Beauty In Christopher Marlowe's The Description Of Helen

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In Mythology the power of beauty has always been for profound persuasion. The women in most myths are typically shown as trophies that warriors accommodate after battle. In the myth of the “Trojan War” Helena fell in love with the Trojan Prince Paris. Paris took Helena back to Troy which angered her husband at the time Agamemnon, thus began the gruesome war. In the painting Helen of Troy, Evelyn de Morgan uses the immaculate beauty of Helen to show that people can easily be distracted by beauty. While in the poem the “Description of Helen.” Christopher Marlowe uses the same scene to show that people should not dwell or worship others only because of their beauty. In the poem “The Description of Helen” Christopher Marlowe uses vivid imagery …show more content…

Marlowe published his first play in 1594. Marlowe lead somewhat of a mysterious legacy. His plays weren’t for the faint hearted but they did have the traditional protagonist hero(Belanger). Marlowe was greatly influenced by an old poet named Ovid, he inherited the erotic style that was present in the poems of Ovid (Cavendish). But Marlowe also influenced one of the greatest writers ever Shakespeare. “Dr. Faustus” was arguably the best work of Christopher Marlowe, published in 1604 this play was emotional, powerful, and it showed his dramatist qualities . The play “Dr. Faustus” introduced the conventional hero villain story, but as you know Marlowe had to put his own flavor on it and he made it somewhat vulgar and gruesome which the people loved because that is not what you usually saw in the theaters back then. On May 30th, 1593 Christopher Marlowe died at the age of …show more content…

The imagery in this painting seems basic but if you look closely it kind of resembles the poems main idea, such as how in the painting she has a mirror looking at herself with a gazing look. Also in the back of the poem there are two cities split by Helen and one of them seems to be dark and dreary which is similar to the diction in the poem. Also in the painting there are doves and I believe Evelyn put them in there because doves are very beautiful but in the painting most of the doves are gazing at Helena. Which shows how beautiful she was. Also in the painting there are flowers surrounding her and they are dying. Which is perplexing maybe evelyn was trying to foreshadow her toxic personality. The beauty of Helena is a blessing but more of a curse she is totally unaware of surroundings in the painting as well. It is not just Helen in the painting there are so many more beautiful things that are missed because how she is centered in the