Violence In The Plays Of Christopher Marlowe

The plays of British dramatist Christopher Marlowe are characterized by the depiction of violent scenes, which are an evidence of the upheavals in social structure and the game between various social powers and the orthodox national ideology. And those violent behaviors are no other than the mirror of the political reality and ideology of the time. In the world of plays by Marlowe violence comes hand in hand with overreach as a challenge to tradition. The overreachers either breach the social contract to which they are bound or surpass the conventional boundary of behavior. The overreach and danger by which the plays are informed properly displays the power relation in the age of Elizabeth I and brings out Marlowe’s reflection on social structure of power, and both the language peculiar to the plays and the ethics underlying them posed a psychological threat to the Elizabethan audience, who witnessed the social transition throughout the age of Renaissance, which is comparable to the response to the works of the Italian politician Niccolo Machiavelli, who received much contention and attention.In the seven plays of Marlowe, namely Dido, Queen of Carthage, Tamburlaine The Great(1,11), The Jew of Malta, Doctor Faustus, Edward the Second, The Massacre at Paris, the dramatist presents various scenes of violent scenes:Queen Dido killed herself because her love was rejected and her suicide was followed by the suicide of her pursuer larbus and her sister; Tamburlaine killed many people and his son was among his victims: Doctor Faustus was torn into pieces by the demon in the end of the play: As a king. Edward the Second failed to acquire a peaceful end:and there are a few dozen of scenes of ruthless slaughter in The Massacre at Paris. For the Elizabethan audience, those violent scenes are not only a possible source of fear but also a likely source of satisfaction, because those scenes are rather political scenarios pregnant with social symbolic meaning than military conquest or the expression of power, thereby becoming essential elements in political morphology. Machiavelli also offers detailed analysis for those features of violence. In his masterpieces including The Prince and Discourses on Livy, he highlights the necessity for a king to have lionlike capacity and expounded his view on political leader and the role of religion in politics. As a response to that exploration, the dramatist presents his own understanding of Machiavelli’s ideas and puts forth his views on the function of the element of violence in the formation of social system of government in the age of social transition.With the two persons" similar views on violence as the starting point and with the7plays of Marlowe as the object of study, this dissertation discusses how the dramatist, by way of the depiction of violent scenes, expresses his view on important factors in the construction of political system, thereby capturing different facades of violence in political life. The violent acts in the play not only bring out the history, background or the traditional values that the performers of violence represent but also reveal the common role and restriction in different cultures. The research into the plays reveals the state of the social and political system and the power structure of the Elizabethan age in a measure and unfolds the individual identity and psychological state in that period of social transition. This dissertation falls into six parts.The first part, namely Introduction, introduces the origin and significance of the research. It is firstly put forth that what Marlowe and Machiavelli have in common in writing themes is their concern over and reflection on the theme of violence. And it points out that the notion of "violence", with its rich connotation, carries multiple meanings in political context, thereby being an important element for the investigation into the structure of the political system. Meanwhile, Introduction sums up the present research into Marlowe and indicates that the domestic study is lagging behind in this field.Chapter One puts forth that violence is inevitable in the course of the establishment of the political system. And the theory that lends justice to it is underlain by the speculation on political reality and inquiry into the ideal and real world. With that as the basis. Machiavelli points out that "effectual truth of things" is the criterion for the legitimacy of violence. And such an instrumental feature of violence inevitably leads to the employment of the notion of "reason of the state", justified by which violence can be exerted and disguising skills employed, which include the application of religion to political ends. A case in point is Duke of Guise in The Massacre at Paris, one of Marlowe’s plays, who does not hesitate to massacre the Puritans for political ends. And the various characters in the play, no matter whether they are Catholics or Protestants, display opportunistic attitudes towards religion, but with a close investigation of those characters it can be found out that although bearing the style of the Machiavellian heroes or heroines, they lack the essential "reason of the state" or fail to pursue politics for the sake of state interest, which relegates them to mere opportunism. That play manifests the dramatist’s reflection on the legitimacy of violence.Following the discussion on the legitimacy of violence, Chapter Two explores how violence is used in the establishing of the identity of political subject. As the subject in the establishing of political institution and political order, human have to face the uncontrollable factors and their own limitations in the world of politics. Machiavelli claims that man as an individual can fight against the former with "virtu", while in Marlowe’s play Dido, Queen of Carthage the struggle between gods is not unlike the uncontrollable factors in the world of politics. Those roles, confronted with the transcendental power imposed on them, rely heavily on the use of "virtu" to establish themselves in politics. By the interpretation of "virtu", Machiavelli expresses his meditation on the power of an individual and expands the connotation of "violence" while Marlowe explores the position of man in the universe and the relationship between politics and morals, which is a manifestation of the playwright’s reflection on the possibility for human to create order with individual powers.This chapter also analyzes Doctor Faustus, another play by Marlowe. With a view to interpreting the tragic role of Doctor Faustus from the perspective of the limitations of a political individual touched upon by Machiavelli, this chapter attempts to bring the reader’s attention to the fact that Doctor Faustus. in his repeated meditation over whether to resign his soul to the demon or to be converted to God. loses the power to establish self-identity because of the neglect of his own limitation, therefore end up being destroyed by violence.With political power in hand, the new king must establish new political order with tangible violence, hence the necessity of discussing the implementing of violence. Chapter Three takes two kings in Marlowe’s plays as the example:Tamburlaine the Great and King Edward the Second, who respectively serve as the positive and negative example. Tamburlaine embodies the "lionlike" qualities praised by Machiavelli and knows how to make wise use of violence, so the way he uses violence is what is recommended by Machiavelli as universally applicable skills that lend themselves to emperors. And by depicting extremely violent acts by Tamburlaine such as killing his own son, Marlowe reminds us of the story that Brutus killed his own sons, which is mentioned by Machiavelli in Discourses on Livy. The dissertation puts forth that those extremely violent behaviors and shocking acts can serve to restore social order that has been overturned. Compared with the effective violent acts by Tamburlaine, the attempt of King Edward the Second to establish social and political order in Great Britain is a failed and frail example. Based on the analysis of the three symbolic deaths in the play (the death of Gavaston, the king’s minion, of the king, and of the nobleman Mortimer), the dissertation indicates why violent behaviors fail to bring new order and how effective violent behaviors was finally employed in the successful restoration of political order.Chapter Four starts from the information conveyed in the exercise of violence, or rather the performing function of violence. With that as the perspective, it analyzes the play of The Jew of Malta and indicates that the demonstration of violence is as good as the demonstration of power, which may shock the spectators into fear of the holder of power as well as offer them a chance to give vent to their feelings including the opposition to the holder of power. The governor of Malta, Ferneze, who represents the government, brings into full play the three political passions mentioned by Machiavelli: love, fear and hatred. In doing so he establishes his own political image and overturns and deconstructs it at the same time.In the final part of Conclusion, based on the close reading of Marlowe’s7plays in the previous4chapters and the analysis of the element of violence in the plays in different dimensions, this dissertation points out that the element of violence is a constituent that must not be overlooked in Marlowe’s dramas, and the description of violent scenes from different perspectives serves as an echo to the important issues put forth by the Italian politician Machiavelli in his political works and as a fruit of the dramatist’s own reflection on the operating mechanism of violence in the course of the change of the social and political structure of the Great Britain ruled by Queen Elizabeth in the age of Renaissance. So readers may find that the approach to Marlowe’s plays by way of the analysis of the element of power lends a new insight into the political characteristics peculiar to early modern society.