Character of Doctor Faustus.pptx

1. Character of Doctor
Faustus

18. Too Far-Fetched?
• While most of us have no interest in trying to conjure up devils, in
what ways might we say that some people follow Doctor Faustus’s
path and “sell” their souls to Satan?
• What other texts allude to “Faustian bargains”?

19. What about You?
• What do you want?
• What would you be willing to do to get it?
• What wouldn’t you be willing to do? Where would you draw the line?
• Selling your soul to the devil for knowledge may seem far-fetched, but
it may still fit today…

20. Knowledge
• How much knowledge should humans have?
• Should we be able to know everything?
• In Marlowe’s time, knowledge was mainly gotten from books. From where do we procure
knowledge today? Are there any sources [like Faustus’s black magic books; Remember that when
Faustus tries to repent at the very end he says, “Ugly Hell, gape not! Come not Lucifer! / I’ll burn
my books! (V, ii, 196 – 197)] that are considered evil or immoral?
• Should anyone and everyone be able to have all knowledge available?
• How might the following issues parallel Faustus’s story:
• Stem cells
• Cloning
• Designer babies
• Biological weapons
• Other Issues?

21. Back to the Text
• How would Marlowe answer some of these questions? Think about
his background and his text.
• In his time, who limited the amount of knowledge man should / could
attain?
• Is Marlowe warning his audience against wanting too much
knowledge OR is he condemning the church for limiting people?
• Let’s look at some background information that might help answer the
last question…

22. Magic
• During the time of Faustus, nature was believed to be a secondary cause of occurrences, God
always being the first cause. Any study of nature, therefore, bypassed God and caused a
suspicion of atheism.
• During medieval times, magic entailed trying to stop or reverse natural processes.
• During the Renaissance, this type of magic changed into a more scientific approach of finding
ways to work in harmony with Nature.
• While Marlowe was at Cambridge, for example, many students of more traditional academia
began turning to scientific research. Certainly Marlowe’s friend, Sir Walter Raleigh, typified
the new man of the time whose pursuit for knowledge included both the rational and the
occult.
• Faustus, as probably Marlowe, recognized Hell and the Devil’s personal pervasiveness, but he
also wanted the powers of Nature even with its limitations. Consider the types of knowledge
Marlowe requests… it is often regarding the planets, planetary motion, etc.

23. Faustus’s Magic
• Think of the other so-called black magic that Faustus
performs: it is often related to changing a natural
process.
• Changing a horse into hay when it touches water
• Eating large quantities of hay
• Living despite losing a limb and then regenerating that limb
• Producing grapes in the dead of winter
• Adding horns to men
• Changing men in to apes and dogs

24. Black Magic
• All of these magic tricks by Faustus bypass God as the primary source
of all natural occurrences so were considered immoral or evil by the
church / society of the time.
• Consider the horrible weather the night Faustus is dragged into hell.
The scholars remark that “such a dreadful night was never seen /
Since first the world’s creation did begin!” (V, iii, 2 – 3). The status
quo is returned at the end of the play with only God in charge of
natural phenomenon.

25. Bruno
• Although Bruno is a fictional character created by Marlowe, his name alludes to St. Giordano Bruno.
• In the play, Bruno is the emperor’s choice for Pope and much hated by Adrian.
• Remember when Bruno tries to argue to the Pope that the emperor elected him and therefore he has rights to the Papacy,
Adrian responds that the emperor will be excommunicated and he “grows too proud in his authority, / Lifting his lofty head
above the clouds, / And like a steeple overpeers the church. / But we’ll pull down his haughty insolence” (III, i, 133 – 136).
• Significance of this scene?
• A few lines later when Bruno questions Adrian’s ideas, Adrian questions, “Is not all power on earth bestowed on us? / And
therefore though we would, we cannot err” (III, i, 152 – 153).
• The real Bruno was a Catholic who spent 8 years in prison for his heretical ideas which included agreeing with
Copernicus and believing that the universe was infinite, containing infinite worlds inhabited by infinite intelligent
beings.
• Bruno was eventually burned at the stake in Rome when he refused to recant his beliefs.
• Faustus favors this follower of natural magic over the sitting Pope, probably a hint at Marlowe’s real opinion of
Catholicism and the nature of knowledge. Although Faustus is relegated to hell for his actions, Marlowe may not
agree with the society and the religion that would send him there as it sent Bruno to the stake.

26. Structure
• Looking at the elements of Marlowe’s structure may also help us to
understand his intent…

27. Significance of Structure
• Doctor Faustus uses aspects of traditional dramatic structure:
• Medieval morality play
• Alternating comic and serious scenes

28. Morality Plays
• During the middle ages, in order to make church teachings accessible to the common
people, clergymen began to dramatize stories from the Bible (mystery plays) and
episodes from the lives of saints (miracle plays)
• These plays became too elaborate for the church to hold, so craft guilds took them
over and created traveling stage sets for performances on feast days. These plays
often lasted 3 days, included comedy, music, dance, and elaborate special effects to
create the illusion of rain, lightning and flying. People’s interest in drama was
sparked.
• By the 1400s, professional acting troops were performing morality plays – drama
about the moral struggles of everyday people. They used allegory in order to
present a lesson concerning the soul’s salvation
• The characters have names that indicated their allegorical significance, such as
Truth, Gluttony, King, Mankind
• Everyman is the most famous morality play (written at the end of 15th c.)
• Message of play = when we die, we take nothing with us from this world except the
record of our good deeds
• Morality plays grew more sophisticated as time went by and set the stage for
Elizabethan drama and geniuses such as Shakespeare.

29. Morality Play Elements
• Clearest morality play element in Faustus = Good Angel and Bad
Angel.
• Marlowe deviates a bit from traditional morality plays, however.
• A formalist analysis helps a reader to understand Marlowe’s view of
religion and morality.

30. Comic Scenes
• The play is organized around alternating comic and serious
scenes. Some scholars in the past have noted that the quality of
the comic sections differs greatly from that of the serious and
therefore may not have been written by Marlowe at all but rather
added at a later time for “sight gags” which may have appealed to
the “groundling” audience. The comic scenes also tend to be
written in prose while the more serious scenes are written in
blank verse. However, more modern scholars argue that the comic
scenes are actually an integral part of the story.

31. Comic Scenes Analysis
• How do the comic scenes parallel the dynamic character of Doctor
Faustus?
• How do the scenes foreshadow events in the life of Doctor Faustus?
• How do the scenes serve to subtly mock Catholicism / religion?

32. So What?
• In the last eight lines of the play, what does the Chorus say we
should learn from Faustus’s experience?
• Based on all that you know about the play, Marlowe, etc. what else
might Marlowe want us to learn from his play?