Christopher Marlowe is considered to be one of the most proficient art figures in the English literature. In his different literary works, Marlowe has shown a constant trend in his engagement with faith and religion. As a result, his works tend to have the diversity and allow readers to study them based on different critical approaches such as faith, belief, and religion (Logan, 2017). The main aim of this study is to engage in different Marlovian works such as The Jew of Malta, and The Massacre at Paris, with a view to investigate on the different ways he engages in the theme of religion. This is important as it will on the importance of religion, hope, and belief phenomena from different examples and signs of the characters in these works of literature. In addition to this, this paper will attempt to examine and analyze different functions of hope, and religious beliefs in his works.
The themes of religion and hope are of great interest and value as they can be analyzed based on different approaches and their significance can be studied and analyzed from different aspects and angles. The paper begins by examining some of the various ways in which religion, hope, and different obsessive beliefs after represented in various Marlovian works including his inclusion of Muslim and Jewish characters in some of his works with a view to bringing out a classical mythology. Marlowe in his different literary works exerts a significant influence on the different ways of writing and thinking about religion and hope in both early and modern culture of the English literature art (Marlowe, 2016 p.257). It is important to note that on top of the many contemporaries, Christopher has repeatedly and publicly been associated with irreligion and atheism (Hawkes, 2016). To effectively analyze how Christopher Marlowe engages in religion his different works, Marlowe’s inspirations for the different characters, the crucial qualities, and their significance in the pay will be assessed.
Some of the issues concerning Marlowe’s life are very presumably contradicting especially on his engagement in religion and hope. Different scholars that have written on Marlowe have publicly associated him with denouncing the Christian or any other religion (Logan & Deats, 2016). In addition to this, most have found the lack of belief in most of his plays and works. As a matter of fact, he has been associated with irreligious, and atheism based on most of his plays that are mostly criticizing the Catholic and Protestant religions. Beliefs that characters have will also be highlighted with a view to bringing out the relationship between them hence drawing conclusions in the engagement of Marlowe in religion, hope, and beliefs. In addition to this, different concepts that Marlowe uses in indirect and direct ways like murder, theft, hypocrisy, and purgatory will be analyzed with a view to examining them in the light of their importance in the concepts of religion and hope in his works (Logan, 2016).
The Jew of Malta plays swirls with a number of instances of hope and religious conflict. Marlowe uses a classical mythology by incorporating Jewish characters among other unseemly characters that play a crucial role in bringing out the theme of religion in the work. Marlowe’s engagement in religion in this play is brought out in an irreligious manner since the play mainly ridicules oversexed nuns and monks (Hirt, 2016 p.251). It also portrays friars as greedy characters in the play that vying for Barabas’, the main character, wealth. Despite the fact that religion is supposed to bring people together and is supposed to encourage individuals to encourage to be loving and kind, this is not the case in the ‘The Jew of Malta’ play. On the contrary, in this play, Marlowe engages in religion in an irreligious manner since he uses the theme of religion to make characters in the pay hate each other. In addition to this, race and religion in the play have been intertwined in ways that a reader finds it hard to differentiate and ascertain whether different conflicts are brought about by religion or race (Hansen, 2017). The author also links religion with hypocrisy in the play. Consequently, throughout the play, the Marlowe engages in religion in an irreligious manner.
In this play, the Maltese Christians especially the two priests and Ferneze present themselves as strict agents of morality and religion. Marlowe uses them in the play to bring out the theme of religious hypocrisy. He makes it crystal clear that these characters are hypocrites and frauds. As a result, this compromise Barabas’ role throughout the play since it complicates his villain status in the play. In addition to this, Marlowe uses the theme of religious hypocrisy to bring out the lack of any struggle between evil and good in the play despite the fact that the Maltese and the priests demonize and discriminate Barabas. Further, he presents the main characters in the novel to be individuals that use crafty behaviors to maneuver themselves in high positions in the society especially through deceit (Lynch, 2016). Catholic leaders in the play are clearly depicted turning their back s and denouncing religion from time to time. This is shown when they make attempts to deceive each other with a view to winning Barabas’ money.
