Saturday, November 28, 2009
Have you written anything Today?
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Was Doctor Faustus a good man or an evil person?
Doctor Faustus is the hero of Christopher Marlowe’s tragedy. Christopher Marlowe was one of the top dramatists of Elizabethan age and Doctor Faustus is his best drama. In this drama, we can find the hero as an interesting person who has become tired and bored from life because he has mastered every branch of knowledge. So, he became interested to know about the art of black magic and became very powerful. From the point of view of that age, he was surely a bad and an evil man. Faustus wanted to be bad by capturing black magic. What is perhaps very important here to note is that after getting knowledge he became hungry for power not for more knowledge. So, from this point of view he was not a good man.
However, if you look from the renaissance spirit then we will perhaps a very different idea. In renaissance time, there was an attempt to break up the strong hold with of catholic charge in
Friday, November 20, 2009
Dramatic ironical elements in The Spanish Tragedy
The Spanish Tragedy is a famous play of Elizabethan age. It was written by Thomas Kyd and it is perhaps the best drama of this playwright. We know that it is mainly a revenge play but at the same time it is full of dramatic irony. In fact, from the beginning to the end, we find a lot of examples of dramatic irony. Before going any further we should try to know about dramatic irony. In dramatic irony, what happens is that the character says something but the reality is different. Ignorance is one factor. Out of ignorance, the character says something and we know that the opposite is happening or has already happened or will happen in future. Secondly, an irony is also something by which we see the character says something but the opposite happens.
In The Spanish Tragedy, in many of the occasions, the characters give some speeches and what we can find is the opposite has already happened or will happen. We can perhaps start the matter of Spanish king. He hears
The same thing can be said about the Portuguese Viceroy. The Portuguese viceroy hears that his son has been killed. However, it was not true and in fact his son Balthazar has unfairly and unjustly killed Don Andrea who is the lover of Bel-Imperia. This unfair killing starts some other killings. The Viceroy is very sad with the faults news of a son’s death in war. But the irony is that in the end will get murdered in front of his own eyes. When Bel-Imperia hears the news of the death of Don Andrea, she is at first very sad and then she decide that she would take Horatio as her new lover. She tries to give comfort to herself that with this action she will be able to get some revenge of her first lover’s death. However, what we can see is that the opposite thing happens. In stead of getting revenge, for the death of Don Andrea, the love relationship between Bel-Imperia and Horatio become the cause of Horatio. Not only that, Horatio gets killed while secretly meeting Bel-Imperia.
Bel-Imperia and Horatio met each other secretly in two scenes of The Spanish Tragedy and they are full of irony. They feel that they are safe and good time will come to them. However, their secret meeting becomes the place of their death.
Perhaps the best example of irony is the death scene of Pedringano. Pedringano was a bad person and he killed Horatio after being influenced by Lorenzo. Lorenzo thinks that he must get rid of Pedringano so that in future Pedringano can not source of danger for him. So, Pedringano is taken into court for justice and he is sentenced to death. Lorenzo tells Pedringano that he has arranged pardon for him and for this matter Pedringano was very confident that nothing would happen to him. So, he made fun with the hangman. Until the last moment, he did not understand that Lorenzo betrayed with him. As a result he got killed.
A very big example of dramatic irony is the play within play scene done by Hieronimo. Hieronimo arranges a drama and in it, he got the support of Bel-Imperia. Hieronimo killed Lorenzo and Bel-Imperia killed Balthazar. Then Bel-Imperia committed suicide and Hieronimo told everyone that whatever they saw until now was real. The King and the Portuguese Viceroy and the King’s brother could not understand that everything was real. They praised the acting of everyone that the acting was very real but they did not understand that it was real acting and this is very good example of dramatic irony used by Thomas Kyd in this drama The Spanish Tragedy.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Final scene of Doctor Faustus
Doctor Faustus is the best play of Christopher Marlowe. Doctor Faustus perhaps shows that why Christopher Marlowe is sometimes compared with William Shakespeare despite the fact that Marlowe wrote much fewer numbers of plays than Shakespeare. The final scene is an interesting one and it is totally different from the rest of the drama. In the final scene we find a very different Faustus and he is ready to repent to god but it is too late. So, it is totally opposite from what we have seen from the beginning until to the last moment in the play. Thus it creates an interesting fact on the audience of the play.
