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Analysis of doctor faustus by marlowe
Dr faustus as a tragedy
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Christopher Marlowe's The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus
For a play that has retained much of its scholarly value over the four hundred and ten years, there is surprisingly little known about Christopher Marlowe’s masterpiece, The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus. The date of its first performance is unknown, and is highly obscured by the added facts that there are two texts of Doctor Faustus, one published in 1604; the other in 1616 (Ribner viii). Christopher Marlowe, even in these early times, set a standard for tragic plays, which would not be rivaled until Shakespeare unleashed his literary landmarks at around the same time Marlowe’s career ended. Despite the lack of specifics on this seminal work, it is still easy to feel the pain Christopher Marlowe wished to convey with this text. Within the rich dialogue of The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, Christopher Marlowe attempts to communicate a personal struggle; both emotional and spiritual, between what Marlowe views as human nature and what the world views as God’s desires for man, and the overwhelming feelings of loss which accompany this struggle.
Doctor Faustus is a play that thrives primarily on the discourses that abound throughout its length. In the dialogue between the two main characters, Doctor Faustus himself, and the demon Mephistophilis, one finds almost the entirety of the play. Doctor Faustus “…is a man who of his own conscious willfulness brings tragedy and torment crashing down on his head…”(Cole 191). Faustus finds himself melancholic with the pursuit of knowledge he has thus far attained, commenting:
“Be a physician, Faustus; heap up gold,
And be eternized for some wonderous cure…
Why, Faustus, hast thou not attained that end?
Is it not thy common talk sound aphorisms?” (Ribner 5)
He has grown sick of the pursuit of knowledge as he sees it, and believing himself to have become educated in all of the worlds major subjects, seeks the power of God himself (Ellis-Fermor, 74). Through the art of conjuring spirits, commenting, “…A sound magician is a mighty God…” (Ribner 7). The human lust for power has reached a new height in Faustus, and to attain what he desires, the easiest means are demonic. On his way to making the decision to enlist infernal forces in his quest for power, Faustus is prodded by friends, Valdes and ...
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...ssey Press, 1966.
Masinton, Charles G. Christopher Malowe’s Tragic Vision, a Study in Damnation.
Athens: Ohio University Press. 1972.
Thomas, Vivien, and Tydeman, William, ed. Christopher Marlowe : the Plays and Their
Sources. London ; New York : Routledge, 1994.
Sharma, Jitendra Kumar. Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus : a Criticism. New Delhi : Sterling Publishers Private, 1985.
Marcus, Leah Sinanoglou. Unediting the Renaissance : Shakespeare, Marlowe, Milton.
London ; New York : Routledge, 1996.
Ellis-Fermor, Una Mary. “Faustus”. Christopher Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus, Text and Major
Criticism. ed. Irving Ribner. New York: The Odyssey Press, 1966.
Kirschbaum, Leo. “Marlowe’s Faustus: A Reconsideration”. Christopher Marlowe’s Dr.
Faustus, Text and Major Criticism. ed. Irving Ribner. New York: The Odyssey Press, 1966.
Dabbs, Thomas. Reforming Marlowe : The Nineteenth Century Canonization of a
Renaissance Dramatist. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press ; London : Associated University Presses, 1991.
Aquinas, St. Thomas. “On the eternity of the world (De Aeternitate Mundi)”. Trans.
Vollert, Cyril. Milwaukee, Marquette University Press, 1964.
The work entitled Dr. Faustus centers around the character thus named who aims solely to lift every limitation and exceed every boundary he encounters. From the very opening of the play after the chorus in the first scene, Dr. Faustus explains his dissatisfaction with the boundaries he has already met:
John Faustus - the main character - is educated in many fields: medicine, law, divinity, and philosophy, yet his appetite for knowledge is still insatiable. Despite his vast knowledge he is unfulfilled because he still lacks power. As the play unfolds, Faustus is overcome by a craving for power. He eliminates God from his life: "And Faustus vows never to look to heaven,/ Never to name God, or pray to him,/ To burn his Scriptures, slay his ministers,/ And make my spirits pull his churches down" (5.270-3). In western society today, people still lust for power - it is human nature to want. In Faustus' claim that he has nothing more to learn from this world his ambition turns to arrogance, and his intelligence turns into ignorance. Faustus believes that he can attain power beyond mortal ability. Why would God help Faustus, when he refuses to listen to God, and ignores the signs God gave him? Faustus makes several choices in ignorance of the final consequence. When he is having an argument (with the Good Angel and Evil Angel), and chooses to ignore the Good Angel (1.70-73).
