Marlowe vs. Shakespeare Comparison Essay by BrainC

This paper examines how the Elizabethan dramatists Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare were contemporaries and how, for the latter part of Marlowe's dramatic career, they were rivals as well. It looks at how Marlowe's career as a playwright was cruelly cut short after the author was murdered in a tavern brawl, probably the result of his political intrigues. The paper shows that regardless of the reasons for Marlowe's untimely demise, the difference between the older Marlowe and the young Shakespeare had already become manifest in the characterization of the main protagonists of the two men's plays. It explores how Marlowe clearly influenced Shakespeare's early writings and how, while Marlowe used broad character brushstrokes to create a vivid narrative and caricature of human character and morality, Shakespeare created a new way of dramatically rendering the human character in shades of gray. In particular, it examines how both men used similar themes, such as the presence of "Jewish" values in a money-grubbing 'Christian' society.