Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Essays on dr faustus
Analysis of christopher marlowe's doctor faustus
Critical analysis of dr faustus
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Essays on dr faustus
Quilting Relationship between Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus and William Shakespeare’s The Tempest – A Comparative Study
Christopher Marlowe is called the father of English romantic tragedy. Meantime, William Shakespeare is the greatest dramatist, whose writings are very powerful and effective. The word quilting means act of making blankets from layers of fabric soft padding. Here blanket refers to Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus and Shakespeare’s The Tempest. The two dramatists are not only creating varied characters but also whose characters have some similarities and contrast themselves. We can analyse Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus and Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus portrays the self-conceit of Faustus. He is a bachelor and the man of education. His unquenchable thirst for studies makes him adamant and arrogant. So, he is not satisfied with his studies. Hence, he chooses black-magic. The play opens with the chorus, which depicts the mentality Faustus.
“Nothing so sweet as magic to him
Which he prefers before his chiefest-bliss
And this the man that in his study sits.” [Prologue 69]
Faustus thins magical power is more than any other things. He believes physical pleasures and powers are supreme. He asserts:
“O, what a world of profit and delight,
Of power, of honour, of omnipotence,
Is promised to the studious artisans!
All things that move between the quiet poles
Shall be at my command; emperors and kings.” [1.1.73]
For the above mentioned reasons he calls, an evil spirit, and slave to Lucifer.
Good spirits or Good Angels are warned and condemned Faustus activities and they ...
... middle of paper ...
...e Tempest the marriage between Mirand and Ferdinand is occurred. Faustus acts as a slave for spirits where as Prospero acts as master for spirits. Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus is a Tragedy but Shakespeare’s The Tempest is a tragicomedy.
Even the dramatists have some similarities and dissimilarities with themselves. They were born in 1564 and their lives ended with tragedy. The total numbers of their name alphabets are eighteen. Marlowe is considered one of the university wits but Shakespeare is not well-educated. Marlowe is famous for his four tragedies but Shakespeare is famous for tragedy and comedy.
Works Cited
Marlowe, Christopher (1980), Doctor Faustus Ed. By Kitty Datta, New Delhi,
Oxford University Press.
Shakespeare, William (2009),The Tempest Ed. by SARBANI CHAUDHURY, New Delhi,
Dorling Kindersley
William Shakespeare has become landmark in English literature. One must be familiar with the early days of English literature in order to comprehend the foundation of much of more modern literature’s basis. Shakespeare’s modern influence is still seen clearly in many ways. The success of Shakespeare’s works helped to set the example for the development of modern dramas and plays. He is also acknowledged for being one of the first writers to use any modern prose in his writings.
tragedy. We may wonder why Miranda and Ferdinand in The Tempest do not end up with the
The classic play Romeo and Juliet by the famous playwright William Shakespeare is one of the most beautiful love stories of all time and has captured and inspired readers everywhere. Regardless of the fact that it was written in the 1500’s, it is still being performed and extolled today. There is a multitude of reasons for such continuance of the play. First of all, its everlasting themes of love and hate enable people to deeply relate to the story. Secondly, its memorable characters deeply imprint on the minds of readers. And lastly, above all, is its magnificent language which many writers today regard in awe. These three elements make the acclaimed play, Romeo and Juliet, one of the most timeless stories of our lives.
Shakespeare's play, The Tempest tells the story of a father, Prospero, who must let go of his daughter; who brings his enemies under his power only to release them; and who in turn finally relinquishes his sway over his world - including his power over nature itself. The Tempest contains elements ripe for tragedy: Prospero is a controlling figure bent on taking revenge for the wrongs done to him, and in his fury he has the potential to destroy not only his enemies, but his own humanity and his daughter's future.
