DR.

FAUSTUS
BY
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE

A HUMBLE EFFORT

BY
IFTIKHAR AHMAD TARAR

(MPhil Linguistics)
(Lec. Superior Group of Colleges)

FAST ENGLISH ACADEMY WZD

03349395715 03016220876

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 ASSIGNMENT I
TRAGIC CONFLICT IN “DR. FAUSTUS”Or
‘’DR. FAUSTUS”: A SPIRTUAL TRAGEDY
IFTIKHAR AHMAD TARAR(MPhil Linguistics)
(Lec. Superior Group of Colleges)
03349395715
Christopher Marlowe’s contribution to English or Elizabethan drama is great and manifold.
Among many of the innovations made by Marlowe the chief and the most beneficial is the
introduction of the ‘’Tragic conflict’’. When it is said that Marlowe is the father of Modern
English tragedy, then it should be agreed upon that he gave to the tragedy a new array and a new
device of inner conflict. This term is known as psychological conflict in the modern conception
of tragedy. In Dr. Faustus, Marlowe attempted something new—the delineation of a struggle
within the mind of the chief figure. This struggle is certainly somewhat primitive in its
expression, but it is a foretaste of those ‘inward characteristics’ towards which drama in its
development inevitably tends. Faustus, in this respect, is unquestionably the greatest tragic figure
in sixteenth century literature outside the work of Shakespeare.”

As far as tragedy as an art form is concerned, according to Aristotle a drama has an imitation, an
action, with a proper magnitude and to end a tragedy there is ‘catharsis’ usually a hero is shown
on the stage confronting a group of opponents, sometime fighting against each
other...........bringing an end to the life of the hero. But in the play of Dr. Faustus the heart of the
hero is the ground, the passions are the actors and the mind of the hero is caught between the
emotions, desires and the Renaissance logic. These flickering hopes, ambitions and loyalties give
rise to a ‘spiritual conflict’ in the mind of the hero. We find the conflict or the psychological
struggle raging in the heart and soul of the hero. In fact there is hardly any external action in this
play—“the delineation of a psychological struggle or spiritual conflict in the mind of the hero is
the chief thing’’.

Generally this inner conflict takes place when a man is faced with two alternatives, one of which
he must have to choose but finds himself pulled in opposite directions. Now Faustus is inspired
by the spirit of Renaissance, by dreams of gaining limitless knowledge and super-human powers.
These he can attain only by taking to unholy necromancy, by discarding godly order or by
denouncing doctrines of Christianity. Faustus may reject all these intellectually but he is

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definitely attached to them emotionally. Hence starts the conflict in his soul—the wavering and
vacillations. The conflict may be said to be the conflict between will and conscience externalised
by the Bad Angel and Good Angel respectively. So the heart of Faustus is the field where the
forces of good and evil are trying to overwhelm each other. We can follow this conflict and
career of Faustus in the play with the following discussion.

In the first part of the drama we have the scenes that depict how intellectual pride and inordinate
ambition lead Faustus into a vicious bargain with the Devil. In the very first scene we find that
Faustus is disappointed with all branches of knowledge like Physic, Philosophy, Law and
Divinity as they are absolutely inadequate to serve his purpose. Finally he decides in favour of
the black art of magic as:

“These metaphysics of magicians, 

And necromantic books are heavenly.”

And he convinces himself that:

“A sound magician is a mighty god”.

In fact, he wants to make impossible possible and gather prophet, delight, power and honour
which only devil can confer upon him. The Renaissance lust for power, pelf and knowledge has
turned him blind to the ideals of a pure being. Yet at the start of act II, scene II, Faustus has a
guilty conscience and in the agony he cries:

“When I behold the heavens, then I repent,

And curse thee, wicked Mephistophilis, 
Because thou hast deprived me of those joys.”
That is why Nicholas Brooke has observed that “the dramatic tension of the Faustus story as
Marlowe presents it, lies in the fact that Faustus is determined to satisfy the demands of his
nature as God has made him—to be himself a deity—that is forbidden: it can be achieved by a
conscious rejection of God who created him in his own image, but denied him (as much as
Lucifer) fulfilment of that image. But Faustus’s emotional attachment to the medieval doctrines
of Christianity is too deep to be rooted out. Hence just after his final decision in favour of

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necromancy he feels the prick of conscience and in this very scene the Good Angel and the Evil
Angel make their appearance on the stage.

