Herculean Ambivalence in Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great

Abstract

Marlowe, the author of the Tamburlaine Plays, is hardly an elegist, but these plays can certainly be regarded as his critical examination of the Herculean mind, and a warning against the nascent colonialism. Although many critics observe that Tamburlaine dies a natural death, i.e. suffers no retribution, Marlowe makes it prophetically clear that the price to be paid for military omnipotence and colonial success is loss of the soul – the fate of Dr. Faustus, and of all Marlowe’s tragic heroes. Marlowe’s Tamburlaine, a prototype of the Renaissance heroic ideal, has been frequently identified with Seneca’s Hercules. However, I do not believe that Marlowe was interested in merely adding another example to the tradition of the Renaissance Heroic Man. His main interest was not to endorse but to explore and problematize that tradition: male virtue that depends on cruelty towards the weak ones is critically examined here. Thus these plays can certainly be regarded as Marlowe’s critical examination of the Herculean mind, and a warning against the nascent colonialism. Although many critics observe that Tamburlaine dies a natural death, i.e. suffers no retribution, Marlowe makes it prophetically clear that the price to be paid for military omnipotence and colonial success is loss of the soul – the fate of Dr. Faustus, and of all Marlowe’s tragic heroes.