Christopher Marlowe Influence

Mysteries have always had a great hold on society. They have a way of catching the reader’s attention by keeping them guessing, even yearning to find out. The strange occurrences surrounding the death of Christopher Marlowe is one such mystery. His early death at the age of 29 came as a shock and set scholars off on a hunt to determine how he died and the true reason for his death. It has baffled some of the most proficient researchers and continues to have new theories presented about it. What is it about this man that makes his death so intriguing? Marlowe is most well-known as a playwright during the Elizabethan era who made several changes to the way that plays were written and performed. He wrote plays that challenged the status quo and …show more content…
Though it is not known for certain when his plays were written the impact they had is clear. Marlowe was an innovative thinker and started a new trend by writing his plays in blank verse. One of his first full length plays to use this new style of writing was “Tamburlaine the Great,” a story loosely based on the life of Timur, a Central Asian emperor. He liked to write his plays in a non-traditional sense, often using them to express thoughts and ideals that were not accepted in mainstream society. Each play he wrote seems to echo a different era of his life, and while knowing his past can explain aspects of the play, it does not provide enough evidence to prove other theories about his life. His play “The Massacre at Paris” is thought to have been influenced by his time in France. It features an English secret agent going through the events of the Saint Bartolomew’s Day Massacre in 1572. This play has been used to prove that Marlowe was in France as a spy and that he learned about these events through politicians in some of the major courts in Europe. The most popular play that Marlowe wrote is “The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus.” This dramatized version of the Faustus legend, in which a scholar makes a deal with the devil to be given magical powers, brings out the terrifying consequences of playing with dark forces. It also touches on a sweet …show more content…
Much of this controversy is caused by the lack of physical evidence that can be found from that time period. By using the documents kept from his school years, analysis of his plays, and other legal papers scholars have attempted to piece together a reasonable explanation for his death. His long absences and excess of money while studying at Cambridge greatly play into the theories of his job as a spy working for the government. The possibility that his death was staged and that he went into hiding to spend the rest of his days writing plays tends to work for those who believe that Marlowe was in the writer of Shakespeare’s plays. As exciting as these theories seem there is no way to confirm them as fact because there is no solid evidence to prove it. Therefore, it is up to the opinions of each person to decide for themselves which version of Christopher Marlowe’s life and death seems more