Christopher Marlowe Research Paper

“What nourishes me destroys me,” was Christopher Marlowe’s life motto. He lived during the Renaissance age and had a peculiar life. Renaissance literally means “rebirth” and was full of history. Christopher Marlowe played an important role in the Renaissance era, a time of intellectual and cultural change for the people, because his writing embodies the literary characteristics of humanism and vast imagination. The historical Renaissance era was between 1400 and 1600, and it originated in Italy. Renaissance was a great name for this era because its meaning defined the overview of the time (Wilde). The people of this time needed a new way of living their lives because there was a lot of conflict in the world. They wanted to make life easy.

Before this era, people thought of God and saints more than they thought of themselves (“Humanism in the Renaissance”). They soon became more interested in themselves, their surroundings, and daily lives. The idea of studying the human nature was called secular humanism (“Humanism in the Renaissance”). . Writings became less about the traditional topics of religion, law, and medicine (“Humanism in the Renaissance”). Imagination was shown throughout many poems through imagery and figurative language. Writers would take an idea and embellish upon it. Many kinds of writers used humanism and imagination through their work, especially poets. Humanism and imagination are expressed differently in poems depending on the

He was actually more known for his plays (“Christopher Marlowe” Poem). Most of his plays were tragedies. Tamberlaine the Great was one of Marlowe’s well-known plays. It appeared in print for the first time in 1587 and was written in a lyrical style with blank verse (Robinson). This play used the everyday language of the time. This play was put on in the Theatre in London, and after this play Marlowe spent the rest of his life in London. Most themes in plays of the time revolved around religion, but Marlowe’s plays did not (Belanger). This play consisted of two parts because it would be too long as just one play. This play was published but was not accredited to Christopher Marlowe (Belanger). Doctor Faustus was another one of Christopher Marlowe’s plays. It was a retelling of another story, and this poem was published in 1588. There is confusion about the order of when Tamberlaine the Great and Doctor Faustus were written, but it is more likely that Tamberlaine the Great came first because of the publication dates (“Christopher Marlowe” Bio).

Christopher Marlowe’s first poems were written at King’s School. His later poems were written after his career with his plays. “Hero and Leander” was begun by Christopher Marlowe, but it had to be completed by George Chapman due to Marlowe’s unexpected death (“Christopher Marlowe” Poem). Chapman finished this poem in a completely different style (Robinson). It