Tamburlaine the Great | Fissured Families: A Motif in Marlowe’s Plays
In the following excerpt, Hopkins argues that, in his plays, Marlowe ‘‘provides a sharply focused and detailed critique of the problematics of familial interaction . . . an aberration caused by particular aspects of social injustice and malaise.’’
Christopher Marlowe’s plays are littered with family groups shattered and destroyed, either through their own actions or those of others. Sometimes the disharmony is limited to family disagreements or ideological disunity within the family group; at other points it becomes more extreme, leading to internecine betrayal and even murder. As Frank Ardolino suggests, ‘‘the composite roles family members play as both fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters provide Marlowe with rich sources of complex interactions and the opportunity to portray...
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