What is so interesting about Shakespeare's first play, The Comedy of Errors, are the elements it shares with his last plays. The romances of his final period (Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, The Tempest) all borrowed from the romantic tradition, particularly the Plautine romances. So here, as in the later plays, we have reunions of lost children and parents, husbands and wives; we have adventures and wanderings, and the danger of death (which in this play is not as real to us as it is in the romances). Yet, for all these similarities, the plot of The Comedy of Errors is as simple as the plots of the later plays are complex. It is as though Shakespeare's odyssey through the human psyche in tragedy and comedy brought him back to his beginnings with a sharper sense of yearning, poignancy, and the feeling of loss. But to dismiss this play as merely a simplistic romp through a complicated set of maneuvers is to miss the pure theatrical feast it offers on the stage - the wit and humor of a master wordsmith, the improbability of a plot that sweeps...
Heilman, Robert B. “Wit and Witchcraft: an Approach to Othello.” Shakespeare: Modern Essays in Criticism. Ed. Leonard F. Dean. Rev. Ed. Rpt. from The Sewanee Review, LXIV, 1 (Winter 1956), 1-4, 8-10; and Arizona Quarterly (Spring 1956), pp.5-16.
Throughout the years, William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet has been celebrated as one of the great tragedies of all time. William Shakespeare is an English playwright born in Stratford upon Avon during the 1500’s. Two innocent young hearts are caught in the middle of an everlasting conflict. How is the most romantic love story of all time also the most tragic? Is it the burning passion that the two lovers share? Or is it the pure hatred that their families have for each other? A force more powerful than love is expressed in this timeless tale. That force is chaos.
Nesbit, E.. "The Tempest." The Best of Shakespeare: Retellings of 10 Classic Plays. Oxford University Press, 1997. n.pag. eLibrary. Web.
Kostić, Milena. "The Faustian Motif in Christopher Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus." Facta Universititas 7.2 (2009): 209-22. Web. 04 Dec. 2013.
What immediately strikes the audience about The Tempest is the use of the supernatural in the form of apparitions like Ariel and the Harpy. These apparitions are under Prospero's authority and the result of his Art, which is the disciplined use of virtuous knowledge. By invoking a masque to celebrate the betrothal of Ferdinand and Miranda, Prospero effectively brings to full circle the theme of re-generation by obliterating the evil done and suffered by one generation through the love of the next. However, this is juxtaposed against the anti-masque elements of the attempted usurpations of Antonio and Caliban, which hold the play in a delicate balance between a tragic or comic resolution, holding the audience in great suspense.
Two of the greatest masters of British literature, Shakespeare and Chaucer, tended to look to the classics when searching for inspiration. A lesser-known example of this lies in an ancient tale from Greece about two star-crossed lovers. There are many variations on the names of these lovers, but for the purpose of solidarity, they shall henceforth be referred to as “Troilus and Criseyde” for Chaucer and “Troilus and Cressida” for Shakespeare. Chaucer’s “Troilus and Criseyde” offers up a classic tale of love that is doomed, whereas Shakespeare’s “Troilus and Cressida” is not only tragic but also biting in its judgment and representation of characters. This difference may be due to the differences in time periods for the two authors, or their own personal dispositions, but there can be no denying the many deviations from Chaucer’s work that Shakespeare employs. Shakespeare’s work, by making the characters and situations more relatable, builds upon Chaucer’s original work, rather than improving it or shattering it.
(A discussion on the contrast and comparison between two characters in Macbeth and The Tempest)
Shakespeare has created stories that are so powerful, emotional, comedic, tragic and romantic that they are still continuously remembered and studied in the modern era. Though the essence of his talents does not lie in the simple themes behind his plays, but more so in
Shakespeare, William, and Robert Woodrow Langbaum. The Tempest: With New and Updated Critical Essays and A Revised Bibliography. New York, NY, USA: Signet Classic, 1998. Print.
Doctor Faustus, also referred to as The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus is a play by Christopher Marlowe. This play is based on a German story where a man sells his soul to the devil in quest for knowledge and power (Sales 340. The protagonist in this play is Doctor Faustus. Doctor Faustus was hungry of power and knowledge and in search for them; he sold his soul to the devil. At first, he was very happy with the praise he received from the people as they considered him a hero. Later on, Faustus learns that he committed a grave mistake of selling his soul to the devil for twenty-four years. Even though he felt remorseful for his mistakes, it was already late for him. He is later found by his fellow scholars dead and torn from limb to limb. Faustus was a heroic fool who only thought of power and never thought of eternal damnation.