Play Flourishing in Elizabethan Era and a Review of Christopher Marlow’s Play The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

The story of Faust has inspired creative works for hundreds of years. The myth features an ambitious and intelligent man, usually a scholar, who desires more than his current situation can offer him and so makes a dangerous pact with the devil. Interpretations of this story range from classical music and opera to paintings and cartoons. From Goethe to Radiohead, Dr. Faustus’ thirst for knowledge and the chaos this desire produces have captivated artists of all disciplines. This paper will examine two theatrical depictions of this myth. A little more than 400 years separate the original productions of Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragic History of the Life and Death of Dr. Faustus and David Mamet’s Faustus, but both plays feature the bare

From the violence that was prevalent because of the Black Death, people turned to the theater for many reasons. Elizabethan theatre was popular for its time because Queen Elizabeth encouraged the arts, it was somewhere for every social class to go, and people could relate to the plays. One of the reasons that Elizabethan theatre was so popular was that it was enjoyed by Queen Elizabeth herself. Elizabeth loved learning new things. She would read and study for hours at a time. She also had a lot of knowledge when it came to history. She could read books in Latin and French. When she grew older, she could translate classic works into English. She also enjoyed writing and reading poetry, and a few of her poems still exist today. Elizabeth was also into arts and literature. She loved watching plays and dramatic performances. “She hired her own company of actors called “The Queen’s Players.” The art spread because of the queen. Her

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.

Queen Elizabeth came to be known as one of the greatest rulers of the English empire. Under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, a more efficient government was created. The church was unified, the English empire was expanded, and language, literature, and theater flourished to a greatness that would be impossible for almost any other period of English history, or any other European empire, for that matter, to match. Although there was a great rise in literature,it was theater that catapulted to greatness during Elizabeth's reign. Out of Elizabeth's era came Elizabethan theater. Elizabethan theater has such a variety of topics, that would make it virtually impossible to talk about in ten pages.

If every playwright in Shakespeare's time aspired, as he did, to paint a portrait of an age in their works, his would have been the Mona Lisa, leaving the most lasting impression on generations to come and at the same time, one of the world's most baffling mysteries. Surely it is no coincidence that the world's most celebrated dramatist would've lived during the time when one of the world's most powerful rulers in history reigned. Or was it?

Imagine watching the famous plays of William Shakespeare being performed right in front of yours eyes at the amazing Globe Theater. William Shakespeare was part owner of The Globe Theater. The famous Globe Theater was a place where outstanding plays were performed. This theater held people from all over the world to watch performances. In the article “The Elizabeth Era” states that “often the Queen would come to the Globe Theater to watch Shakespeare’s work “(Alchin). The Globe Theater has great significance to British history because of the building structure, the actors, the performances, the fire accident, and its impact on England and its people.

There are two stories which one can analyze and put into comparison, that being the stories of the mighty Beowulf and that of the arrogant Doctor Faustus. In Beowulf a story is told from the view of a warrior becoming a hero and displaying amazing feats. While in Christopher Marlowe “Doctor Faustus”, he is recognized as an ambitious self- centered individual with an eager sensation to learn more knowledge of the Arts. He decided to takes his learning a step further and ultimately becomes his main wrongdoing for his entire life. By reviewing the text of both tales, there are a set of both similarities and differences able to be made between Beowulf and Faustus.

apparent in Doctor Faustus in the scenes with the Pope. The Renaissance was also a time

One would not expect special effects including singing spirits and vanishing objects to be showcased on stage in the 16th and 17th centuries; however, in the Elizabethan Era, theater was being taken to new heights and the unexpected was taking place frequently. Queen Elizabeth had a love for the arts, especially theater written by Shakespeare. The Elizabethan Age was strongly influenced by the rise of theater specifically through the play The Tempest, written by William Shakespeare.

Queen Elizabeth played a major role in the Elizabethan Theater. The queen had a love for the theater and arts; it was something she wanted to live on when she was gone. Professional theaters were built with the queen’s permission, although they were created because of popular scholars. These were reserved, for only those of royalty. Acting companies were also a result. Elizabethan theaters were a big part of the social and entertainment aspects of its time. Despite its popularity, it still had criticism. Before the theater was popular, entertainment came from cock fighting and

Arts in England flourished and prospered during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Furthermore, “The Golden Age” was characterized by the Queen’s patronizing of theatre, which lead it to gain popularity among England. The sixteenth and early seventeenth century witnessed a period of English nationalism, evidently shown through diffused texts in the English language, rather than in Latin. Additionally, the Queen supported playwrights such as William Shakespeare, which lead to depictions of Elizabethan society in his plays. Consequently, influences from London and the royal family influenced plays such as Richard III. Specifically, the play affected the glorification of the Tudors, leading to the villanization of former king Richard III. This

On the other hand Shakespeare was self-schooled after the age of 15, showed little interest in current ideals or philosophic ideas. Shakespeare used his personal observation and experiences to understand human nature. He had amore objective view of reality than Marlowe did. When we compare some of Marlowe’s tragedies with those of Shakespeare’s we discover several more similarities. Both Marlowe and Shakespeare create their hero’s as tragic heroes with some sort of flaw in their character that eventually causes their demise, a demise that would cause feelings of pity for the hero. One difference in the two writers is that Shakespeare liked to use the supernatural to enhance the sense of mystery, for example the witches in Macbeth or the ghost in Hamlet. Where as Marlowe’s tragedies had no such mystery and one could follow the course of the events and foresee the tragic doom without much difficulty.

The theatre world is always changing. The theatre world was much different back then in the sixteenth century. In the sixteenth century, Christopher Marlowe is a legend. Christopher Marlowe was born on February 26, 1564 in Canterbury, United Kingdom and is the son of John and Catherine Marlowe. He wrote many plays that influence the world today. During his lifetime, Christopher Marlowe worked with William Shakespeare, was a big influence in the late 1500s, and died at a young age.

The theater gained popularity based on the plays they would have showing. In most cases the plays would consist of humor, tragedy, or histories. Shakespeare was one of the most popular playwrights at this time, and many of his plays were performed in the Elizabethan theater. Among him were some other famous play writers,

Throughout his relatively short lifespan, Christopher Marlowe flourished remarkably as an artist because of the fruition of his plays and poems. The dramatist’s first play, Tamburlaine the Great, was performed on a classic stage in 1587 in London. This play was the first English play to be written in blank verse and has been deliberated to be the beginning of the more mature phase of the Elizabethan theatre. The dramatist also wrote in iambic pentameter, which “became very popular before the end of this age” (Escoala). Marlowe wrote a total of seven plays and two poems, including Tamburlaine the Great (parts one and two), Doctor Faustus, The Massacre at Paris, and “Hero and Leander.” The immense success of Marlowe’s plays is partly because of the stage presence of actor Edward Alleyn. The role of Tamburlaine in Tamburlaine the Great was most likely written for him, for Alleyn was awfully tall for the time period and the character of Tamburlaine is described to be rather “haughty.” Above all, Marlowe was admired for his contemporaries during the Renaissance era, with George Peele remembering him as