Tamburlaine the Great | Divine Zenocrate
In the following essay, Whitfield examines Tamburlaine’s ‘‘systematic reduction and silencing of Zenocrate’’ as consistent with the theme of masculine domination and oppression present in Marlowe’s works and Renaissance society.
In the Renaissance period, hierarchies of power hinged on the construction of masculinity in opposition to, and through suppression of, the other. The dramatic text, ‘‘a compendium of small dynamics of power,’’ brings into play both power hierarchies and gender relations with immediacy. Perhaps no Renaissance drama embodies the construction of the masculine and the suppression of the feminine more than Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine I. The rise and triumph of Tamburlaine Is paralleled by the fall and failure of Zenocrate, providing an interpersonal exposé of...
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