SUBMITTED BY:

UMIA MUMTAZ

SUBMITTED TO:

HON’BLE PROF. BABAR CHAUDHARY

COURSE CODE:

ENG-407

COURSE TITLE:

ELIZABETHAN AND RESTORATION DRAMA

ASSIGNMENT NO: 02

TOPIC:

CHARACTERISTICS OF MARLOVIAN HERO

SEMESTER:

3RD
CLASS:

BS (ENGLISH LITERATURE)

Roll No.
657

1
A SHORT NOTE ON MARLOVIAN HERO

The heroes of Christopher Marlowe are generally termed as marlovian hero. A

marlovian hero possesses some characteristics as follows -

• • Marlovian Hero is a common individual with some exceptional qualities.

• • Marlowe’s Protagonist has a towering personality.

• • Marlovian Hero is a man of high ambition and passion.

• • A Marlovian Hero undergoes an inner conflict.

• • He possesses a kind of Machiavellian morality.

Marlowe’s tragic heroes are defined by the Renaissance modifications to the

Aristotelian model. In the Greek Aristotelian model, the tragic hero could be

punished by either death or something less than death, but the Renaissance Hero

must die. In the Greek model, some Greek gods used to control the fates of the

hero, and as such, he was not wholly responsible for his tragedy. In the

Renaissance the Christian gods invests individuals for their actions. It, thus,

overcomes the dominants of gods and fate

2
MARLOWE’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF

ENGLISH TRAGEDY

We may begin by quoting Swinburne’s very just and relevant remarks regarding
Marlowe: “Before him there was neither genuine blank verse nor a genuine tragedy in
our language. After his arrival the way was prepared, the paths were made straight, for
Shakespeare.”
Gone were the great days of Miracle and Mystery plays. After the Reformation of
Movement Mysteries and Moralities lost all their influence on the audience; they were
rather disliked by the people because of their link and association with old Church. In
response to public demand came the Interlude with its fun and frolics and the masques
and Pageants with their costume displays gorgeous colors. Hence, comedy captured the
mind of the English people. But everything was in a chaotic and formless state before
the advent of University Wits the greatest among whom was Marlowe.

It was in the fifteenth century that tragedy came to English dramatic field. And this
was due to the influence of the Revival of Learning and the translation of great Italian
tragedies of Seneca. In fact Italian Renaissance had a tremendous influence upon the
development of the English drama. And the first English tragedy was Gorboduc (1562)
by Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville. In style and treatment of theme Seneca was
very much their model. Although this tragedy showed some innovation, yet most of the
Senecan characteristics—long sententious speeches, lack of action, talkative ghosts and
horrible scenes of gruesome murders, were very much there. Tragedies that followed
Gorboduc had the same Senecan characteristics. It required the mighty efforts of a great
genius to free the Elizabethan drama from the worst features of the Senecan tragedy.
And it was Christopher Marlowe who is credited with this outstanding achievement in
the realm of England’s dramatic literature. He threw the gauntlet when he penned these
forceful lines in the Prologue to his first drama Tamburlaine:
“From jigging veins of rhyming mother-wits.
And such conceits as clown age keeps in pay,
we’ll lead you to the stately tent of war,
where you shall hear the Scythian Tamburlaine,
Threatening the world with high astounding terms,
and scourging kingdoms with his conquering sword.”
We may now discuss about the various characteristics of Marlovian tragedy to point
out how he formulated the English drama, especially the tragedy which was improved
upon and perfected by a genius like Shakespeare.
Marlowe’s Tragic Hero
The first great thing done by Marlowe was to break away from the medieval
conception of tragedy, as in medieval drama, tragedy was a thing of the princes only. It
dealt 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—Tamburlaine,
Faustus or Jew of Malta—are of humble parentage, but they are endowed with great

