Desire and Downfall in Christopher Marlowe’s Tragedies: A Comprehensive Analysis
| Author |
| Molay Sarkar |
| Date of Publication: June, 2026 |
| Volume: XXIII |
| DOI:10.65734/tgi.ssei.avp.ijcsss.ti.23.16 |
| Abstract |
| Desire, in some religious traditions and schools of thought, is treated as something intrinsically problematic and to some extent evil. But there is no denying that it is desire that lies at the very root of advancement. It was human desire to overcome the limitations imposed by nature that led to the advancement of knowledge as well as of science and technology. However, this desire sometimes, especially when unchecked, becomes the cause of destruction. In Marlowe’s plays this truth is dramatised with subtle craftsmanship without being moralising like that of earlier religious plays, where desire has always been portrayed as sinful. Marlowe, to some extent, portrays desire as something admirable. It is their desire that makes his protagonists like Tamburlaine, Barabas, Doctor Faustus, or Edward II larger-than-life characters. And also this desire is that very thing that blinds them towards the truth and their duty, dehumanises them or makes them weak and leads to their ultimate downfall. This paper aims to explore the multifaceted nature of desire in tragedies that Marlowe used to interrogate human agency, disruption of universal balance and the limits of Renaissance individualism. |
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