Comparison Between Christopher Marlowe's 'Doctor Faustus' and William Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night'

In the beginning of the play, Dr. Faustus dismisses his previous education as unfulfilling and makes a point to reject Divinity. This abhorrence of

Shakespeare’s King Lear and Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus are two examples of early modern texts, one a tragedy and the other a morality play respectively, which deal with the theme of power at the crux of its narrative. Between both texts it is evident that different characters utilize their power or authority differently – some ‘unwisely’ whilst some ‘maliciously’. In either case, the use of power progresses the plays and drives the majority of main characters.

Christopher Marlowe's play, Dr. Faustus, is the story of the struggle of one man who is battling with himself over what he values most in life, and to what extent he will go to obtain what he desires. The battles over the control of one's ego and what a person values in their life are the two underlying struggles in this work. Faustus is a very educated and high member of society, but he was born in a lower class and has struggled all his life to be a wealthy person. He attains this opportunity to become wealthy when he learns how to call upon Satan, and he makes a deal with the devil to attain all the riches in life for his soul. Through out the play Faustus

In the play, Romeo and Juliet, by Shakespeare tells of two families that have a huge grudge. A boy named Romeo and a girl named Juliet fall in love with each other and die in the end. In this play, Shakespeare uses a lot of figurative language throughout. He uses language like metaphors, similes and personification to describe the scenes and characters.

Shakespeare’s plays have endured over 400 years of significant history and have played an important role in this world’s culture. His play Romeo and Juliet (1597) is especially prolific because of the substantial use of dramatic techniques used to disclose the complexities of human nature. Shakespeare has shown these complexities through the incorporation of the dramatic techniques soliloquy, dramatic Irony, foreshadowing and conflict. These techniques emphasise the complexities of human nature through the characters Romeo, Juliet and Tybalt and identifies aspects of their personalities which, otherwise, would not have been so obvious in the absence of the dramatic techniques.

In Goethe's Faust, Act 1, Mephistopheles is introduced, and the conversation reflects the one in the Book of Job where God is conversing with Satan in chapter 2. However, in Faust, the prologue begins with the angels giving praises to the Lord’s creation. Mephistopheles proceeds to give his report concerning the situation on earth, but in his report, Mephistopheles resists to give compliments to the Lord (Steinhauer, 1956). Mephistopheles provides a report that shows how the earth is miserable and how men are tormenting themselves. Mephistopheles disregards humanity; the Lord is baffled how Mephistopheles overlooks the goodness bestowed on earth and focuses on revolting circumstances.

Hamlet, of Shakespeare's famed tragedy, and Marlowe of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, are similarly situated characters. Despite superficially different settings and plots, there is a remarkably similar thematic element shared between both works. Prince Hamlet and Marlowe are brought to the very brink of insanity by their immersion in worlds gone mad, yet still succeed. At their roots, the similarities of the environments they are immersed in are remarkable. Whether their environment is a “too too sullied” (1057) Royal Danish court, or the dark madness of a murderous Congolese jungle, the relationship between a sane man’s mind, and

In Christopher Marlowe’s play, Doctor Faustus, the idea of repentance is a reoccurring theme with the title character. Faustus is often urged by others to repent his decision to sell his soul to the devil, but in the end he suffers eternal damnation. Faustus was resigned to this fate because he lacked the belief in his soul of God. He was once a moral and devout man, but greed led him to sin.

As William Shakespeare continued to write and create plays, he became more experiential with his language and rhetoric within them. Coriolanus, one of Shakespeare’s final tragedies, exhibits a distinct syntax when compared with Titus Andronicus and Othello. Titus Andronicus was one of the first of Shakespeare’s plays and his first tragedy. The play is characterized by classic verses, mainly in the iambic pentameter form. Shakespeare did not have the experience and artistic freedom he had when writing Coriolanus; he was emerging in London’s theatre scene and played it safe by using a more traditional syntax structure. The language Shakespeare used in Othello was much more ornate and extravagant; like Titus Andronicus it is marked by many uninterrupted speeches and soliloquies. Coriolanus is much more modern-like in the syntax than William Shakespeare’s preceding tragedy plays.

Certain parallels can be drawn between William Shakespeare's plays, "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and "Romeo and Juliet". These parallels concern themes and prototypical Shakespearian character types. Both plays have a distinct pair of 'lovers', Hermia and Lysander, and Romeo and Juliet, respectively. Both plays could have also easily been tragedy or comedy with a few simple changes. A tragic play is a play in which one or more characters  has a moral flaw that leads to his/her downfall. A comedic play has at least one humorous character, and a successful or happy ending. Comparing these two plays is useful to find how

The power of language holds great significance not only in Shakespearean study but of our daily lives as well. Every nuance Shakespeare creates leaves a clue to a greater truth or understanding of our humanity. Exploring the works of Shakespeare with this in mind allows for audiences to gain more appreciation and awareness of the depth of language and communication through his dialogue and characters as Shakespeare: “asks us to adorn the actor with our thoughts and ‘carry them here and there, jumping o’er the times’” (Bevington xiii).

William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe were both writers of the Elizabethan stage, living in the same town of London, at the same time, and they wrote plays while working with the same people. Their strongest similarity was in their work. They both had an innate ability to write about love, great tragedies, comedies, drama and poetry with a similar style called blank verse. Before Marlowe’s time, blank verse was not an accepted verse for drama, but he was able to substitute the regular stresses of earlier blank verses and created a more departed, sincere verse. Shakespeare later followed Marlowe’s example and was able to master the ordinary rhythm of this new style of

IV. The language of this play is in literary prose. Since it was written well before 1830 colloquial prose is automatically ruled out. The dialogue in this play is more the thoughts of the characters instead of their actual words. For example Faustus says, “Faustus, begin thine incantations, And try if devils will obey thy hest, Seeing thou hast pray'd and sacrific'd to them.” (1.29) Here is alone on stage talking to himself. Normally people when alone do not talk to themselves, but Marlow uses that time to tell us what Faustus is doing, it keeps us informed. These words seem to be less natural because they sound like Faustus’ thoughts instead of his actual dialogue. An example of stage direction with in the dialogue is when Mephistophilis says, “Faustus, thou shalt: then kneel down presently, Whilst on thy head I lay my hand, And charm thee with this magic wand.” (1.120)

In a genre that contradicts a novelist's affluence of narrative explication, the language in its purest form becomes Shakespeare's powerful instrument, wherein he controls it with the unusual combination of force, subtlety, and exactitude”

With Shakespeare being born in the sixteenth century, there were still three centuries to go before women started the feminist’s movement. However, with his storyline in both The Merchant of the Venice and Twelfth night, the females leads disguised themselves as males to accomplish what needs to be done. Both plays, shows the heroine choices which challenges the characters they interact with. These endearing characters shows similar and different traits. The focus of these plays was based on Portia’s and Viola’s ambition which showed Shakespeare’s respect for women.