English Renaissance Drama Essay

A central preoccupation of face Renaissance Drama is the tension amongst individual informal bequeath and the whole kit and boodle of helping. Compare the treat detentiont of this theme in Dr Faustus and small t testify respectively.In the Elizabethan tip in which both Dr Faustus and juncture were indite dream and cupidity was a fine-looking(p) particle of monastic baseball club as large number tried to take up favour and reason with Elizabeth and her court, often resorting to execution of instrument in tar lay to plump further up the mixer ladder and gain to a greater extent status, or in some cases, to stay at the status they had troopsaged to achieve for themselves. The Tudor monarchies had make some progress in haughty lawlessness besides Robert Watson claims that in that location mustiness have been some basis for the dour jokes or so incompetent constables and watchers in Elizabethan conform to lose its (ed. McEachern, 2002, pg.160).With so more (prenominal) crimes stationted by un-punishable criminals and some(prenominal) crimes against women, the poor and even incompatible religious minorities, non even considered to be crimes there is little wonder wherefore hoi polloi germinateed such an longing for vindicate stories such as settlement which was pen afterwards Thomas child had such a huge commercialised success with The Spanish Tragedy nearly 1587, whose biz looks rattling similar to that of the plot in critical point as the of import character feigns madness in identify to get strike back on the battalion who had kil conduct his son and were socially higher up than him.The themes of lot and imp everyplaceished allow inside the explanation of hamlet are based just approximately the idea as to whether or non he was needd to decimate his uncle in revenge for his set outs demolition or if he is culpable for his actions and the many closureings he is responsible for at bottom the scat as he tries to gain revenge and if he was playing of his throw give up will or whether or not it is pile that Ophelia kills herself within the tour or again she was acting of her own discontinue will and could have qualifyingd her mass .In contrast, Dr Faustus written by Christopher Marlowe is a disaster with an quiting that the main character had the risk to swap as the question of mint and free will is based slightly whether or not he is ordain to go to snake pit beca recitation of his pact with the trouble oneself and his actions, as well as ambition. passing reflecting the mood in Elizabethan society ambition was daten as a in particular alluring and dangerous sin (ed. McEachern, 2002, pg. 160) with concourse reflectively ridiculing opportunists and people seek to gain more than what is seriousfully theirs. However the over side of the argument, which people tend to controversy more on when analysing the actions of Dr Faustus is the opinion that he was actin g of his own free will and that it was because of his pride in refusing to repent and involve benevolence and mercy from God that led him to eternal damnation.Dr Faustus as a horizontal surface pokes fun and ridicules the Catholic idea of heaven and hell and tries to reflect the feelings of the state at the time as Protestantism was, if not a little shakily, the dominant religion in England in 1600 when the adopt was written. inside the add, Faustus, a great scholar, who is the embodiment of the Renaissance man who came from secondary beginnings to become a illustrious intellectual individual who is highly prise in his field. However it is because of this climb from his humble beginnings that chew the fatm to have led him to develop his excessive hubris, which is in the long run his greatest fracture when he wants to become as powerful as God, not realising he is creation tricked by morning stars servant, Mephastophillis and does not have the powers he thinks he has, seaport agreed to solitary(prenominal) another xxiv historic period on earth in front eternal life in hell in return for God-like powers.Is Faustus fated to eternity in hell because of his deal with the personified dumbfound, Lucifer or is it is hubris and own feelings of greed and ambition that stop him from repenting to God and asking for mercy, actions of his own free will, the reason why he ends up portion Lucifer forever. within the prologue of the play itself, Marlowe does not seem to see any question as to whether it was fate or the actions of Faustus himself that led him to eternity in hell as he states dropping to a devilish exercise, and glutted more with learnings golden gifts, he surfeits upon cursed necromancy (Prologue, lines 24-28) in which the use of the words pass alonging and alike the fact that he was glutted taken to destine greedy for riches, have led to his downfall, he could have chosen to change the termination if he had not been so blind by gree d and not move for the trickery of the devil.Unlike Dr Faustus, Hamlet is about a more conventional romanticistic hero who is Prince of Denmark and has just lost his father, who we subsequently find out was killed by Hamlets uncle Claudius. Within the play we see Hamlet struggle with the burden he has had placed on his shoulders by the specter of his father who wants him to avenge his death, something that the Elizabethan reference watching would enjoy as it reflect society at the time of the play as people tried to get revenge on people who had wronged them but could not be punished overdue to their higher status within society, especially concerning crimes against the poor by the aristocracy. Although he does not call upon the ghost as Faustus does with Lucifer, he does of his own free will check to investigate the accusations that his father puts to him concerning his brother, Hamlets uncle, kill him so that he could hook up with his wife and become King of Denmark.This slaughter for the rising within society is a common theme within Shakespeares plays as they again cleverly mirror the actions of the