"Hero and Leander"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses and analyzes Christopher Marlowe's "Hero and Leander" - the last poem Marlowe published. It particularly focuses on the difference between eroticism and love and how these concepts are portrayed within the poem. The paper looks at the language and style that Marlowe uses in the poem and describes how his creative and imaginative language depicts sensuousness within his poetry.

From the Paper:

"Writing in College English 24, critic Eugene B. Cantelupe (Cantelupe 1963) is impressed by Marlowe's use of the theme of rich rhetoric between suitor and the suitor's target of affection. Leander woos her, charms her, and wins her over not because he has great brute masculinity or power, not because he lavishes her with expensive gifts, but because Leander is very eloquent in his language and his oral presentation to her. So the alert, adventurous and investigative reader has a clear understanding of Marlowe's strong points, because the poet allows Leander to romance and seduce the lovely Hero through rhetorical persuasion alone. In fact Leander isn't the only character in this poem that Marlowe uses to embrace his theme that style in the spoken word can seduce and charm far more than say, gallantry on the battlefield or smoothness on the dance floor. The god Mercury is also given a protagonist's position in the poem, Cantelupe writes. "The swift and cunning messenger god, having become enamored of a shepherdess, flies down from Olympus to woo her on a hillock.""

Sample of Sources Used:

• Cantelupe, Eugene B. "Hero and Leander: Marlowe's Tragicomedy of Love." College English 24. no. 4 (1963): 295-98.
• Craik, T. W. "Hero and Leander: Overview." Reference Guide to English Literature, 2nd ed. Ed. D. L. Kirkpatrick, St. James Press (1991).
• Walsh, William P. "Sexual Discovery and Renaissance Morality in Marlowe's 'Hero and Leander.'" Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 12.1 (1972): 33-54

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