Exploring Attitudinal Love and Lust in Christopher Marlowe and George Chapman’s Interpretations of Hero and Leander
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25098/8.2.40Keywords:
Marlowe, Chapman, Hero, Leander, Musaeus, loveAbstract
This study offers a comparative analysis of significant variations in the literary tone and attitude towards love and lust between both Christopher Marlowe and George Chapman’s versions of Hero and Leander. The mythological tale was first written by famous Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe. Marlowe’s version celebrates romance as a supreme literary magnet, attracting all essential elements of passion, idealism and lust. However, following Marlowe’s untimely death, George Chapman completed the epyllion. Chapman interestingly introduced a very moralistic tone in his rendition; underlining the immoral consequences of unrestrained desire and lust. Following a precise inspection of major elements and thematic expressions in both relevant texts, this study explores the opposing perspectives and attitudes related to love and lust through shedding light on the critical, social, cultural and philosophical contexts that presumably affected both Marlowe and Chapman’s versions. Through this study it was established that both of Marlowe and Chapman’s versions significantly varies from each other, this was accomplished based on the provided deep analysis of both texts and through examining the essential literary elements used associated with timeless themes of love, lust and idealism.
References
Bartlett, P. B. (Ed.). (1961). The Poems of George Chapman. New York: Modern Language Association of America.
Bennett, L. (2022). Classical Reinterpretations: The Modern Legacy of Ancient Myths. Journal of Classical Studies, 34(2), 45-61.
Brooks, J. (2022). Fate and Love in Ancient Greek Literature: Tracing Themes from Musaeus to Modernity. Classical Philology Review, 17(3), 112-128.
Bush, D. (1963). Mythology and the Renaissance Tradition in English Poetry. W.W. Norton.
Carter, R. (2023). Marlowe's Hero and Leander: A Poetic Analysis. Elizabethan Literary Journal, 29(1), 77-95.
Case, R. H. (Ed.). (1931). Marlowe’s Poems, Vol. IV of The Works and Life of Christopher Marlowe. London: Methuen and Co. Ltd.
Duff, D. (1998). Modern Genre Theory. Longman.
Foster, A. (2023). Philosophical Underpinnings in Elizabethan Poetry: A New Look at George Chapman. Journal of Elizabethan Studies, 56(4), 234-250.
Green, T. (2021). The Unfinished Poems: Marlowe’s Literary Contributions and Chapman’s Closure. Literary History Review, 48(2), 89-106.
Greenblatt, S. (2004). Will in the world: How Shakespeare became Shakespeare. WW Norton & Company.
Harrison, G. B., & Heywood, T. (1928). An Apology for Actors. Chatto & Windus.
Hawkins, D. (2023). Interpreting Marlowe and Chapman: A Modern Comparative Analysis. Modern Literary Review, 45(1), 54-73.
Jackson, H. (2021). Myths in Cultural Context: Adaptability and Endurance. Cultural Anthropology Quarterly, 39(2), 158-174.
Lewis, C. S. (2013). The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition. Cambridge University Press.
Lucas, F. L. (1951). Greek Poetry for Everyman. New York.
Nguyen, P. (2020). Hero and Leander Across the Ages: Myth’s Influence on Modern Narratives. Global Myths Journal, 12(3), 142-159.
Nicholl, C. (2002). The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe. Vintage.
Putranti, A. (2018). Modulation: A translation method to obtain naturalness in target language texts. Journal of Language and Literature, 18(1), 98-101. https://doi.org/10.24071/joll.2018.180112
Richards, I. A. (1929). Practical Criticism: A Study of Literary Judgment. New York.
Sinkhorn, J. B., & Chapman, G. (1966). A comparative study of Marlowe's and Chapman’s Hero and Leander. University of Montana.
Smith, H. (1952). Elizabethan Poetry: A Study in Conventions, Meaning, and Expression. Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Turner, S. (2020). From Greece to Rome: Translational Dynamics in Ancient Poetry. Journal of Translational Studies, 22(4), 210-225.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
SJCUS's open access articles are published under a Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.