In the final scene, we find a soliloquy of Faustus. He has only one hour to live. It was eleven O’clock at night and after one hour the devil will capture his soul and he will be damned forever. In other words, he will go to hell forever and he will suffer. He understands that whatever he enjoyed will be lost now. So, he became too much afraid. He also losses hope.
He tries to pray to god but he can not. He has done so big sin that it has become impossible to pray to god or get the forgiveness from god. He also tries to pray to Jesus Christ but he understands that his heart can not do it very well. After thirty minutes gone then he became more afraid. He thinks of Pythagorian philosophy in which it is stated that after the death of a person the soul enters into the life of a beast. He hopes that this philosophy was true and this way he would not suffer but his soul would go to the body of a beast. He thought that the beasts have no pain and no suffering. They have no sorrow. This way he wanted to save himself at any cost.
Whatever Doctor Faustus tried, he grew more desperate and he lost more hope. He understood that there is nothing for him and he must suffer. However, it is difficult for him to accept it. Here, Marlowe has shown that every man has the same mentality. We all are afraid to die. Even the person who knows that he has only six months left is afraid to die and does not want to die. We all think that we can live and we don’t want to think of death. However, for Faustus, it was very tragic and it was very painful. He knew when he would die. One of the good parts of human being like us is that we do not know when death will capture us. This way, there is an uncertainty and we can remain happy and we can feel that may be death will not this year or next year. However, for Faustus it is quite opposite. His perhaps the greatest punishment was that he knew when he would die.
Christopher Marlowe here has dealt with psychology of Faustus very well. The knowledge of Faustus was the source of his all happiness. He got power and all knowledge became under his capacity. However, in the end, the knowledge of the timing of his death became the ultimate source of his sadness.
After Doctor Faustus dies, the chorus gives us the moral lesson of the play. Moral lesson is that we should not be too much obsessed with illegal things and we should try to follow religion. Here, by religion, the chorus has meant Christianity not any other religion. Any way, Christopher Marlowe has perhaps accepted Christianity but at the same time he showed the renaissance spirit when Doctor Faustus talked about the philosophy of Pythagoras. We know that one of the renaissance elements was Greek classical philosophy and literature. Doctor Faustus knows he will die and when he is dying he praises to god and Jesus Christ but at the same time he remembers Greek philosophy.
The soliloquy of Faustus is perhaps one of the best in Elizabethan drama. Here, we find very good analysis of human psychology by Christopher Marlowe.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Doctor Faustus as a tragic hero
Doctor Faustus is the most famous play of Christopher Marlowe and this play alone has perhaps made that his name will be mortal in the history of English literature and English drama. This play shows that he was of high skilled as a playwright and he could write very good drama. It is a tragedy of Doctor Faustus that is the main point of this play.
Before moving on further, we should discuss about the definition of a tragic hero. A tragic hero is obviously a hero of a tragedy drama. However, this is not enough. Perhaps the first tragic hero in history of drama is Oedipus in ‘Oedipus Rex’ of Sophocles. There we could find that Oedipus in the end suffers tragic consequence but he was higher than ordinary people. This matter is very important. A hero of the tragedy should not be an ordinary man but should be some higher and extra ordinary. He is exceptional than other people.
From this point of view, perhaps we can say that Doctor Faustus is a good example of tragic hero. If we look at the opening scene then we will notice that he was unhappy because he grew tired of life. He was a scholar and he wanted new knowledge. He got all the knowledge but except black magic. He realized that he did not have all the knowledge and there was something missing. So, he sought the new knowledge and he was not afraid of it. He was also not afraid of anything a deal with Lucifer and Mephistopheles.
