The Rhetoric of Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine Essays -- Christophe

The Rhetoric of Christopher Marlowes Tamburlaine The hero of Christopher Marlowes Tamburlaine the Great did not lead the life of both ordinary Scythian shepherd. Throughout the course of the drama, the once lowly Tamburlaine is bent on a path of unstoppable conquest, upheld as much by keen personal charisma and power of speech as by the strength of his sword. He exemplifies this eloquence throughout his many speeches in the play, not least of which is his aridity of Reign address to the defeated usurper of the Persian crown. Tamburlaines speech is delivered with the intention of justifying, to Cosroe and all others present, the righteousness of his own ambitions, and inviting them to share in the same. He achieves this determination by skillfully employing in his speech Aristotles three canonized methods of persuasion parole, pathos, and ethos. Tamburlaine begins his address with a subtle use of ethos, an appeal to his own credibleness as a le ader worthy of respect. He does this by comparing his own desire for the sweetness of a crown to that of mighty Jove, who threw his father Ops mastered from the heavenly chair for this same reason. By this line of persuasion, Tamburlaine is following in the very footsteps of the mighty god, and fulfilling a goal established as worthy by a most divine precedent. This comparison serves to glorify his bloody path, and subtly clarifies him as a mighty persona in majestic uprising, not just now a violent, sheep-herding rebel. Tamburlaines bolstering of his own person is followed by a justification of the very act of ambitious conquest by means of logos, a reasonable appeal to reason. He argues that NatureDoth teach us all to have aspiring... ...nd morally questionable to audience and readers alike. The depiction of ruthless conquest as an estimable and heroic endeavor could only be done successfully if it were shielded by language as beautiful as it is capable of pe rsuasion. Despite this persona of speech, there is a certain weakness in the address that the modern reader is privy to the idea of four warring elements composing our frames is quaintly erroneous. Aristotle himself would be quick to point out that a logical argument based on faulty assumptions is a faulty argument, so Tamburlaines use of logos in this speech rings somewhat hollow on ears which can pick out the flaw in his persuasions. Not that this flaw would come as a surprise to an educated modern reader, as they would likely already distrust any justification of violent domination that history has repeatedly shown to be far from admirable.