Christopher Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus" vs. William Shakespeare's "Henry IV, Part 1"

Christopher Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus" and William Shakespeare's "Henry IV, Part 1" are both two of history's most notable plays. Even with the fact that Marlowe has had a serious influence on Shakespeare, there are a series of differences between the two plays and one is likely to observe how each playwright employs a different attitude in speaking about the same concepts. "Doctor Faustus," for example, is a play that centers on a single character while "Henry IV, Part 1" is more complex and provides audiences with several characters as they progress and develop into individuals that are very different from how they were initially.

In contrast to Marlowe, Shakespeare focuses on humanizing his characters and on actually influencing audiences to identify with them. Marlowe only wants spectators to maintain their roles throughout the play, as he concentrates on presenting...
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