These two Angels, in fact, represent the two aspects of human mind. Hence here the Angels are
externalising the inner conflict between vice and virtue, between will and conscience raging in
the mind of Doctor Faustus. And we will find that, henceforth, the entire action of the play is
fluctuating between the weak and wavering loyalties of Faustus to these two opposing forces.
The Good Angel urges Faustus to shun ‘that damned book’ and to read the scriptures. But the
Evil angel scores a victory by luring away Faustus with the assurance that by mastering the black
art of magic Faustus will be“Lord and commander of the elements.”After meeting and talking
to his two friends who also encourage and inspire him to go for necromancy Faustus is
determined that:“This night I’ll conjure, though I die therefore.”

Then at the end of third scene of Act I we find Faustus telling Mephistophilis that he has already
abjured the Trinity of his own will and has absolutely made up his mind to sell his soul to the
Devil to gain limitless powers with the help of Mephistophilis his abject slave and ‘to live in all
voluptuousness’ for twenty-four years. His imagination takes wings and he tells us:

“Had I as many souls as there be stars,

I’d give them all for Mephistophilis.”

The two Angels appear again—one urging him to pray and repent so that he may still have God’s
mercy and the other tells him that as he is a spirit, God can never pity him. Faustus very sadly
realizes:“My heart’s so hardened, I cannot repent.” And he would have killed himself out of
despair had the sweet pleasures provided by Mephistophilis not dispelled his gloom of despair.
Again at the end of this very scene the conflict in his soul becomes very acute when
Mephistophilis refuses to answer some of his questions and the Good and Evil Angels reappear
to externalise his inner conflict.This time the Good Angel’s appeal has some effect on his mind.
But the Evil Angel tells him that the devils will tear him to pieces if he listened to the voice of
conscience. Realising the critical situation, Lucifer himself, Beelzebub and Mephistophilis
appear before him and finally warn him not to think of God so that there may not be any breach
of his bond. And Faustus has to submit to the demand of the Devil once more. And to pull up his
drooping mind the Devil puts up the flimsy show of Seven Deadly Sins.The angels keep on

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appearing and reappearing, Faustus keeps on relishing the sensuous joys, his popularity hits
Europe with a bang yet the tragic dilemma of his repentance remains in Hamlet’s famous words:

‘‘To be or not to be...... that is the question’’.

This is the conflict which goes on till the very end of this greatly written tragedy.The spiritual
conflict takes the most acute turn in the first scene of Act V after Faustus has raised the spirit of
Helen and when the Old Man, the symbol of the good and divine in him, appears before him.
His was the last attempt to guide his steps ‘unto the way of life’. The acute mental tension is
revealed forcefully in the following lines:

“Where art thou, Faustus, wretch what hast thou done? 

Damn’d art thou, Faustus, damned, despair and die.”

Out of desperation, Faustus is just going to commit suicide; but it is the same Old Man who
prevents him from taking this desperate step with a fervent appeal ‘to call for mercy, and avoid
despair.’ But alas! Faustus ultimately seals his own fate by surrendering himself into the arms of
sweet Helen to make him ‘immortal with a kiss’ just to forget the intense agony of his troubled
and despairing soul.In the closing scene we find the climax culminating into a terrible
catastrophe. Faustus has realized that he is doomed to eternal damnation without the least hope
of redemption. The most poignant soliloquy of Doctor Faustus starting just before an hour of his
final doom reveals forcefully the deep agony of a horror-struck soul. His last-minute frantic
appeal to the ever-moving spheres of heaven to stand still or to the sun to rise again to ‘make
perpetual day“That Faustus may repent and save his soul!”is absolutely of no avail. And
when the final hour strikes, Devil’s disciples snatch away the agonised and trouble-torn soul of
Faustus to hell to suffer eternal damnation.

