DR FAUSTRUS AS A MODERN TRAGEDY
“DOCTOR FAUSTUS”: A MODERN TRAGEDY
Introduction: Marlowe’s Tragic Hero
One of the greatest achievements of Marlowe was that he broke away from the medieval conception of tragedy. In medieval dramas, tragedy was a thing of the princes only dealing with the rise and fall of kings or royal personalities. But it was left to Marlowe to evolve and create the real tragic hero.
Almost all the heroes of Marlowe’s great tragedies Tamburlaine, Doctor Faustus or the Jew of Malta—are of humble parentage, but they are endowed with great heroic qualities. His tragedy is in fact the tragedy of one man—the rise, fall and death of the tragic hero. His heroes are titanic characters afire with some indomitable passion or inordinate ambition. Marlowe himself was saturated with the spirit of the Renaissance and so he enlivened his heroes with all its robust and fascinating characteristics, so much so that his towering heroes became the true embodiments of the Renaissance dreams, desires and ideals. And this is powerfully revealed in Tamburlaine’s pursuit of military and political power, in Jew of Malta’s aspiration toward wealth as an ultimate end and in the most captivating way is Faustus’s supreme quest for the ultimate power through knowledge infinite.
Working of a Passion: Discarding Ethical Values
We have just discussed that Marlowe’s heroes were dominated by some uncontrollable passion or inordinate ambition. And they also seem to be inspired by Machiavelli’s ideals of human conduct and human desires. Machiavelli’s well-known book—‘The Prince’ preached the doctrine of complete freedom of the individual to gain one’s end by any means-fair or foul. Thus we find his tragic heroes afire with an indomitable passion discarding all moral codes and ethical principles and plunging headlong to achieve their end. Such intense passion and pitiless struggle with super-human energy to achieve earthly gain and glory make Marlowe’s heroes great indeed and adds shining
Introduction: Marlowe’s Tragic Hero
One of the greatest achievements of Marlowe was that he broke away from the medieval conception of tragedy. In medieval dramas, tragedy was a thing of the princes only dealing with the rise and fall of kings or royal personalities. But it was left to Marlowe to evolve and create the real tragic hero.
Almost all the heroes of Marlowe’s great tragedies Tamburlaine, Doctor Faustus or the Jew of Malta—are of humble parentage, but they are endowed with great heroic qualities. His tragedy is in fact the tragedy of one man—the rise, fall and death of the tragic hero. His heroes are titanic characters afire with some indomitable passion or inordinate ambition. Marlowe himself was saturated with the spirit of the Renaissance and so he enlivened his heroes with all its robust and fascinating characteristics, so much so that his towering heroes became the true embodiments of the Renaissance dreams, desires and ideals. And this is powerfully revealed in Tamburlaine’s pursuit of military and political power, in Jew of Malta’s aspiration toward wealth as an ultimate end and in the most captivating way is Faustus’s supreme quest for the ultimate power through knowledge infinite.
Working of a Passion: Discarding Ethical Values
We have just discussed that Marlowe’s heroes were dominated by some uncontrollable passion or inordinate ambition. And they also seem to be inspired by Machiavelli’s ideals of human conduct and human desires. Machiavelli’s well-known book—‘The Prince’ preached the doctrine of complete freedom of the individual to gain one’s end by any means-fair or foul. Thus we find his tragic heroes afire with an indomitable passion discarding all moral codes and ethical principles and plunging headlong to achieve their end. Such intense passion and pitiless struggle with super-human energy to achieve earthly gain and glory make Marlowe’s heroes great indeed and adds shining