Dr. Faustus has been renamed and changed throughout history by many different authors. Each variation contains the same plot and main characters, but the theme, resolution, and structure vary based upon the time period. For example, the first acted version of Dr. Faustus was written in 1592, by Christopher Marlowe, but Marlowe stole the plot from the original version “Historia and Legend of Dr. Johannes Faustus. The most updated version is “the Devil and Daniel Webster,” which was written in 1937. Here, the difference in obvious. The titles were changed, so the play is more appealing to the people in the era. Furthermore, these changes have occurred in two different versions, which were written in different times. Ultimately, these variations have altering themes, resolutions, and structure, which change the message of the story in slight ways.
Although Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus has outclassed every one at Wittenberg with his academic studies, he is "still but Faustus, a man." Proud of his accomplishments, he desires to become a superman. His judgment clouded by the sin of his pride, he misunderstands his knowledge and dismisses the disciplines of medicine, philosophy, law, and divinity. He lusts for God's capability to "make men live eternally or being dead raise them to life again," believing the devil's arts of magic and necromancy can provide the power, honour, omnipotence and, most importantly, the wealth he craves. His deluded pursuit of the immediate pleasures such wealth can yield brings upon himself the risk of eternal damnation. By conjuring the devil, Faustus removes himself from the influence of the Holy Ghost and God's love, instigating attacks of despair, and internal conflicts as personified by the Good and Bad Angels.
Doctor Faustus is a doctor of theology that wants no limits on what he can know or see or do so he sells his soul to the devil to gain these desires. While reading or observing Marlowe's fascinating play the reader or observer should apply the "New Historicism Approach," and take in to consideration Marlowe's and the 1590s society's beliefs, habits of thought, and biases about various concepts of obtaining the "forbidden knowledge". Like the people of the 1590s, Doctor Faustus searches for the "forbidden knowledge", begins to deny God during his quest for greater knowledge, and gains nothing from his vain activities throughout his lifetime. After these listed characteristics have been established one can begin to visualize the relationship between Marlowe's, Doctor Faustus and the beliefs and thoughts of the people of the 1590s.
Kostić, Milena. "The Faustian Motif in Christopher Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus." Facta Universititas 7.2 (2009): 209-22. Web. 04 Dec. 2013.
Marlowe, Christopher Dr Faustus in ed. WB Worthen (1996) The Harcourt Brace Anthology of Drama, 2nd edn., Texas: Harcourt Brace
I. The play Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlow was first published in Manchester by Manchester Publishing in 1588, no information about the play’s first production date was found.
Marlowe, Christopher. The Tragedy of Doctor Faustus. Ed. Louis B. Wright. New York: Washington Square Press, 1959.
Marlowe, Christopher. The Tragical History of D. Faustus. In Renaissance Drama: An Anthology of Plays and Entertainments. Edited by A.F. Kinney. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 2002.
This play is about how Faustus puts on a performance for the Emperor and the Duke of Vanholt. The main thesis or climax of this play is when Faustus two friends Valdes and Cornelius who are magicians, teaches him the ways of magic. Faustus uses this magic to summon up a devil named Mephistophilis. Faustus signs over his soul to Lucifer (Satan), in return to keep Mephistophilis for 24 years. We also see what happens when magic power gets in the wrong hands when Mephistophilis punishes Robin, who is a clown and his friend Ralph for trying to make magic with a book they have stolen from Faustus. In the beginning angels visit Faustus, and each time he wonders whether or not to repent, but the devil appears and warns him not too by tempting him of magic to posses. In the end of the play the two good and evil angels have been replaced by an old man, who urges Faustus to repent? But it is to late for and the play ends with the devil carrying him off the hell.
(Munteanu, 2002). Therefore it can be said that Marlowe is attempting to alter the doctrines his fellow country men with whom are questioning their religions. Marlowe uses the renaissance ideals with the medieval myths to master his point. This work is a forewarning of damnation by those who attempt to alter the doctrines or moral standards, and a beacon of caution to those in search of the unknown. Dr Faustus, the work of good and evil. When man becomes idle his mind wanders and he wants more. With the wealth of knowledge Dr Faustus wanted more, he was no longer content with his academia since they could no longer provide him with wealth and fame as well as fulfill his souls want, he turned to the mastering of the dark arts.
“Marlowe’s biographers often portray him as a dangerously over–ambitious individual. Explore ways this aspect of Marlowe’s personality is reflected in ‘Dr. Faustus.’ ”
Christopher Marlowe’s 14th century play “The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus” demonstrates not how the Devil can lead mankind to temptation, but how mankind through free-will can ultimately lead itself to suffering through sin. I believe that Marlowe heavily uses Christian doctrine through the actions of John Faustus in order to criticize those who do not partake in or see the seriousness of religion.
Austen, Glyn. “The Strange Ambiguity of Christopher Marlowe and Dr Faustus: Glyn Austen examines the powerful paradoxes of Dr Faustus in the light of its literary and intellectual context.” The English Review 14.1 (2003): 2