Pride and Megalomania: Thematic Study in Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great 10.12816/0009117

الملخص

The main objective of this paper is to study Marlowe's play Tamburlaine the Great mainly the theme of Pride and Megalomania that forms a dominant theme among other themes. Pride according to Collins CobuildEnglish Language Dictionary: [1987: 1138] is: a sense of dignity and self-respect that a person has....... a feeling of being superior to others which makes a person boast and ignore other person's feelings and advice; used showing disapproval. Pride also indicates being out of touch with reality and over estimating one's own capabilities especially for those in position of power. However, pride in its positive meaning refers to a satisfied sense of attachment towards one's own choices and actions, or towards a whole group of people or community. It also could refer to the high opinion of one's nation which is called ''national pride”. Pride also is regarded as one of the Seven Deadly Sins in Christianity that exposes its fellow to heavenly retribution if he/she does not repent. It was commonly used in the European medieval morality drama. In the ancient Greek tragedy pride was also used synonymous with the Greek term "hubris" which means; [Gray: 2008: 138]: “Theself-indulgent confidence that causes a tragic hero to ignore the decrees, laws and warnings of the gods, and therefore defy them to bring about his or her downfall". Megalomania, on the other hand, is derived from the Greek words ‘megalo’ which means larger or greater and 'mania' which means madness or frenzy. According to the English Language Dictionary [1987: 904] megalomania "is the belief that you are more powerful and important than you really are. Megalomania is sometimes a mental illness." Thus it is taken as a psychopathological order characterized by delusional fantasies of power or omnipotence. The paper's task, then, is to tackle the theme of pride and megalomania. It is, thus, a thematic study in one of the most remarkable plays of the English Renaissance period. The play is also a magnificent piece of rhetoric that one cannot help but to be greatly attached to it. The paper refers to many quotations taken from the play due to their dramatic significance. They show how brilliantly and successfully Marlowe introduces his themes through these sublime lines of free verse. They also manifest Marlowe's -the teen- aged student at Cambridge University - poetic and dramatic talent to compose such great drama enriched with rhetoric and a great deal of historical and mythological knowledge. The paper is divided into the following main chapters: Chapter One includes brief account on Marlowe's time and drama, the source of the play and a plot summary. Chapter Two analyses Tamburlaine's character as a symbol of cruelty and brutality. Chapter Three is devoted to the analysis of the theme of pride and megalomania that is embodied in Tamburlaine's character. Chapter Four includes brief analysis of two minor themes in the play, the theme of love and the theme of pacifism in the tremendous turmoil of hatred and war. The paper comes to conclusion that the theme of pride and megalomania preoccupies the main part in the content of the drama. It confirms the fact that pride and megalomania are dangerous and destructive evils to both the individual and society. The paper also concludes that Tamburlaine the Great is more a morality play than a tragedy.