In the first act of the play, the two priests and Ferneze invoke the Bible repeatedly to express their anti-Judaism sentiments. They use this to attempt and justify their greedy actions of seizing Barabas’ money. They are portrayed as hypocrites and in addition to this; their justifications are proof enough that they are anti-Judaic. There is also an aspect of despise against the medieval Jews in the play. The constant anti-Judaic language used in the play from time to time brings out the implicit criticism that Marlowe makes against Christianity. In the play, he also uses the Machiavellian strategy to present the religious hypocrisy among characters that deem themselves as agents of religious morals. There is no religious sincerity depicted by these characters throughout the play. Consequently, Marlowe asserts in the play that “religion is a childish toy” (Logan, 2017 p. 111). Instead of the power of providence and religion, Marlowe suggests that individuals should put their hope and trust in strategies and schemes.
He puts this in an ambiguous manner but to bring out the idea that religion does not mean much to individuals even those that pretend to be most religious since they manipulate it to protect their personal interests. He supports his claim by stating that in the play, Ferneze, a self-proclaimed religious agent manages to free Malta and survive by outmaneuvering and manipulating Barabas. On the other hand, Barabas, who is criticized for denouncing religion, survives and avoids being captured from time to time by using clever tactics of anticipating people’s motives and moves. Through the ironic tone that Marlowe uses in the play, he brings out his clear stand in regard to religion and disapproves its morality.
Unlike the religious society as seen in most of his works such as The Massacre of Paris, whereby individuals that claim to be religious commit to violence with a view to assert power and other positions such as education, by all means, a secular society is versatile and calm. Upon analysis of the different plays and works of Christopher Marlowe, there is sufficient evidence that he engages in religion in an irreligious manner as he disapproves and criticized the actions and practices that go on in religion in a generalized manner. Moreover, most of his works are basically atheistic in nature which is yet another reason why his engagement in religion is negative. In addition to this, scholars that have written about him report that he has been arrested a number of times due to his atheistic beliefs and heresy.
The different inherent era during his time also plays a major role in his negative engagement in religion, such as the Elizabethan era (Seddon, 2017). It is also around the same time as when he published all his work that the issue of atheism was cropping up. This has a close connection with Marlowe’s argument about religion. Little precisions in the various readings on and by Christopher Marlowe have been bandied with atheism. Accusations made by scholars on Marlowe as being an anti-religious individual and an atheist largely lies on his attitude towards religion and constant criticisms on the same in his various works (Paris, 2015). Readers face considerable odds in classifying Marlowe’s beliefs and stand in religion beyond his plays as he shows instability between his pays and his life based on autobiographies. In addition to this, due to the religious turmoil that was present during his time which was more of a form of religious orthodoxy, it becomes difficult to ascertain his true engagement in religion as it kept switching back and forth even between Protestants and Catholicism.
Most of the plays by Marlowe were written at a period that was characterized by numerous religious conflicts (Marlowe, 2016). In addition to this, most were also written when people mostly believed in atheism and were not well-aware of the different type of religions such as Christianity. For instance in this play, during the era of Edward, critics propose that he was probably an atheist who did not believe in any religion but rather believed in magic and science (Ribner, 2017). The different plays lack important religious places of worship which is an indication that Marlowe was not too much into religion. In his works such as The Massacre at Paris, Christopher Marlowe uses symbols and myths to compare different characters to other figures. He repeatedly shares an irreligious meditative view of life. In The Massacre at Paris for example, he disapproves the significance of religion in his own perspective through the murders that occur in the play.
