The Theme Of Virtue In Tamburlaine

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Tamburlaine’s idea of nobility is seen as a matter of achievements against the incapacity of the born king Mycetes. His imposing conception of power and kingship is seen against the capacity for intriguing and practical politics of Cosroe. From this point on, the play shows Tamburlaine the conqueror, successful beyond the caprices of fortune and cruel. Not even Zenocrate’s tears will convince him not to kill the virgins of her native city and siege the town. But the beauty of Zenocrate in her grief troubles him more than opposing armies, and makes him reflect. He asks, “What is beauty, saith my sufferings, then?” The greatest spirits are necessarily aspiring, he had said, “always moving as the restless spheres.” His theme is now that such spirits …show more content…
Virtue expresses itself in aspiring, and it involves an instinct for beauty as well as struggle for power. The marriage of Tamburlaine to Zenocrate which concludes the play has the same relation to this passage on beauty as the conquer of crowns and empires does to the earlier speech on aspiration. Viewed in this way, the play is not simply a series of military victories and acts of inhuman cruelty but the progressive evolution of Tamburlaine as a heroic figure, as a man of “virtue.”
From this view of the action it becomes clear why the rise of Tamburlaine becomes one of the main functions of the imagery. Though there is an impression of richness in the diction, the figures of speech which appear most frequently and which are mostly used are drawn from a limited range of categories: the gods of classical mythology, especially Jove; jewels, treasure, and precious stones and metals; stars, planets, and other heavenly bodies. Instances of these can be found throughout the play. In addition to these main ones, there are a lot of references to elemental forces of nature and characteristics of the classical underworld, and of historical and geographical references. These images give intensity to the impression of greatness and are more responsible for the heroic character of the play than the increasingly glorious military triumphs of the
…show more content…
His army will be greater than the force of Xerxes, which was said “to drink the mighty Parthian Araris.” (p.19) His host is like Caesar’s “that never fought but had the victory.” (p.60) The movements of his army’s weapons “fill all the air with fiery meteors.” (p.42) Their bullets, “like Jove’s dreadful thunderbolts,” “ (p.19) His cruellest soldier cannot be bought with “all the gold in India’s wealthy arms.” (p.10) Tamburlaine’s sword will fly “As doth the lightning or the breath of heaven.” (p.15) Zenocrate thinks that his favour would please the “Queen of Heaven.” (p.29) His exploits will be spoken of until “p.43) The heightening produced by the accumulation of such expressions is in direct proportion to the associations carried by the allusions involved: Tmaburlaine’s cruellest act is equated with those of the heroes of myth or history, and is attached to ideas that bring strength and majesty. In this way the elevation above the common order of human events is produced, and without which it would be nothing more than a monotonous account of an insane lust for power. The images and allusions make Tamburlaine in accordance with the general conceptions about man of which he becomes the focus and, in a way, the symbol.
The images used in the play form a kind of attachment to the personality of Tamburlaine, being full of barbaric wealth and metallic splendour, the noise

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