3
heroic qualities and they are really great men. His tragedy is, in fact, the tragedy of one
man-the rise, fall and death of the hero. All other characters of a Marlovian drama pale
into insignificance beside the towering personality and the glory and grandeur of the
tragic hero. Even various incidents of the drama revolve round the hero. His heroes are
men fired with indomitable passion and inordinate ambition—his Tamburlaine is in full-
flooded pursuit of military and political power, his Faustus sells his soul to the Devil to
attain ultimate power through knowledge, and his Jew of Malta absolutely discards all
sense of human values with his blind and inordinate aspiration towards wealth as an
ultimate end. But what Marlowe really depicts and dramatizes with thoroughness is that
all his mighty heroes with all their sky-kicking aspirations find that the flush of their
temporary success leads to ultimate failure bringing about their tragic and terrible end.
Herein lies the greatness of Marlowe.
Working of a Passion
We have just seen that Marlowe’s heroes are dominated by some inordinate ambition
or passion-may be a supreme lust for power, wealth or knowledge. And kindling such
passion in their souls Marlowe imparted great vehemence and force in his drama. But in
this we may trace the distinct influence of Machiavelli on Marlowe. Marlowe must have
read his far-famed book The Prince and derived this idea of ambition from him. In his
book Machiavelli praised ambition as the only desirable virtue in a prince and denied all
morality except that morality which operated for the good of the individual. Thus, we
find all his heroes dominated by inordinate ambition discarding all moral codes and
plunging headlong to achieve their end. Such intense passion and pitiless struggle with
super-human energy, to achieve their end makes Marlowe’s tragic heroes great indeed
and adds glory and grandeur to their personality. Thus, Marlowe discarded the old
conception of tragedy as descent from greatness to misery and supplanted it by the
greatness of individual worth. His heroes believing that the ecstasy of earthly gain and
glory is its own reward also proclaimed the true Renaissance outlook.
Inner Conflict
Another great achievement of Marlowe was to introduce the element of conflict,
especially inner struggle in two of his great tragedies—“Doctor Faustus” and “Edward
II.” Conflict may be on physical as well as on spiritual plane. The spiritual or moral
conflict takes place in the heart of man and this is of much greater-significance and
much more poignant than the former. And a great tragedy most powerfully reveals the
emotional conflict or moral agony of the mighty hero. In this respect, in the realm of
England’s dramatic literature Doctor Faustus may be reckoned as the first great spiritual
tragedy or tragedy of the soul. In this epoch-making drama the deep moral agony and
the painful spiritual conflict has been superbly laid bare before us by Marlowe. And this
inner conflict reveals the real significance of character as the main-stay of a great
tragedy. Like the heroes of ancient tragedy, Marlowe’s heroes are not helpless puppets
in the hands of blind fate. The tragic flaw was in their character and the tragic action
also issued out of their characters. This was really Marlowe’s greatest contribution to
English tragedy.
Blank Verse
Another great achievement of Marlowe was to introduce a new type of blank verse in
his tragedies. A new spirit of poetry was breathed into the artificial and monotonous

4
verse of old plays. In fact, the whole of the Renaissance drama was enlivened by a new
poetic grandeur.
Moral Conception
It was Marlowe who first discarded the medieval conception of tragedy as it was
distinctly a moral one. In those dramas the aim was always to inculcate some moral
lesson by showing the fall of hero into adversity. There is no such intrusive morality in
Marlowe’s plays. The main interest in Marlovian drama centres on the towering
personality of the heroes -with their tremendous rise and tragic fall.
Some Other Features
Another notable characteristic of Marlowe’s tragedies is its high seriousness and
hence there is complete lack of humour. According to many a critic, the scenes of
clownishness in Doctors Faustus are nothing but later interpolations. The women
characters are also conspicuous by their absence. Zen crate in Tamburlaine, the Duchess
and Helen in Doctor Faustus and Abigail in the Jew of Malta are either figureheads or
spirits or shadows. As regards plot-structure, Marlowe followed the old chronicle
tradition of separate episodes just loosely knit together in his Tamburlaine and Doctor
Faustus. Only in the Jew of Malta and especially in Edward II he first attempted a
regular plot and succeeded to some extent in the former and to a greater extent in the
latter. Most of the above features may also be treated as Marlowe’s drawbacks as a
dramatist; and probably due to these limitations Marlowe could not succeed in reaching
the loftiest summits of the tragic art. But we must remember he was pioneer and a path-
finder; and what he did was really magnificent and he is justly regarded as the father of
English tragedy, as the ‘morning star of Elizabethan drama.’ He was really ‘the
Columbus of the new literary world.’ We may conclude by the illuminating remarks of
Schelling: “Marlowe gave the drama passion and poetry; and poetry was his most
precious gift. Shakespeare would not have been Shakespeare had Marlowe never written
or lived. He might not have been altogether the Shakespeare we know.”

CONCLUSION

 Doctor Faustus’ tragic death also has resemblance. After living twenty four years

in sensual activities, Faustus had to surrender his soul to the Devil. Marlowe’s

Bohemian and boisterous life, too came to a tragic sudden end in tavern brawl at

the hands of a shady character of the London Underworld at the age of twenty

nine. Marlowe lost himself into his works.

5
Doctor Faustus is strewn with unmistakably autobiographical suggestions. Reading

the play we cannot refrain from concluding that it is the spontaneous expression of

its writer’s innermost thoughts and authentic experiences.