Marlowe Vs Shakespeare Research Paper

Madison North

Mr. Erro

English 2029

10 March 2015

Marlowe vs. Shakespeare

After reading the play Edward II, a topic that was brought up in class was how similar Marlowe’s style and writing topics were to those of Shakespeare. This interested me and lead me to do some research. I found that over many years, scholars have been comparing and contrasting these two writers. It is said that Shakespeare was greatly influenced by Marlowe’s work, so much that he repeated many lines and plots from Marlowe’s work in his own works. More than 100 duplicate lines that appear in Shakespeare’s work have been taken from previous writings of Marlowe. There are also numerous references to Marlowe’s works in Shakespeare’s writings. Marlowe apparently guided him

They became curios when considering Shakespeare and Marlowe were both writers of the Elizabethan Stage, lived in London at the same time, and wrote plays while working with the same people. Oddly enough they never met. The strongest similarity was their work. Both wrote in blank verse, and wrote on similar topics including love, tragedies, comedies, drama, and poetry. For example, Marlowe’s Edward II and Shakespeare’s Richard II both have a plot of overthrowing a tyrant. What they differ in is their education. Shakespeare had little education because he quit schooling after the age of 15 years. He had little opportunity to learn foreign languages, protocol of military life, and legal matters. On the contrary, Marlowe was familiar with all of those things. He was well educated and graduated with two degrees, including a master’s from Corpus Christi College at Cambridge University. He also traveled to many countries exposing him to different languages and cultures. This was what primarily led scholars to believe that Shakespeare could not have written these plays. They believe there is a disconnection between the life of Shakespeare and the ones he wrote about. In the Elizabethan Stage, writer’s plays were written from experience. They have no idea how he acquired the knowledge or experience displayed in his works, so doubtful scholars look to well traveled writers, such as Christopher Marlowe, as a more likely

Each group agrees that they are different as individuals, yet so similar as writers. However, they differ in that Stratfordians think that these similarities are mere chance, where Anti-Stratfordians believe that this is the foundation of their argument. Anti-Stratfordians rely on what has been called "rhetoric of accumulation", or what they call as circumstantial evidence: similarities between the characters and events portrayed in the works and the biography of the author and how it compare to their work. Since there are no copies of anything handwritten by Shakespeare and his signature is only on one legal document, this can also be used in their argument. The Anti-Stratfordians say that there is, in fact, nothing solid that links Shakespeare with the plays, poems and sonnets attributed to him. Stratfordians however, say there is no concrete evidence that Shakespeare was not the author. They basically think all of the Anti-Stratfordians claims are absurd and over thought. Stratfordians look at the similarities between the two Elizabethan writers as a coincidence and nothing