Marlowe's title characters in his poem, “Hero and Leander,” are described in beautiful and flowery language. Both Hero and Leander are attractive, they speak eloquently, and they share a passionate love. But Marlowe also describes the couple in terms which do not make his praise seem unequivocal. Just as Mercury's “country maid” responds ambiguously to him and “neither would deny, nor grant his suit,” Marlowe takes on this same ambivalent attitude when describing Hero and Leander (388, 424). Marlowe uses ambivalent descriptions in order to humanize these otherwise grand and epic characters.[note]The introduction begins specifically with analysis of the text, and the thesis statement is based on close reading.
Hero is described as an extremely beautiful woman. She is so attractive that “young Apollo courted for her hair, / And offered as a dower his burning throne, / Where she should sit for men to gaze upon” (6-8). She has caught the attention of a god simply because of her hair, but the poem never says that the admiration was mutual, and one must assume that it was not because she did not break her vow to accept Apollo's offer, as she does later for Leander. Getting this offer from Apollo makes her godlike in beauty, but her rejection of him keeps her firmly on earth, as she has rejected “his burning throne”. The description of Hero's costume immediately following these lines makes Marlowe's ambiguity toward her more apparent.[note]Paragraph structure is strong as it begins specifically, offers a quote for support, and then moves to analysis and synthesis.
Hero's dress depicts a scene with Venus and Adonis in a grove. There, “Venus in her naked glory strove, / To please the careless and disdainful eyes / Of proud Adonis, that before her lies” (12-14). The image of Adonis is painted with negative diction; he is “careless,” “disdainful,”and “proud” despite Venus being “naked” simply “to please” him. This is a bizarre and unpleasant image to embroider on one's dress. Even though the image is of gods, it does not make Hero seem epic or divine, but rather, this makes her seem like an unfortunate human who is subservient to these powers.
The next image of the dress she wears is also unpleasant, and is ambiguous. The dress is dirty, which seems very human, but it is dirtied by “many a stain, / Made with the blood of wretched lovers slain” (15-16). Marlowe forces the reader to wonder why Hero is covered in the blood of slain lovers, as well as who killed them. The poem makes it sound as if either the lovers killed themselves because they could not have Hero, or the lovers were slain by either Hero or someone else to keep them from her. In either instance, Hero seems once again divine for having inspired the kind of love that men would have to die for, while still being human by wearing a dirty dress.[note]Good synthesis of the argument thus far.
The rest of Hero's appearance continues to speak to both her almost magical qualities and her very human artifice.[note]This statement expands the support and argument. Her necklace is a combination of the descriptions. “About her neck hung chains of pebblestone,” which seems ordinary enough, but when they are “lightened by her neck, like diamonds shone” as if by supernatural power (25-26). She is not wearing enchanted stones around her neck, they are common pebbles. This does not seem very grand by itself, but it is her own neck that makes the stones light up. Her hands are even more godlike, as “She wore no gloves; for neither sun nor wind / Would burn or parch her hands, but to her mind, / Or warm or cool them, for they took delight / To play upon those hands, they were so white” (27-30). These lines suggest that she can control the sun and wind with her will. Despite this evidence of her being supernatural, the rest of her costume is filled with artifice.
Hero's boots are comically artificial, even if her “world would wonder to behold” them (34). They are made of “Buskins of shells, all silvered used she, / And branched with blushing coral to the knee; / Where sparrows perched of hollow pearl and gold” (31-33). As if the decorations of shells, coral, and birds made out of pearl and gold were not enough, the birds are mechanical and make noise. The birds “with sweet water oft her handmaid fills, / Which, as she went, would chirrup through the bills” (35-36). Hero's natural beauty is not evident in this section. These lines make her beauty sound very contrived, and not at all of epic proportions. [note]The writer is transitioning from a discussion of clothing to "natural" beauty.
Nature, however, does not seem to think that Hero's beauty is forced beauty, made by human efforts. The narrator says, “So lovely fair was Hero, Venus' nun, / As Nature wept, thinking she was undone, / Because she took more from her than she left, / And of such wondrous beauty her bereft” (45-48). Personified Nature seems to believe that Hero stole her (Nature's) beauty for her own. Because Hero has supposedly taken so much beauty, Nature laments, “Since Hero's time hath half the world been black” (50). In this way, Hero's beauty is supernatural, but because it is stolen beauty, Hero is not more divine because of it.