To conclude the whole discussion it may be claimed without any doubt that this spiritual conflict
is the real essence, if ‘Dr. Faustus’ has to be accepted as the best tragical work of Marlowe. In
this play, the conflict is not between man and man for the domination of one character over
other. Though the scenes do take place on the physical surroundings of the earth, but the real
action takes place in the deep regions of mind. The battle depicted is not a traditional battle for a
kingdom or a crown but on the question of man’s ultimate fate in this world and the world here
after. The hero throughout the play is confronted with the problems of choice making.
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 ASSIGNMENT II
RENAISSANCE ELEMENTS IN DR. FAUSTUS
IFTIKHAR AHMAD TARAR (MPhil Linguistics)
(Lec. Superior Group of Colleges)
03349395715
Renaissance is the term applied to the wide spread cultural revival which marks the division
between the medieval world and the modern one. The Renaissance, in its true essence was an
‘intellectual rebirth’. It showed itself in the effort of an individual to free himself from the rigid
institutions of the Middle Ages, feudalism and the church and to assert his right to live
independently, to think and to express himself in according with more secular way of life. The
Renaissance man was fascinated by new learning and knowledge. He took all knowledge to be
his province. He regarded knowledge to be power. He developed an insatiable thirst for further
curiosity, knowledge, power, beauty, riches and worldly pleasures. The writers of this age
represented their age in their work.Marlowe is also the greatest and truest representative of his
age. He was an incarnation of the spirit of Renaissance. Heis rightly called ‘a child of
Renaissance’. In fact, Marlowe seems much captivated by the famous historical book ‘The
Prince’ by ‘Machiavelli’. So the Renaissance influence is seen in every one of his plays.

As far as Dr. Faustus is concerned it represents the Renaissance spirit in various ways. It is a
glowing gem of the spirit of Renaissance with all its complexities, tastes, thirst for sexual
pleasure, unlimited yearning for power and knowledge and above all a revolt against orthodox
religion and moral principles. At the start of the play, the Chorus prepares the audience for a
scholar, purely an embodiment of Renaissance ideals. The first appearance of Dr. Faustus on the
stage unveils an ambitious mind, yearning for limitless knowledge and sky soaring authority to
be the monarch of whatever he can think. He is found considering the importance of various
subjects which he may study. He has already studied various subjects at the universities and
impressed scholars with his knowledge. After considering the relative importance of various
subjects as - Logic, Metaphysics, Medicine, Law and Theology - he concludes that they can
give knowledge but no power. He remarks:

‘’Yet art thou still but Faustus, and a man’’.

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So he decides to study the "Metaphysics of Magician" and regarded “necromantic books as
heavenly". With the help of this knowledge he wants to acquire power and become “as
powerful as Jove in the sky”.

There was an intellectual curiosity during the Renaissance. The new discoveries in science and
developments in technology went beyond mere material advances. It was a youthful age to which
nothing seems impossible. Before the European, this period opened a new world of imagination.
All these things stirred men’s imagination and led them to believe that the infinite was
attainable.It is Faustus’ insatiable curiosity and an immeasurable desire for power and pelf that
all the knowledge of the world loses its significance for him. His arguments to vote in favor of
black art of magic are purely an embodiment of Renaissance. As he himself says:

‘’O, what a world of profit and delight,

Of power, of honour, of omnipotence’’.
The ambition to be famous, adventurous and knower of the secrets of hell and heaven finds no
restrictions in him. Even the signing of the soul is not worth repenting if his ambitions are
fulfilled. ‘’Then there’s enough for a thousand souls’’.It seems that Faustus’ desires know no
bounds. Like a true disciple of Machiavelli he denounces God, Christianity and eternity. He
thinks that hell is just a fable and if there is any hell then one needs fortitude to bear it. Just like a
true embodiment of his age he is hardly found in his home. Most of his time is spent in
adventures, journeys and miraculous deeds with various kings and dukes. His disgraceful
handling of the Pope also reveals the pathetic state of degenerated scholar. In fact, in the age of
Renaissance, the Protestants challenged the authority of the Pope and disregarded him. Dr.
Faustus not only disregarded the Pope and the Bishops, when he stayed in Pope's place, but gave
him a box on the ear. He also made fun of bishops because he pointed that they were interested
in only belly cheer.

The Renaissance man desired wealth and worldly pleasures. After his agreement with the Devil
Faustus would have spirits at his command to do whatever he liked. He would like them to bring
gold from India, pearls from oceans and delicacies from every part of the world. In this way he
would have a lot of power and wealth to enjoy worldly pleasures. Like the Renaissance man Dr.
Faustus wanted to travel across the world. So with the help of Mephistophilis he traveled to
distant countries. And
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 ‘’He views the clouds, the planets and the stars
The tropes, zones, and quarters of the sky
From east to west his dragons swiftly glide’’.
Besides having love of knowledge, power, worldly pleasures Dr. Faustus has the Renaissance
love of beauty, so he wanted to have a wife the fairest maid that is in Germany. As he wanted to
see the most beautiful woman in the world, he conjured the vision of Helen. He expressed his
feeling of great delight in the following words

‘’Was this the face that launched a thousand ships,

And burnt the topless tower of Ilium?’’
In fact, the Renaissance love for seeking and adoration of beauty, classical might and adventure
reaches its culmination in the ‘Helen Episode’. He has no fear of hell as he is ‘immortal with a
kiss’, his soul ‘sucked forth by her lips’. Hell and heaven are of no significance for him as,
‘Here will dwell for heaven is in these lips’.However, in the play, it is not only the hero who
worships everything called beautiful. Even the common men and scholars of the age are captured
by the Renaissance fever.

