The Ideological Conflicts In Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine The Great

The sixteenth century England bestrode the end of the Dark Ages and the beginning of the English Renaissance. New ideas sprouted up as the yoke of the past theological morality was in a dreadful state of dilapidation. The new and old ideologies contending with each other co-exist in the literary works of that time, which have attracted the attention of the new historical critics, who have shown great interest in exploring the conflicts inherent in the literary works and regarded those conflicts as resulting from the interaction of the competing ideological or discursive forces in that historical period.This thesis sets out to explore the conflicting ideologies inherent in Christopher Marlowe’s representative work Tamburlaine the Great. By studying the economic, political as well as cultural context against which the play was constructed, this thesis tries to reveal that Marlowe is not as atheistic, rebellious and treacherous as many critics have long considered him to be, rather, there are still enough traces and evidence in his text to suggest that he is supportive of the Queen Elizabeth’s rule as well as the Protestant values she was trying to disseminate. The misunderstanding of those critics come from the conflicting ideologies inherent in the play, which were very powerful and prevailing at that time and influenced Marlow so deeply that he unconsciously absorbed them completely into the play without critical scrutiny. The main body of thesis consists of three chapters. Chapter one analyzes the complexity in the characterization of the protagonist Tamburlaine, the pendulum of whose image swings between a damnable atheistic tyrant and a laudable aspiring hero. Chapter two firstly examines the historical context of the Elizabethan England, then demonstrates that Tamburlaine’s eagerness to break away from moral and religious restraints, his individualist spirit as well as his ambition to conquer the world are closely connected with the rising British capitalism and nationalism of the time. Chapter three analyzes the way in which he positively characterizes the female figures, thus indirectly extolling the Queen’s virtues. Moreover, this part also reveals the evidence hidden in the play to show his espousal of the Protestant values that the Queen had striven to promote.