Even the description of Cupid's love for her is negative. “Some say for her the fairest Cupid pined” but love does not spare him because “looking in her face” he is “strucken blind” (37-38). Her beauty is heavenly, but instead of Cupid being rewarded for being devoted to her, he is struck blind. This love is certainly not heavenly, as “so like was one the other” that Cupid “imagined Hero was his mother. / And oftentimes into her bosom flew, / About her naked neck his bare arms threw” (39-42). The diction used in these lines is low and very human because it describes Hero's and Cupid's bodies in a very physical way. Cupid flies to her “bosom” and puts his “bare arms” around her “naked neck.” The emphasis on nakedness makes these lines seem even more bodily instead of divine. This passage also does not seem ethereal because of the kind of love Cupid has for Hero. It seems incestuous that Cupid “pined” for her, even as “he imagined Hero was his mother” (37, 40).
The description of Leander is equally ambiguous.[note]Paper transitions to discussion of Leander. The narrator begins his description by calling him “Amorous Leander, beautiful and young,” but adding “whose tragedy divine Musaeus sung” (51-52). Obviously Leander is supremely attractive, but immediately the narrator warns the reader that however divine Leander might seem, he is destined for tragedy. His beauty seems to surpass Hero's because it does not rely on artifice, but instead is far more natural.
His hair, like Hero's, is so tempting to those around him that if his tresses had “been cut, and unto Colchos borne, / Would have allured the vent'rous youth of Greece / To hazard more than for the golden fleece” (56-58). These lines make his beauty seem divine, but the later lines contain ambiguous allusions to Greek mythology. “His body was as straight as Circe's wand,” which sounds divine because of the allusion to a goddess, yet Circe's wand is a negative symbol because with it she turned Odysseus' men into pigs (61). His neck “surpassed / The white of Pelop's shoulder” but Pelop was a mortal who was cooked and served to the gods (64-65). The speaker praises Leander, saying his “orient cheeks and lips, exceeding his / That leaped into the water for a kiss / Of his own shadow” but does not acknowledge the unhappy fate of the man he alludes to (73-75). Next he mentions another mortal saying, “Had wild Hippolytus Leander seen / Enamoured of his beauty had he been” but this hero was eaten by a monster for not returning his stepmother's incestuous love (77-78). Then the narrator says that Leander is like “another Phaeton” (101). This image is also negative because Phaeton was struck down by Jove's thunderbolt. Leander's beauty is highly praised, which makes him seem divine, but his mortality (and through that, his humanity) is emphasized as the allusions Marlowe uses repeatedly reference classical figures with tragic outcomes to introduce him.[note]Good close reading and use of textual evidence.
Hero's artifice is in her appearance, but Leander's artifice is in his words.[note]Here the writer is bringing the different pieces of the argument together. He contrives his speeches to be beautiful and convincing while calling his speech unpolished, and in this way ornaments his words just as Hero did with her clothes. Leander approaches Hero by saying, “Fair creature, let me speak without offence. / I would my rude words had the influence / To lead thy thoughts as thy fair looks do mine, / Then shouldst thou be his prisoner, who is thine” (199-202). The artifice in his words is apparent because, although he says he is afraid of causing “offence” with his “rude words” he obviously speaks well. His words are flattering, not offensive, as he says that she is “fair” and he is a “prisoner” of her love. He reiterates his self-deprecation by saying that because his “words shall be as spotless as” his “youth,” they will only be “Full of simplicity and naked truth” (207-208). By calling his speech “spotless,” “simple,” and “naked” he is trying to claim that his speech is without artifice, however, using this contrived mode of speech is in itself artifice.
However divine Leander's talent for persuasive speeches is, the speeches themselves show how very human he is because they show his motivations. He is trying to convince Hero to be with him and give up her virginity by using the simile, “Like untuned golden strings all women are, / Which long time lie untouched, will harshly jar” (229-230). While he uses beautiful language to describe women, such as “golden strings,” he continues to be persuasive by saying that their worth can be lost if they remain “untouched”. Leander ornaments his speech by making it more poetic through this device. He addresses her saying, “Ah, simple Hero, learn thyself to cherish. / Lone women like to empty houses perish” (241-242). This simile has the same purpose as the previous one in trying to get Hero to relinquish her virginity, but this time, Leander emphasizes that sex is not only necessary, but enjoyable. Hero would be “cherish[ing]” herself, not engaging in a denigrating act, by allowing herself to enjoy sex. Leander's speech is filled with artifice that makes his words so persuasive. His goal is no more divine than his diction. His desires are not for anything spiritual, but for bodily pleasure. This is not a characteristic of an epic character, but rather a very human one.
Marlowe's characters could easily have seemed nothing short of epic and divine. Marlowe takes pains to balance the impression of their greatness with their humanity and imperfect motivations.[note]This sentence restates the thesis. The ambiguous characterization that he tries to convey changes the emphasis of the poem from the godlike to individuals, while maintaining the idea that these individuals are worth writing poetry about. In this way, “Hero and Leander” is truly a Renaissance poem because it keeps the emphasis on individuals.[note]The conclusion expands and broadens out from thesis.