Crowns Symbol Analysis

Crowns in Tamburlaine represent, of course, the apex of political power, which for Tamburlaine is synonymous with the apex of human achievement. The slapstick scene with Mycetes attempting to hide his crown reveals how unworthy he is to bear it, as opposed to the low-born Tamburlaine, to whom the crown nevertheless seems naturally suited. Tamburlaine could simply snatch the crown from Mycetes during that scene, but he insists on winning it properly in battle, showing the respect it commands from him as a symbol. After seeing Cosroe crowned Persian emperor, “The thirst of reign and sweetness of a crown” compels him to attack Cosroe’s forces. Again, he yearns for the crown, but he likewise relishes the opportunity to prove himself worthy of it through the violent process of obtaining it. This is his life’s work: he feels driven to “never rest/ Until we reach the ripest fruit of all,/ That perfect bliss and sole felicity,/ The sweet fruition of an earthly crown.” Indeed, he finds that “kingly joys on earth—/To wear a crown enchased with pearl and gold,/ Whose virtues carry with it life and death” surpass the pleasures and glories even of the gods in heaven.

Yet, if you think about a crown, its perfect circle shape symbolically closes its wearer off from the world. This elevates but also isolates Tamburlaine, making him deaf to the pleas of pity from the vestal virgins, and of his own men when he stabs his son Calyphas. The crown, then, captures both the grandeur of total power and the inhumanity required to achieve it.