How does Marlowe represent the
ironies of kingship in Edward II?
Answer: Christopher Marlowe’s Edward
II is a superb specimen of historical tragedy of a historical king.
Here the hero is King Edward II whose tragic downfall is due to his own
characteristic weakness and setbacks. His thoughtless, unwise, impulsive,
monomaniac approach to the world around him, his wrong dealing with barons
and lords and even his own wife and his total lack of wisdom and capability to
rule, result in his tragic fall and inhuman suffering.
To be a king is definitely a matter
of glory and honour and there are many to aspire for the crown, though there are a
few to get it and a very few to wield it with wisdom and caution. History
presents a good many kings who believed in the theory of the divine right of the kingship and ruled
despotically, but very often they are found to have their own lessons, like
Charles I, the Stuart King of England. Marlowe’s all four tragedies – Edward
II, Tamburlaine, Dr. Faustus, The
Jew of Malta bring out the universal truth that all mighty men
(kings of their own kingdoms) suffer their tragic fall in their life.
