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CONCLUSION
The Renaissance was the name of a many-sided but yet
discovered movement of the fresh sources of art: new experiences,
new subjects, new approach, new forms of art etc. One of the main
aspects of the new learning was, as pointed out earlier, freedom
from tutelage of the ancients and arbitrary authority. It came to
mean hope and self-reliance, the motive force of knowledge and
power, and of the discovery of man and the world. The Renaissance
obviously affected the plays of Christopher Marlowe.
Christopher Marlowe (1564-93), predecessor of Shakespeare
and one of the ‘University Wits’, was an enlightened English
dramatist and poet, who established himself first as a master of
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blank verse, a creative form of dramatic expression. His
biographical sketch; his literary achievements; and unique dramatic
style and technique; containing relevant facts and impressive
information about the Renaissance period are presented in the
foregoing chapters of this thesis.
It contains studies on the valuable elements of the period
right from 14
th
to 16
th
century, especially Renaissance spirits
reflected in the different plays of Christopher Marlowe. Christopher
Marlowe’s original works were the two parts of Tamburlaine the
Great (1587); Doctor Faustus (1588); The Jew of Malta (1590);
and Edward the Second (1592).
The period of Marlowe’s dramatic activity comprises six
brief years, from 1587 to 1593. Yet during those six years he wrote
his splendid plays – all reflecting his essential spirit and nature, all
full of passions. Each drama centers round some overmastering
passion – wild and intemperate passion that grows and develops. He
created genuine blank verse and firmly established it as the most
appropriate medium of poetic drama. The lust for empire, the lust
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for lucre, the lust for knowledge and the lust for beauty and passion
– these form the background as well as the mainspring of his plays.
A master-idealist Marlowe is one of the foremost
representative writers of Elizabethan artistic movement who lived
for his art. Marlowe is to be remembered and valued not as a mere
impulse giver and path-finder who paved the way for the typical
English tragedy; and not merely as the wielder of blank verse as a
noble poetic instrument, but also as a master of the ‘mighty line’.
Marlowe blazed a new trial both in thought and technique –
in matter as well as manner, and in its footsteps a new perfection
treads. His familiar domain was not of men’s manners and habits,
and customs and conventions. But his concern was with needs and
necessities of human souls. Not man’s relation to man but man’s
relation to God and to the universe was the theme dear to Marlowe.
The element that is eternal in man, and the spirit that is significant
of man who have the potency of arraying themselves against the
universe if necessary, were the sole concerns of Marlowe as a
playwright.
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The following three characteristics of Marlowe’s works are
the most striking ones viz.: its pictorial quality, its ecstatic quality
and its vitalizing energy. His pictorial quality is not mere
visualizing of a dreamer’s fancy; it shows the inspiration of that
spirit of adventure which characterized the Renaissance.
Tamburlaine’s passion for conquest is similar to the passion of the
explorers and adventurers like Drake and Hawkins.
Marlowe, at first raised the subject matter of his plays to a
higher level by providing heroic subjects that readily appealed to
the imagination of the audience. For instance, we find in Marlowe’s
plays that Tamburlaine is great conqueror, that Faustus is a great
seeker of knowledge and power, that Barabas has the strongest lust
for unlimited wealth and that Edward II has great nobility mingled
with worthlessness. The insatiable spirit of adventure, the master
passions of love and hate, ideas of beauty, the greatness and
littleness of human life – these were Marlowe’s subjects. By using
his brilliant poetic imagination and passionate emotions he glorified
and vitalized and subject matter of his dramas.
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Moreover, Marlowe, by his high poetic artistry and genius,
made it respond to every note in the scale of human passion, and
gave it such naturalness, such ethereal beauty and suppleness, that it
quickly established itself as the most suitable metre for English
poetic drama.
The ecstatic quality of Marlowe’s poetry reveals his easily
excitable moods which are moved to exuberant expression by
certain appeals to the imagination such as the appeal to beauty.
Marlowe, the wistful visionary who always followed the trial of
adventure in life as well as in literature, lived in a self-wrought
world of beauty and wonder. The vitalizing energy of Marlowe’s
poetry is evident in all his four great tragedies.
It is this pervading energy in these plays that forms many an
absurdity and endows them with compelling beauty and elevating
power. Not satisfied with vague descriptions, Marlowe often
actualizes his theme as in the pageant of the Seven Deadly Sins in
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