DR. FAUSTUS -Chirstopher Marlowe

 DR. FAUSTUS

                                                            -Chirstopher Marlowe

Introduction:

Christopher Marlowe, also known as Kit Marlowe, was an English playwright, poet and

translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe is among the most famous of the Elizabethan

playwrights. Christopher Marlowe was an Elizabethan poet and William Shakespeare's most

important predecessor in English drama. He is noted especially for his establishment of dramatic

blank verse. In a playwriting career that spanned little more than six years, Marlowe's

achievements were diverse and splendid. Marlowe is really the father of English drama. Because

he is the first to perceive the capacities for noble art inherent in the romantic drama. He adapted

it to high purpose by his practice. He saw that the romantic drama, the drama of the people, had a

great future before it.

“Christopher Marlowe in Doctor Faustus, one of the earliest and the most famous non-

Shakespearean Elizabethan tragedies, manages not only to bridge the gap between the

medieval morality plays and the secular, classically influenced dramas of the

Renaissance”. – T Mc Alidon

Writing style of Marlowe:

Before Marlowe, plays strictly used rhymed verse instead. Finding it too stiff and formal,

he completely changed the way writers wrote plays and used blank verse. He alternated the

typical stresses to create a more varied and emotionally accessible verse.

❖ “Dido, Queen of Carthage” (1586)

❖ “Tamburlaine”, part 1 (1587) “

❖ “Tamburlaine”, part 2 (1587-1588)

❖ “The Jew of Malta” (1589)

❖ “Doctor Faustus” (1589-1593)

Title- Justification:

The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, commonly referred to

simply as Doctor Faustus, is an Elizabethan tragedy by Christopher Marlowe, based on German

stories about the title character Faust. It was probably written in 1592 or 1593, shortly before

Marlowe's death.

Themes of the play:

❖ Temptation, Sin, and Redemption.

❖ Deeply immersed in Christianity, Marlowe's play explores the alluring temptation of sin, its

consequences, and the possibility of redemption for a sinner like Doctor Faustus

❖ The Bargain

❖ The Renaissance Individual

❖ Education, Knowledge, and Power.

Dr Faustus as a Morality play:

Doctor Faustus has elements of both Christian morality and classical tragedy. On the one

hand, it takes place in an explicitly Christian cosmos: God sits on high, as the judge of the world,

and every soul goes either to hell or to heaven. There are devils and angels, with the devils

tempting people into sin and the angels urging them to remain true to God. Faustus’s story is a

tragedy in Christian terms, because he gives in to temptation and is damned to hell. Faustus’s

principal sin is his great pride and ambition, which can be contrasted with the Christian virtue of

humility; by letting these traits rule his life, Faustus allows his soul to be claimed by Lucifer,

Christian cosmology’s prince of devils.

Message of Chirstianity :

The play seems to offer a very basic Christian message—that one should avoid temptation

and sin, and repent if one cannot avoid temptation and sin—its conclusion can be interpreted as

straying from orthodox Christianity in order to conform to the structure of tragedy. In a

traditional tragic play, as pioneered by the Greeks and imitated by William Shakespeare, a hero

is brought low by an error or series of errors and realizes his or her mistake only when it is too

late. In Christianity, though, as long as a person is alive, there is always the possibility of

repentance—so if a tragic hero realizes his or her mistake, he or she may still be saved even at

the last moment. But though Faustus, in the final, wrenching scene, comes to his senses and begs

for a chance to repent, it is too late, and he is carried off to hell. Marlowe rejects the Christian

idea that it is never too late to repent in order to increase the dramatic power of his finale, in

which Faustus is conscious of his damnation and yet, tragically, can do nothing about it.

“a Renaissance man who had to pay the medieval price for being one.” Do you think this

is an accurate characterization of Marlowe’s tragic hero”- R.M Dawkins

Dr. Faustus passion towards Necromacy:

Doctor Faustus, a well-respected German scholar, grows dissatisfied with the limits of

traditional forms of knowledge logic, medicine, law, and religion and decides that he wants to

learn to practice magic. His friends Valdes and Cornelius instruct him in the black arts, and he

begins his new career as a magician by summoning up Mephistophilis, a devil. Despite

Mephistophilis’s warnings about the horrors of hell, Faustus tells the devil to return to his

master, Lucifer, with an offer of Faustus’s soul in exchange for twenty-four years of service from

Mephistophilis. Meanwhile, Wagner, Faustus’s servant, has picked up some magical ability and

uses it to press a clown named Robin into his service.