The play is a complete tragedy for most of the characters that eventually die in the end (Martin & Long, 2017 p. 417). The theme of murder through the constant massacres in the play is a depiction of irreligious acts. Despite the moral message in the play, from Marlowe’s end there comes a strong atheist agenda through the depiction of the massacre in the play which disgrace life which in most religions should be highly valued (Price, 2017). In The Massacre at Paris play, Marlowe re-evaluates the concepts of religion by constantly bringing out the different frauds and vices that happen under the Christianity and religion umbrellas (Marcus, 2016). He depicts his disapproval for a religion that is commonly denounced by most of his contemporaries. Throughout the entire play, he uses different activities that should be against religion yet they happen by those that embrace it the most to reveal the religious acknowledgment and practical value of vices such as murder, pivotal figures, and hypocrisy in religion. He thrives and actively engages in bringing out skepticism in religion (Logan, 2017).
However, most scholars prove that Marlowe is atheistic beyond a reasonable doubt as most indicated that upon his death, anti-religious items and documents were found in his house (Scott & Stapleton, 2016 p. 25). Therefore, like most of his plays, his normal and private life depict his irreligious way of life and also indicate that his engagement in religious was not in any ways positive or rather he did not support religion at all. Throughout his plays, he brings out the idea of his disapproval for God and the contemporaries that claim to embrace religion as he believes nothing good happens in the name of religion. This is because, in all his plays, he sketches a negative depiction of religion by highlighting and shedding light on the numerous vices that he believes that religious people do for power and other greedy intentions. His view of a secular and irreligious society as a preferable society depicts his spiritual dimension and orthodox strictness of his belief and stand about religion.
He connects the themes of religion and politics in the play in ways that are complicated making it difficult for the reader to differentiate between the two themes. To the characters, politics were more important than religion as they pursued political matters more than they did religious matters. He totally disapproves hope for religion. In The Massacre in Paris, Marlowe’s attitude towards religion is represented through the constant criticism he makes toward vices that happen in religion (Elaskary, 2014). He exposes the negative traits of characters that claim to be righteous and those that claim to firmly the strict teachings of religion. He brings out these characters as those that are obsessed with the idea of asserting control and power over other characters in the play. Throughout this play, like almost all of his works, Marlowe engages in religion in a passive and negative manner and seems to be suggesting and to prefer a more humanist and atheist society over a religious society. This is because he brings out his idea that a more humanist and secular society accepts the differences and perspectives of all human beings, unlike the religious society that discriminates individuals that do not seem to follow the teachings of a religion or those that criticize the vices that happen in religion as he does.
He is one of the most renowned literary authors that are acclaim to be anti-religious publicly and repeatedly through their works. Throughout his plays, his anti-religious nature and rebellion against the church and religion, in general, are depicted. Faced with most of Marlowe’s works, readers confront the dilemma of how the author draws himself in depicting his protagonist nature. In all his plays, Marlowe indeed exhibits a soul that is totally rooted in atheism. Building on scholarly autobiographies written about Christopher Marlowe and also building on his different literary works, his engagement in religion is one that can be described as blasphemous (Logan, 2017 p.97). In addition to this; the spirit and era of renaissance as a critic also play a crucial role in Marlowe’s engagement in religion as a critic too and as an anti-religion. In conclusion, based on the analysis of the different works by Marlowe, it is safe to say that his engagement in religion is one that is depicted in an atheistic and anti-religion manner.
References
Elaskary, M., 2014. Jews and Muslims in Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta and Shakespeare’s Othello. Arabic Language & Literature, 18(2).
Hansen, A., 2017. Christopher Marlowe and the Failure to Unify. By Andrew Duxfield. English: Journal of the English Association, 66(252), pp.88-91.
Hawkes, D., 2016. The Storm at Sea: Political Aesthetics in the Time of Shakespeare by Christopher Pye. Shakespeare Quarterly, 67(3), pp.373-375.
Hirt, R., 2018. “Is Not Thy Soul Thine Own?”: An Analysis of Second-Person Pronouns in Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus and The Jew of Malta. English Studies, 99(3), pp.243-254.
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