his middle. Poetry expresses the the main idea of the play. Through the use of poetry, Marlowe’s characters change completely, such as Dr. Faustus. Instead of putting forth a huge amount of development in the middle of his plays, he uses it to inspire “personal self examination and inner conflict”. This gives the reader a chance to have a greater understanding of Marlowe’s characters and their conflicts (Brooks 373).
Marlowe’s writing never consisted of naturalism, mathematics, empiricism, or rationalism even though these styles were widely used during his time. His work was primarily poetic. He demanded that his work should be filled with the “mysteries that lay beyond human reason and experience”. His styles looked passed his own time period. He also had an infatuation with “superhuman” and “metaphysical” ideas which influenced his writing. Many scholars believe that Marlowe’s writing often resembles the thought and writing styles of the Medieval ages (Ornstein 250).
Christopher Marlowe was a great writer and his works will continue to be studied for countless years. His themes and styles reflect that of a man at odds with society. Marlowe will always be remembered as an outsider but his works set the precedent for future writers who wanted to express the ill of society. His contributions to English literature, only surpassed by William Shakespeare, place him as a great literary genius.
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