My final thoughts and questions on Tamburlaine

[shaxper]

Okay, okay.  I definately take back my opinion that "Tamburlaine is frickin' funny" after having finished the final act, and yet who can deny that it began as outragiously funny?  It seems to me that the play isn't just a daring experiment in which a cursed conquerer simply continues conquering without dramatic tension, but rather a play in which the dramatic tension is not readily present for the characters themselves.  For me now, the dramatic tension lies in the reader's (or viewer's) allegiance to Tamburlaine.  When the play begins, it's funny.  Tamburlaine is powerful and well-spoken, the king he looks to overthrow is childish and foolish, the progression is mostly comical, and very little slaughter actually occurs.  But as the play moves on, the kings Tamburlaine goes against are nothing like Mycetes.  Bajoreth, most obviously, is very similar to Tamburaline.  They're both full of themselves, both good with speaches, and both unrelenting conquerers, so it's troubling to see what Tamburlaine ends up doing with him.  We truly begin to see and agree that Tamburlaine's is a godless world, and we wonder who's side we should be on in light of that.  Finally, we get to Egypt and (I now see it clearly) Tamburlaine orders the three innocent virgins sent as a peace offering to be brutally raped and murdered.  We then see very strong dramatic treament given to Bajoreth and his wife as they discuss their fates and both resolve themselves to very couragious (and horrific) suicides.  Finally, we see Zenocrates seriously doubting Tamburlaine; a doubt that is never fully resolved.  When Tamburlaine returns, she gets two lines.  In the first, she expresses relief at seeing her father alive.  The second, in response to Tamby saying "Then doubt I not but fair Zenocrates will soon consent to satisfy us both", is "Else should I much forget myself, my lord".  This line is highly formal and restrained, and emphasizes Zenocrates' duty rather than her wishes.  We're left to wonder if she's happy (and thus the Sultan might be happy) or if she and The Sultan are merely playing along because they have to.


One other thought: why does Tamburlaine decide to stop his conquests at this point?  All along, he's seemed like a man more obsessed with taking than keeping, so why stop with Egypt?  Is he so taken with Zenocrates that making peace with her father (on his own terms) is enough for him?  Maybe, geographically, there's no where else for him to go.  Has he taken all of Africa?  But if he started in Mongolia, why couldn't he have fought his way up into Asia?