Download or read book Marlowe and the Stage Machiavel The Dramatic Function of Barabas in Christopher Marlowe s The Jew of Malta written by Pia Witzel and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2011-05-02 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, University of Dusseldorf "Heinrich Heine" (Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik), course: Elizabethan Stage Villains - Shakespeare and Marlowe, language: English, abstract: „Marlowe’s Jew of Malta is a most puzzling play“ in different respects. Firstly, there is the question of its genre: It is the one play of Marlowe’s that strains most obviously against its apparent classification as a tragedy. Secondly, there are many different readings of the play. Is The Jew of Malta analogically a “serious farce”, a “comedy of evil”, a “tragic farce”or plainly an “ambiguous sort of drama”?3 Furthermore, a question which has often been raised, is, whether the text we have today is corrupt, and if it was written by someone else from the second act onwards. The reason behind all those questions and the play’s ambiguity seems to be the protagonist Barabas. His character, one could argue, is not easy to analyze, nor is his motivation or disposition, as this is what was the focus of analysis in the past. The difficulty in explaining this character might result from different common suggestions what “kind of protagonist” he is or what his dramatic function might be respectively. Thus Barabas is a conglomerate of stereotypes - as Jew, devil, Machiavel, and a dramatic persona fulfilling different narrative and conventional functions - as villain, Vice and protagonist, etc. The three most frequent characterizations are to be considered: the Vice figure, the stereotyped Jew and the stage Machiavel. While the Vice and the stereotyped Jewishness are often mentioned merely as aspects of Barabas’s character, the Machiavellian is the most common and distinctive interpretation. For the sake of completeness the aspect of Machiavellianism is discussed very briefly in chapter 2, but a more detailed discussion of the topic follows in part 3 and 4 of this paper. It will be analyzed in the following respects: the stage Machiavel, Marlowe’s use of Machiavelli as a dramatis persona in the prologue, and the influence of Machiavelli’s writings on The Jew of Malta respectively. A closer examination of the cultural background of Elizabethan thought and the life and works of the person Niccoló Machiavelli has to precede these considerations. A literary work is always part of its cultural background, and it is at least debatable whether it is valid to apply today’s standards to a drama written in Elizabethan times.A textual analysis of the prologue which I regard as being essential for my argument will follow this necessary consideration of the background.
Download or read book Marlowe and the Stage Machiavel The Dramatic Function of Barabas in Christopher Marlowe s The Jew of Malta written by Pia Witzel and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2011-05 with total page 53 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, University of Dusseldorf "Heinrich Heine" (Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik), course: Elizabethan Stage Villains - Shakespeare and Marlowe, language: English, abstract: "Marlowe's Jew of Malta is a most puzzling play" in different respects. Firstly, there is the question of its genre: It is the one play of Marlowe's that strains most obviously against its apparent classification as a tragedy. Secondly, there are many different readings of the play. Is The Jew of Malta analogically a "serious farce", a "comedy of evil", a "tragic farce"or plainly an "ambiguous sort of drama"?3 Furthermore, a question which has often been raised, is, whether the text we have today is corrupt, and if it was written by someone else from the second act onwards. The reason behind all those questions and the play's ambiguity seems to be the protagonist Barabas. His character, one could argue, is not easy to analyze, nor is his motivation or disposition, as this is what was the focus of analysis in the past. The difficulty in explaining this character might result from different common suggestions what "kind of protagonist" he is or what his dramatic function might be respectively. Thus Barabas is a conglomerate of stereotypes - as Jew, devil, Machiavel, and a dramatic persona fulfilling different narrative and conventional functions - as villain, Vice and protagonist, etc. The three most frequent characterizations are to be considered: the Vice figure, the stereotyped Jew and the stage Machiavel. While the Vice and the stereotyped Jewishness are often mentioned merely as aspects of Barabas's character, the Machiavellian is the most common and distinctive interpretation. For the sake of completeness the aspect of Machiavellianism is discussed very briefly in chapter 2, but a more detailed discussion of the topic follows in part 3 and 4 of this paper. It will be analyzed
Download or read book The Jew of Malta written by Christopher Marlowe and published by Broadview Press. This book was released on 2011-12-02 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First performed by Shakespeare’s rivals in the 1590s, Christopher Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta was a trend-setting, innovative play whose black comedy and final tragic irony illuminate the darker regions of the Elizabethan cultural imagination. Although Jews were banished from England in 1291, the Jew in the form of Barabas, the play’s protagonist, returns on the stage to embody and to challenge the dramatic and cultural anti-Semitic stereotypes out of which he is constructed. The result is a theatrically sophisticated but deeply unsettling play whose rich cultural significance extends beyond the early modern period to the present day. The introduction and historical documents in this edition provide a rich context for the world of the play’s composition and production, including materials on Jewishness and anti-Semitism, the political struggles over Malta, and Christopher Marlowe’s personal and political reputation.
