Marlowe’s Contribution to the development of English Drama

Q.         Write a comprehensive note on Marlowe’s genius as a playwright (PU-2003)

Ans. Marlowe is considered to be the founder of English tragedy. Before him the drama was merely an exercise of theological disciplines. It was he, who gave the proper dignity and grandeur of a tragedy to the English plays swinbume says:

“Before him, there was neither genuine blank verse nor genuine tragedy in our language. After his arrival, the way was prepared; the paths were made straight for Shakespeare.”

Marlowe made his tragedy significant due to its newness, renaissance influence, Machiavillian morality, powerful and passionate expression, element of tragic inner conflict, tragic hero, popular literary type, high seriousness, bombastic language and the use of blank verse. Marlowe, under the influence of great Italian tragedies of Seneca, introduced the senecan characteristics such as long sententious speeches, lack of action, talkative ghosts and horrible scenes of gruesome murders.

One of the greatest contribution of Marlowe is the introduction of a new kind of tragic hero. Marlowe broke away from the medieval conception of tragedy and evolved a real tragic hero. Unlike medieval princely or a conspicuous hero, Marlovian heroes are common person with humble parentage but they are endowed with great heroic qualities. He picks up day to-day themes and in accordance to these themes, he selects commonplace persons as his heroes. However, these persons are distinct in their respected groups because of their special qualities. As Barabas is an ordinary moneylender, Tamburlaine is a shepherd, while Dr. Faustus is an ordinary scholar in divinity. Hence, Marlowe makes his tragedies the story of everyone. Marlowe’s heroes struggle against the hostile forces. As a critic says:

            “Marlowe’s heroes reflect the struggle of a brave soul.”

His protagonists have a towering personality, who play the most dominant role, rising head and shoulders high above all the minor characters and attain a titanic stature of a superman size. They are like Gulliver amongst Lilliputians.

Another great contribution of Marlowe is that he introduced the element of powerful passion and ambition in his heroes. Marlovian heroes are ambitious and passionate men with their great but limited capabilities. They want to fly high above the sky, as Marlowe says about Faustus:

“His Waxen wings did mount above his reach”.

And again he says:

            “All things that move between the quiet poles shall be at my command.”

Their passions urge them to undertake mighty actions; even they violate all the accepted and established moral codes. They are terribly inclined to their passion and ambition. As Dr. Faustus wants to attain the highest power of Omnipotence. He says:

“Divinity adieu:

These metaphysics of magicians and necromantic books are heavenly.

Again he says:

A sound magician is a mighty God:

Here Faustus tire thy brain to gain a deity.”

Another great contribution of Marlowe is that he interiorized the drama and introduced the element of inner conflict in his heroes. Greek tragedies and pre-Elizabethan dramas focus at the outer conflict of the protagonists, fighting against the nature or destiny. But Marlowe introduced both inner as well as the outer conflict in his heroes. The minds of his heoes are generally tom off between two extremes. In “The Jew of Malta” and “Tamburlaine” the conflict is mainly external, but in Dr. Faustus, it is, most of the time internal. The object of the playwright is to delineate the prick of mind of Dr. Faustus. He says:

Ay, Faustus will turn to God again,

To God? He loves thee not.

Another great contribution of Marlowe was the introduction of the popular literary type and the use of blank verse and bombastic language with mighty lines suited to the subject, theme and the hero. Thus a new spirit of poetry was breathed into the artificial and monotonous verse of medieval plays and this gave a new poetic grandeur to the Renaissance drama.

Marlowe also discarded the Medieval morality plays which aimed at inculcating some moral lesson by showing the fall of the hero into adversity. Whereas Marlovian heroes are Machiavellian.

A very notable feature of Marlovian tragedy is its high seriousness and the lack of humour and the absence of female characters and his sole interest in the main hero with his towering personality. And probably because of these limitations, Morlowe could not succeed in reaching the disered loftiest summits of the tragic art. But he was the pioneer, path­finder and the ‘morning star of Elizabethian drama’ and the real grandeur of English tragedy. He proved to be ‘the Columbus of the new literary world’. According to the illuminating remarks of Schelling:

            “Marlow 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”.

Points to remember:

1.                  Marlowe is considered to be the founder of English tragedy.

2.                  Marlowe introduced a new kind of tragic hero.

3.                  Marlovian heroes have titanic stature.

4.                  Marlovian heroes have strong passions and powerful ambition.

5.                  Marlowe introduced inner conflict.

6.                  Marlowe used a new kind of blank verse in drama.

7.                  Marlowe also has some limitations.

8.                  He is a the pioneer and the path finder of English drama.

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