Dr Faustus 24- years agreement with Lucifer:

Mephistophilis returns to Faustus with word that Lucifer has accepted Faustus’s offer.

Faustus experiences some misgivings and wonders if he should repent and save his soul; in the

end, though, he agrees to the deal, signing it with his blood. As soon as he does so, the words

“Homo fuge,” Latin for “O man, fly,” appear branded on his arm. Faustus again has second

thoughts, but Mephistophilis bestows rich gifts on him and gives him a book of spells to learn.

Later, Mephistophilis answers all of his questions about the nature of the world, refusing to

answer only when Faustus asks him who made the universe. This refusal prompts yet another

bout of misgivings in Faustus, but Mephastophilis and Lucifer bring in personifications of the

Seven Deadly Sins to prance about in front of Faustus, and he is impressed enough to quiet his

doubts.

Experiments of Dr. Faustus in Necromacy:

Armed with his new powers and attended by Mephastophilis, Faustus begins to travel. He

goes to the pope’s court in Rome, makes himself invisible, and plays a series of tricks. He

disrupts the pope’s banquet by stealing food and boxing the pope’s ears. Following this incident,

he travels through the courts of Europe, with his fame spreading as he goes. Eventually, he is

invited to the court of the German emperor, Charles V (the enemy of the pope), who asks

Faustus to allow him to see Alexander the Great, the famed fourth-century BCE Macedonian

king and conqueror. Faustus conjures up an image of Alexander, and Charles is suitably

impressed. A knight scoffs at Faustus’s powers, and Faustus chastises him by making antlers

sprout from his head. Furious, the knight vows revenge.

Meanwhile, Robin, Wagner’s clown, has picked up some magic on his own, and with

his fellow stable hand, Rafe, he undergoes a number of comic misadventures. At one point, he

manage (or perhaps even does transform them; the text isn’t clear) to punish them for their

foolishness. es to summon Mephistophilis, who threatens to turn Robin and Rafe into animals.

A trick played on Horse Counter:

Faustus then goes on with his travels, playing a trick on a horse-courser along the way.

Faustus sells him a horse that turns into a heap of straw when ridden into a river. Eventually,

Faustus is invited to the court of the Duke of Vanholt, where he performs various feats. The

horse-courser shows up there, along with Robin, a man named Dick and various others who have

fallen victim to Faustus’s trickery. But Faustus casts spells on them and sends them on their way,

to the amusement of the duke and duchess.

Decline of the Agreement:

As the twenty-four years of his deal with Lucifer come to a close, Faustus begins to dread

his impending death. He has Mephastophilis call up Helen of Troy, the famous beauty from the

ancient world, and uses her presence to impress a group of scholars. An old man urges Faustus to

repent, but Faustus drives him away. Faustus summons Helen again and exclaims rapturously

about her beauty. But time is growing short. Faustus tells the scholars about his pact, and they

are horror-stricken and resolve to pray for him. On the final night before the expiration of the

twenty-four years, Faustus is overcome by fear and remorse. He begs for mercy, but it is too late.

At midnight, a host of devils appears and carries his soul off to hell. In the morning, the scholars

find Faustus’s limbs and decide to hold a funeral for him.

Conclusion:

Thus, By the end of the quest you will be able to understand and evaluate Faustus and the

context of his trade with the devil. We can now decide if his self- fashion ideals were completely

left to fate and written in the stars as he eludes to towards the end of the play, or if Faustus

knowingly chose to damn himself for the worldly pleasure of wielding black magic on earth. By

references the tragic heroes of past times and expressing his knowledge as superior, can Faustus

really escape his consequences of eternal death, even with while knowing that he could have

saved himself at any time by repenting, Or is he just a man who self- fashioned based on the

tragedies of past heroic figures, Marlowe has presented you with a play that may have you

wavering on feelings towards Faustus but by diving into his perspective can we say that he is all

bad.