Download or read book Christopher Marlowe written by Malcolm Kelsall and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2023-08-21 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Jew of Malta written by Robert A. Logan and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-05-23 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christopher Marlowe's drama, The Jew of Malta, has become an increasingly popular source for scholarly scrutiny, staged productions, and, most recently, a filmed version. The play follows the sometimes tragic, sometimes comic, often outrageous fortunes of its villainous protagonist, the Jew Barabas. In recent years the play has provoked as much interpretive controversy as any work in the Marlowe canon. This unique volume is therefore especially timely, providing fresh, varied approaches to the many enigmatic elements of the play.
Download or read book Complete Works written by William Shakespeare and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 2562 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An authoritative, modernized edition of the complete works of the great Elizabethan dramatist offers the complete texts of every comedy, tragedy, and history play, along with key facts about each work, a plot summary, major roles, sources, textual history, glossaries, and other helpful textual notes.
Download or read book The Arden Guide to Renaissance Drama written by Brinda Charry and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-10-19 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Arden Guide to Renaissance Drama is a single critical and contextual resource for students embarking on an in-depth exploration of early modern drama, providing both critical insight and accessible contextual information. This companion equips students with the information needed to situate the plays in their socio-political, intellectual and literary contexts. Divided into two parts, it introduces students to the major authors and significant dramatic texts of the period and emphasises the importance of both a historicist and close-reading approach to better engage with these works. The Guide offers: · primary texts from key early modern scholars such as Machiavelli, Heywood and Sidney · contextual information vital to a full understanding of the drama of the period · close readings of 14 of the most widely studied play texts by Shakespeare and his contemporaries · a single resource to accompany any study of early modern drama This is an ideal companion for students of Renaissance drama, offering students and teachers a range of primary contextual sources to illuminate their understanding alongside close critical readings of the major plays of the period.
Download or read book The Jew of Malta written by Christopher Marlowe and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-12-16 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Tell me worldlings, underneath the sun, If greater falsehood ever has been done' The Jew of Malta, written around 1590, can present a challenge for modern audiences. Hugely popular in its day, the play swings wildly and rapidly in genre, from pointed satire, to bloody revenge tragedy, to melodrmatic intrigue, to dark farce and grotesque comedy. Although set in the Mediterranean island of Malta, the play evokes contemporary Elizabethan social tensions, especially the highly charged issue of London's much-resented community of resident merchant foreigners. Barabas, the enormously wealthy Jew of the play's title, appears initially victimized by Malta's Christian Governor, who quotes scripture to support the demand that Jews cede their wealth to pay Malta's tribute to the Turks. When he protests, Barabas is deprived of his wealth, his means of livelihood, and his house, which is converted to a nunnery. In response to this hypocritical extortion, Barabas launches a horrific (and sometimes hilarious) course of violence that goes well beyond revenge, using murderous tactics that include everything from deadly soup to poisoned flowers. The play's sometimes complex treatment of anti-Semitism and its relationship to Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice remain matters of continuing scholarly reflection. This student edition contains a lengthy Introduction with background on the author, date and sources, theme, critical interpretation and stage history, as well as a fully annotated version of the playtext in modern spelling. James R. Siemon is Professor of English at Boston University.
Download or read book Placing the Plays of Christopher Marlowe written by Sara Munson Deats and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-22 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing upon Marlowe the playwright as opposed to Marlowe the man, the essays in this collection position the dramatist's plays within the dramaturgical, ethical, and sociopolitical matrices of his own era. The volume also examines some of the most heated controversies of the early modern period, such as the anti-theatrical debate, the relations between parents and children, Machiavaelli1s ideology, the legitimacy of sectarian violence, and the discourse of addiction. Some of the chapters also explore Marlowe's polysemous influence on the theater of his time and of later periods, but, most centrally, upon his more famous contemporary poet/playwright, William Shakespeare.
Download or read book Richard III written by William Shakespeare and published by Modern Library. This book was released on 2012-06-06 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exciting new edition of the complete works of Shakespeare with these features: Illustrated with photographs from New York Shakespeare Festival productions, vivid readable readable introductions for each play by noted scholar David Bevington, a lively personal foreword by Joseph Papp, an insightful essay on the play in performance, modern spelling and pronunciation, up-to-date annotated bibliographies, and convenient listing of key passages.
Download or read book The Cambridge Introduction to Christopher Marlowe written by Tom Rutter and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-02-02 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Providing a comprehensive survey of Christopher Marlowe's literary career, this Introduction presents an approachable account of the life, works and influence of the groundbreaking Elizabethan dramatist and poet. It includes in-depth discussions of all of Marlowe's plays, stressing what was new and revolutionary about them as well as how they made use of existing dramatic models. Marlowe's poems and translations, sometimes marginalised in discussions of his work, are analysed to emphasise their literary importance and political resonances. The book presents a balanced discussion of Marlowe's turbulent life and considers his afterlives: the influence of his work on other writers and examples of how his plays have been performed. In addition to introducing the reader to the historical and religious contexts within which Marlowe wrote, the Introduction stresses the qualities that continue to make his work fascinating: intellectual range, radical irony and an awareness of the dangerously compelling power of theatre.