After Doctor Faustus could make a deal with Mephistopheles then he started to enjoy all the knowledge but the main problem is that instead of gaining more knowledge, he became hungry for power. He wanted to be the boss of everyone and he wanted that other obey him. This is the thing that ultimately leads him into the tragedy. This is the thing that perhaps also takes away the sympathy from the audience.
I think that the main problem of Doctor Faustus is that he was proud and he was greedy. Although, he was thirsty for knowledge but in his character, there was a mixture of knowledge and power both. He was not happy along with knowledge but he wanted to become the dominant person. That is why, I think that his tragic flow was pride and thirst. He was also very proud and not satisfied with the things he got. His pride makes him abnormal and this way he wanted to make a deal with the devil despite knowing after a certain period of time his soul will be captured and he will suffer eternal damnation. The last scene perhaps disappoints the audience because there we can find that Doctor Faustus hopeless and desperate. He wanted to get back his belief on god and Jesus Christ. He regretted a lot why he made the deal with Lucifer. He perhaps wanted another chance from god. It is clear that if he got another chance or opportunity from god then he would not waste it and he would denounced Lucifer and come back into the way of god.
I think that Doctor Faustus is a renaissance tragic hero. Like many other people in renaissance time, he had the desire to go beyond the limit of knowledge and religion. He also challenged religion but in the end he could not win over religion. The struggle between religion and the new class of educated people who were secular by nature is perhaps the main theme of renaissance. Thus, I think that Doctor Faustus was a renaissance tragic hero.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Doctor Faustus is a renaissance man/hero.
Doctor Faustus is the most famous drama of Christopher Marlowe. Christopher Marlowe belonged to the Elizabethan age and he was one of the top dramatists of his age. He did not write a lot of plays but all his plays are of high quality and he can be easily compared with his contemporary Williams Shakespeare. If you read Doctor Faustus then you will understand that he was in no way a lesser dramatist than Shakespeare. In Doctor Faustus, we can find renaissance elements and many people think that Doctor Faustus is a renaissance man. I think that it has both renaissance and anti-renaissance elements. However, mostly it has renaissance elements and just one or two anti-renaissance elements.
The word renaissance means rebirth. Here, it means rebirth of classical knowledge of
If we look at the character of Doctor Faustus then the first thing we can find about him is that he was a scholar. He valued knowledge more than everything else. He was not satisfied with the knowledge he acquired. He wanted to gather more knowledge. This thirst in him is a very important renaissance element. Renaissance spirit was to gather knowledge, people should sacrifice their life.
Renaissance also praised individualism in stead of society. Faustus was an individualistic type of hero. He did not care for what others thought or what the society said. In stead he wanted to have his own ideas and challenge others. It is not that he was always right but he had individualistic ideas all the way in the drama.
I have stated earlier that renaissance challenged the supremacy of Catholic pope in
A very important renaissance element was an appreciation of beauty and art. When Faustus became very powerful then he wanted to have a very beautiful wife and he selected Helen from Greek mythology. We know that Helen was the most beautiful woman in Ancient Greece and for her the battle between
There are some anti-renaissance elements that we can see in Doctor Faustus. Well, what we can see is that after he became very powerful he started to use his power for very small things. For example, he started to use his power to often nonsense and useless people. He turned the people he did not like as animals. This was not a good thing. He also became greedy for money and luxury. He did not give that much importance for knowledge for which his soul is sold. In stead, he spent his life for luxury and this is against the renaissance spirit.
Perhaps the most anti-renaissance element in Doctor Faustus is the death scene. When he was dying, he became very coward and he forgot everything and he wanted to get the forgiveness of god. He wanted to again come back to religion and Christianity. It was he who fought against the Christian ideas and made fun with religion but when death came to him he became very afraid.