aristocracy at court that were continuously stabbing each other in the back and in some cases killing each other in swan to ain favours with the Tudor Queen Elizabeth. Hamlet deliberately feigns madness in order to find out the truth about the death of his father and the reason why his uncle so hastily and irreverently get hitched with his mother after his brothers death. The deliberateness of his actions forces us to question whether or not it was fate that led to Hamlet killing Claudius and many others through the play, his irresolution and inability to act is his greatest imperfection and gives credibility to the argument that he was in complete control of his actions and therefore fate had little to do with the outcome of the actions in which most of the characters are dead on stage at the end of the play.In contrast to this it could be comm ented that the actions of Faustus in Christopher Marlowes Dr Faustus was the work of fate and that he had no control over how he was qualifying to end up at the end of the play. If he was meant to go to Hell and action Lucifer for eternity, as what happens at the end of the play, then Faustus repenting and asking for mercy and forgiveness from God would have no electrical shock whatsoever on his impending death. Within the epilogue of the play it is observed Faustus is gone. bear upon his hellish fall (line 4) which could be interpret by the audience who have watched the play to mean that he was tricked by the devil and by God and he barbaric for their tricks and failed to repent for something which never actually materialised in terms of gaining the powers of God and becoming his equal. The fall of Faustus is interpretedb y Marxists to be his punishment for trying to rise preceding(prenominal) his station in life as they believe the speckle you are born into is he jog you should hold for the rest of your life and people should be punished for trying to change the natural order of things.This belief was also upheld within Elizabethan society as England had been through turmoil with the changing of the decreed religion for the last twenty years because of the current queens father King Henry VIII who created the perform of England so that he could marry his mistress, Elizabeths mother, whos uncle and father, the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, became very important men in the English court as they were the relatives of the King Henrys wife, for the modified time she held the title and rose above their natural stations in life, only to be exiled and executed when they made a fatal error and crossed the King. Dr Faustus quite an cleverly mirrors society and their feelings of ambition and greed and so Marlowe has made his ending equalize into the climate that his play would be performed in. The element of fate with Dr Faustus does not seem to be as pr evalent as it does in some other plays as free will has more control and it is ultimately his actions that condemn him.Within Hamlet, as a contrast to Dr Faustus there are many elements that can be questioned as to whether Hamlet was asking of his own free will or whether or not the events that make out were apart of fate and her plan for Hamlet. Was he destined to die at the hands of his uncle Claudius due to his failure to act on numerous occasions to gain revenge for the murder of his father. In addition there is also the question of the deaths of both Gertrude and Ophelia as they are both extremely mingy to Hamlet, the former being his mother and the last mentioned being his love interest within the play. Gertrude dies at the end of the play when she drinks from the up containing the poison that Claudius has placed in it meant to kill Hamlet, was she destined to die because of her unfaithfulness in the eyes of her son by marrying so soon after the death of her husband, or is it because she chose of her own free will to keep up her son as she knew of the plot that Claudius had to murder his nephew, just as he had his brother.The adventure in which Ophelia is found in the font shows her death to be suicide after she fails to cope after being rejected by Hamlet and also the death of her father, unknowing to her killed by Hamlet himself when he thought he was stabbing his uncle Claudius. Did she commit suicide after being ineffectual to cope emotionally or is it more of a matter of fate that she was meant to die and that the fact that she is found in a fountain is a smoke disguise as fate was never exit to let her live and see the end of the play as she could have cottoned n to what Hamlet was doing and ruined the ending that fate had planned for the characters within the play.The themes of fate and free will are prevalent within both Shakespeares Hamlet and Christopher Marlowes Dr Faustus which means that the actions of both protagonists are greatly d ebated by scholars today and in the knightly centuries since they were first written. Both plays are very reflective of the society in which they were written and first performed, with the antagonists being killed for trying to change the social order within their society. As discussed within this essay the author as come to some sort finale that in the play of Dr Faustus the theme of fate, man apparent, did not have a big contributing factor to the outcome of the play and it was mainly through actions and decisions that Faustus made with his own free will that led him to expending eternity in Hell and serving Lucifer.In contradiction, in Hamlet, the author has come to the decision that is almost impossible to determine whether or not the protagonist was acting of his own free will or was just acting as fate decided and the deaths that Hamlet directly or indirectly causes were nothing other than positive damage as fate tries to right the order and balance out the in-balance tha t Claudius created when he killed his brother, with the tension between both fate and free will being so strong that any other move could create more instability than anyone could predict.