Download or read book Christopher Marlowe and the Failure to Unify written by Andrew Duxfield and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-03 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this sustained full length study of Marlowe's plays, Andrew Duxfield argues that Marlovian drama exhibits a marked interest in unity and unification, and that in doing so it engages with a discourse of anxiety over social discord that was prominent in the 1580s and 1590s. In combination with the ambiguity of the plays, he suggests, this focus produces a tension that both heightens dramatic effect and facilitates a cynical response to contemporary evocations of and pleas for unity. This book has three main aims. Firstly, it establishes that Marlowe’s tragedies exhibit a profound interest in the process of reduction and the ideal of unity. Duxfield shows this interest to manifest itself in different ways in each of the plays. Secondly, it identifies this interest in unity and unification as an engagement in a cultural discourse that was particularly prevalent in England during Marlowe’s writing career; during the late 1580s and early 1590s heightened inter-confessional tension, the threat and reality of foreign invasion and public puritan dissent in the form of the Marprelate controversy provoked considerable public anxiety about social discord. Thirdly, the book considers the plays’ focus on unity in relation to their marked ambiguity; throughout all of the plays, unifying ideals and reductive processes are consistently subject to renegotiation with, or undercut entirely by, the complexity and ambiguity of the dramas in which they feature. Duxfield’s focus on unity as a theme throughout the plays provides a new lens through which to examine the place of Marlowe’s work in its cultural moment.
Download or read book Christopher Marlowe at 450 written by Sara Munson Deats and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-23 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There has never been a retrospective on Christopher Marlowe as comprehensive, complete and up-to-date in appraising the Marlovian landscape. Each chapter has been written by an eminent, international Marlovian scholar to determine what has been covered, what has not, and what scholarship and criticism will or might focus on next. The volume considers all of Marlowe’s dramas and his poetry, including his translations, as well as the following special topics: Critical Approaches to Marlowe; Marlowe’s Works in Performance; Marlowe and Theatre History; Electronic Resources for Marlovian Research; and Marlowe’s Biography. Included in the discussions are the native, continental, and classical influences on Marlowe and the ways in which Marlowe has interacted with other contemporary writers, including his influence on those who came after him. The volume has appeal not only to students and scholars of Marlowe but to anyone interested in Renaissance drama and poetry. Moreover, the significance for readers lies in the contributors’ approaches as well as in their content. Interest in the biography of Christopher Marlowe and in his works has bourgeoned since the turn of the century. It therefore seems especially appropriate at this time to present a comprehensive assessment of past and present traditional and innovative lines of inquiry and to look forward to future developments.
Download or read book William Shakespeare Complete Works Second Edition written by William Shakespeare and published by Modern Library. This book was released on 2022-06-07 with total page 2532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The newly revised, wonderfully authoritative First Folio of Shakespeare’s Complete Works, edited by acclaimed Shakespearean scholars Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen and endorsed by the world-famous Royal Shakespeare Company Combining cutting-edge textual editing, superb annotations and commentary, a readable design, and bonus features for students, theater professionals, and general readers, this landmark edition sets a new standard in Shakespearean literature for the twenty-first century and features 48 pages of new material. Edited by a brilliant team of “younger generation” Shakespearean scholars from the First Folio originally assembled by Shakespeare’s own acting company, this edition of the “Complete Works” corrects centuries of errors and textual variations that have evolved since the book’s publication in 1623, and includes modern glossaries designed for twenty-first-century readers and new editorial stage directions clearly distinguished from Folio directions.
Download or read book Study Guide to Faustus and Other Works by Christopher Marlowe written by Intelligent Education and published by Influence Publishers. This book was released on 2020-03-27 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Christopher Marlowe, the foremost Elizabethian tragedian of his day. Titles in this study guide include Faustus, Tamburlaine, Jew of Malta, and Edward II. As Shakespeare’s most important predecessor and influencer of English drama, Marlowe’s plays are most known for the use of blank verse and their overreaching protagonists. Moreover, Marlowe took the humanist literary discussion of sexuality further than his contemporaries, setting the stage for the Elizabethian period’s later years of erotic poetry. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Marlowe’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains: - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.
Download or read book William Shakespeare written by Harold Bloom and published by Infobase Publishing. This book was released on 2009 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents a collection of critical essays on the works of William Shakespeare.
Download or read book Reader s Guide to Literature in English written by Mark Hawkins-Dady and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 1024 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reader's Guide Literature in English provides expert guidance to, and critical analysis of, the vast number of books available within the subject of English literature, from Anglo-Saxon times to the current American, British and Commonwealth scene. It is designed to help students, teachers and librarians choose the most appropriate books for research and study.