Of course, it is natural because when a person is dying then he becomes very afraid. And secondly, if he was shown that he was not afraid of death and accepted death easily and did not care of Christianity then the audience of Christopher Marlowe’s time would become angry. Christopher Marlowe would have suffered from the Church that he was against Christianity. So, we have to think of the time that Christopher Marlowe wrote the drama.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Is night the best Time for Writing?
A writer should Work 8 Hours or Even More
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
The Gift of the Magi: Just One Reason to Read a Short Story
World Cup Cricket 2011 will Start from Bangladesh
For complete schedule of the event, visit this entry: ICC World Cup Cricket 2011 Schedule
Saturday, November 07, 2009
Where is Bangla Literature in this Blog?
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Senecan elements in The Spanish Tragedy
The Spanish Tragedy is the most popular and successful drama of Thomas Kyd. Thomas Kyd was a dramatist of Elizabethan age and The Spanish Tragedy is often called as revenge play. It is deeply influenced by the roman philosopher and dramatist Seneca. That is why, we can find many Senecan elements in this drama.
Before going into details about the Senecan elements it is better we try to discuss something about Seneca and his life and his ideas. Seneca was a politician in Roman age. However, he was also a scholar but he was perhaps unlucky in life because in Roman history at a time when there were too many conspiracies. Court life was always dangerous and Seneca for most of his life had to deal with many dangers in his life. In fact, his own personal life was full of tragedies and in the end he was forced to commit suicide because he king suspected that he was against the king. In Senecan tragedies, we can find many bloodshed and violence. Horror and super natural elements are also present. As I have already said that he was in
The Spanish Tragedy starts with the murder of Don Andrea by Don Balthazar and Don Andrea was a Spanish noble man. It was a battle between
The presence of super natural elements is anther Senecan element. In The Spanish Tragedy, the revenge is a super natural character and he is present though out the drama. In fact, he talks and speaks like a human being in stead of his super natural elements. He promises to Andrea and he keeps his promise.
Horatio is the friend of Don Andrea and he was a brave soldier. He showed a lot of bravery by capturing the Portuguese prince and this way the king of
The murder of Horatio makes two persons very angry. However, I should write here that Lorenzo hires some people to murder Horatio. Then Lorenzo himself thought that if these two people betrays him in future or reveals that Lorenzo is the main villain. So, he arranges that these two murderers of Horatio get killed. Thus, we can find that Lorenzo is a very bad character. Both Hieronimo and Bel-Imperia understand that Lorenzo and Balthazar were the murderer of Horatio and this matter made them very angry. The mother of Horatio is Isabella and because of this great loss of the death of her son she becomes mad and she commits suicide.
Hieronimo makes a plan to get revenge and he seeks the help of Bel-Imperia. Bel-Imperia happily agrees to help her because Bel-Imperia is also angry for the death of both Don Andrea and Horatio. In the end, Hieronimo arranges a drama to be staged and this drama is a drama within a drama. The drama was arranging in a way that Bel-Imperia kills Balthazar and kills herself. Before that Hieronimo kills Lorenzo and in the end Hieronimo could commit suicide. So, within a short time the audience can see that four deaths happened in the stage. Murder and violence is perhaps nothing new in drama. When there is a tragic play, naturally there will be death and sometimes murder and bloodshed. However, in the dramas that have Senecan elements like The Spanish Tragedy, violence and bloodshed are in extreme level. They create horror in the mind of the audience. The people get killed in a short time is perhaps more melo dramatic than tragic.
It will be unwise to say that The Spanish Tragedy is only a drama about revenge. It is perhaps more than revenge. There is a question of deniable justice. Don Andrea is murdered unjustly. Horatio is murdered in a very bad way. Hieronimo wanted to seek justice from the king of
Here, I like to say something about political matter. The Spanish Tragedy was written at a time when Queen Elizabeth was very powerful in
In conclusion, I like to say that The Spanish Tragedy is a very good drama and it is full of Senecan elements.