Edward II critical quotes

Janet Clare on Edward

"Edward is typical of the intemperate marlowerian figure consumed by an overriding desire"

Stephen Guy-Bray on Isabella

"Isabella brings about one of the most serious challenges to the social order in all of Medieval English history"

Debrah Belt on Rhetoric

"The play uses rhetorical performances to influence judgements and attitudes"

Millryne and Fender on Edward

"Edward's decline has the inevitablilty of fate"

Maxwell and Steane on Edward

"no prevailing political interest"

Simon Beale on Edward

"Edward's greatest relationship is with his crown"

Wiggins on Gaveston

"Not only an attractive figure but also a sexual criminal and traitor"

Wiggins on Edward's homosexuality

"The objection is not that the king is gay but that he's glad to be gay"

Wiggins on Edward's homosexuality

"A casual factor in a large scale political disaster"

Baines on Edward and Gaveston's love

"Edward and Gaveston's love looks like hopeless fantasy in the face of the baron's armed muscle"

J.B. Altman

"A play about power, pure and simple"

Romany and Lindsey on the baron's motives

"the baron's hatred of Edward's love is less homophobia than class-antagonism"

Parks on Edward

Edward II "is a source of disorder whose lack of self-government parallels is inability to govern the realm"

Hilton on Edward

"If any character deserves sympathy in this tragedy, it is the 'plaint' Edward, who is no match for the strong forces ranged around him"

Ellis-Fermor on Edward

"Edward knows nothing of the nature of that power which makes kings feared, and is dismayed to find that he does not produce the effect he should"

Callaghan on Marlowe's choices

Marlowe "uses sodomy to make femininity visible"

Summers on the baron's motives

"the baron's objection to Gaveston (and later to Spencer) has nothing to do with morality and everything to do with class"

Deats on Edward and Isabella

Isabella and Edward are "androgynous characters who explode gender stereotypes"

Deats on dramatisation

the play "vividly dramatises the chaos resulting from violations on the proper order"

Levin on villians

Marlowe shows that "tragic life needs no villains; that plots are spun by passions; that men betray themselves"

Keenan on Edward and Mortimer Jn

Edward II and Mortimer "demonstrate the dangers of excessive or misdirected passion and ambition respectively"

Melnikoff on Isabella's power

"Isabella's power is always defined by her femininity, either through vulnerability or maternal strength"

Melnikoff on Mortimer Jn's power

"the play counterbalances the pathos of Edward's demise and murder with the unsettling displays of Mortimer Jn's crashing power"

Wilson on Isabella

"Isabella plays the she-machiavelli to Mortimer's Machiavelli. Cruel as well as unfaithful she has nothing to learn in the art of turning and dissembling"

Gibbs on Isabella's power

Isabella "proves herself impressively capable of consolidating her position in a society hostile to female power"

Poirier on Edward's treatment of Isabella

"Edward's behaviour towards his wife is odious"

Bevington on Mortimer

"Mortimer undergoes no character development, but only reveals more of his hidden treachery"

Normand on sex

"in Marlowe's play, sex is always political"

Culy-Bray on tragic hero status

"no-one reaches tragic hero status: Edward is too weak and Gaveston and Mortimer Jn are too self-serving"

Vaught on Edward III

Prince Edward succeeds at the end due to "his ability to feel the loss of his father deeply and act justly in response to it"

L.J. Mills on Marlowe

"[Marlowe] is guided, not by the chronicles, but by his own needs as a dramatist"