To conclude, we may say that Marlowe’s tragic heroes very powerfully reflect the spirit of the
Renaissance and Machiavellian ideas. As in ‘Dr. Faustus’ an indomitable spirit of adventure,
audacious ambition, a staunch and supreme yearning for limitless power and knowledge and the
enchanting sensuous pleasure of life are the chief characteristics of the Renaissance spirit.
Universally it is acknowledged that every artist being a product of his age shows its reaction in
his works. This statement holds absolutely true in Marlowe’s ‘Dr. Faustus’.This play is a typical
representative of what now is called the glorious achievement of Renaissance civilization and it
will serve to introduce us to the world of Marlowe.

IFTIKHAR AHMAD TARAR (MPhil Linguistics)

(Lec. Superior Group of Colleges)
03349395715

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 ASSIGNMENT III
VARIOUS STAGES OF DAMNATION OF DR. FAUSTUS ORMORAL
DISINTEGRATION OF FAUSTUSORFALL OF FAUSTUS
IFTIKHAR AHMAD TARAR (MPhil Linguistics)
(Lec. Superior Group of Colleges)
03349395715
The damnation of Faustus is described in stages by Marlowe in a way that befits the soul stirring
tragedy. We find good and bad angels, whispering alternatively their words of warning and
enticement in the ears of Faustus. The professional magician, the old man, and the scholars each
and all of these subordinate characters are dedicated to the one main purpose of expressing the
psychological condition and various stages of Faustus’ damnation. The fall of Faustus is quite
ominous even in the speech of chorus which prepares us to witness the tragedy of a man who
turns blind in pursuits of knowledge, power and desires.

The first soliloquy uttered by Faustus also reflected the intended hoax of a mind which feels all
the fields as ‘too servile and illiberal.’In the very first scene of the play we find Faustus sitting
in his study and arguing within himself which branch of study he should take up to gain limitless
knowledge and power. One after another, he dismisses all the traditional subjects, because all are
absolutely inadequate for his purpose. By mastering all these subjects he is ‘still but Faustus,
and a man.’ He can neither make men to live eternally nor ‘raise them to life again.’ So he
ignores all these traditional subjects and finally turns to magic as the necromantic books seem
heavenly to him. And his pride leads him to presume;

“O, what a world of profit and delight,

Of power, of honour, or omnipotence,’’
And then he also thinks
A sound magician is a mighty God
Here, Faustus, tire thy brains to gain a deity.’’
As soon as Faustus had decided that necromancy is the only study worth his while, he seeks the
aid of Valdes and Cornelius who are already proficient in this art. He makes it plain that he is no
humble seeker, but one who has already earned fame and status. Faustus, too impressed by the
magical possibilitiesclaims:‘’This night I’ II conjure, though I die therefore’’.

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Thus we find Faustus taking the first step to move towards the path of his doom and
damnation.And this he does, disregarding the voice of his conscience, externalized by the Good
Angel, who urges him to lay aside ‘damned book’ and to read the scriptures. The Evil Angel,
his voice of passion or curiosity, scores over the Good one by assuring that by mastering the
black art of magic, Faustus will become as powerful on this earth as Jove is in heaven.Next in the
third scene of Act I we find Faustus very much elated when he succeeds in raising
Mephistophilis, one of the attendant spirits of Lucifer, ‘commander of all spirits.’ But
Mephistophilis in his very first appearance makes it clear to him that:

………..the shortest cut for conjuring

Is stoutly to abjure the Trinity,
and pray devoutly to the prince of Hell.”
And Faustus’s reply is unpardonably insolent when he says that he has already done so and he is
fully prepared to surrender his soul to the Devil as:
“This word ‘damnation’ terrifies not him, 
For he confounds hell in Elysium”
In the first scene of Act II Faustus signs the bond with the blood from his own veins writing ‘a
deed of gift of body and of soul’ for the prince of the devils. Henceforth, nothing can stop the
gradual deterioration of his soul. And the worst thing for Faustus is that he does it deliberately,
knowing fully well what he is doing or going to do. Such intemperate pride and vaulting
ambition must lead a man to discard God and turn to Devil, thereby paving his way for utter ruin
and damnation. And Faustus does so deliberately and of his own accord. Then, in this very scene
when Mephistophilis frankly tells Faustus that he is going to be condemned to hell, Faustus’s
response is audacious and insolent:
“Think’st thou that Faustus is so fond to imagine
That, after this life, there is any pain:
Tush, these are trifles and mere old wives’ tales”
So, Faustus, as he mentally and morally deteriorates, gradually becomes more and more proud
and insolent. And we know that great Lucifer, ‘most dearly loved by God’, also fell for his
‘aspiring pride and insolence.’ Thus at this stage it is clear that dreams of limitless power, pelf
and sensual pleasure of life has completely obscured his clear vision and hence he cannot think

10
of the bitter consequences of his presumptuous and insolent actions.Once, the initial stages of
signing the bond are over. We can trace the stages of gradual damnation. Right before signing
away the bond he becomes more jeering about the concept of Hell.“Hell’s a fable, trifle & old
wives’ tales.”He refuses to believe that after this life there is any pain. Faustus now not only
alienates from goodness, but enjoys the evil and its form. It is a much shrunken Faustus who
after seeing the parade of seven Deadly sins exclaims,“Oh, this feeds my soul.”

After the signing of the deed, as the action of the drama proceeds on, the deep dramatic irony and
Faustus’s further deterioration is gradually unfolded before us. If we follow the career of Doctor
Faustus after the surrender of his soul to the Devil we find how all his great expectations are
belied. The man who wanted ‘to gain a deity who dreamed of becoming great emperor of the
world’, of making ‘a bridge through the moving air’ or of chasing the Prince of Parma from his
land, ultimately turns out to be a buffoon and just a magician of repute. He just earns fame as a
magician displaying his miraculous feats in the courts of kings and emperors or playing nasty
tricks sometimes on the Pope, sometimes on a common horse courser.When Faustus, disgusted
with Mephistophilis for his refusal to tell him about the Creator of this universe, thinks of
listening to the voice of conscience, Lucifer intervened personally and by dire threats compelled
him to write his bond for the second time. And after such strain and stress we find Faustus
deriving extreme pleasure from the flimsy show of Seven Deadly Sins.

We have seen that the first clause of his agreement with the devil is—‘that Faustus may be a
spirit in form and substance.’ We have also seen that by ‘devils Mephistophilis means the
‘unhappy spirits that fell with Lucifer’. So, in this play,‘spirits’ definitely means ‘devils.’
And the degraded soul of Faustus does not shirk from accepting the status of an abject devil. And
the point is made absolutely clear when Lucifer himself tells Faustus:

“Christ cannot save your soul, because he is just.’’

The first scene of Act V, is the climax of Doctor Faustus’s career, in his union with the
apparition of Helen, the peerless dame of Greece. Before raising the spirits of Alexander and his
paramour Faustus himself made it clear to the emperor that it was not in his power to bring
before him the two great princes bodily, as they must have turned into dust long ago. The same
must hold good for Helen too. So in spite of all his love of beauty in nature and art and his very

11
sensitive appreciation of classical beauty, Faustus becomes an abject prey to his carnal desires.
And the slow moral degradation and disintegration reaches its final stage and completion, when
Faustus ardently kisses the spirit of Helen—and a spirit is nothing but a devil—and makes a
frantic appeal to this apparition to make him ‘immortal with a kiss.’ And thus Faustus gives up
his last chance of redemption to become ultimately an object prey to his own despair and
dejection. Even the Old Man leaves him with a heavy heart with the sad comments:

“Accursed Faustus, miserable man,

That from thy soul exclud’stthe grace of heaven’’.

The above quoted evidence is ample to second the opinion that the word “spirit” used in the
play is consistently used in the sense of “devil”. Perhaps the giant leap in various stages of his
damnation was the one which Faustus agreed to be a “spirit”. That’s why he couldn’t repent;
leading him to another sin of “despair”. Evil angel in this play gives voice to this feeling of
despair:“If thou repent, devils will tear thee in pieces.”

However, the character of Faustus attains the tragic glory only when rejoins his sin is reminiscent
of “original sin” committed by the parents of humanity.“Of Man’s First Disobedience…..”The
parents of humanity disobeyed God because their “intellectual pride” excited them to decide
independent of God. Ifviewed minutely this “intellectual pride”is behind every stage of this
worldly scholar’s damnation:“Yet art thou still but Faustus and a man.”

The conclusion of the topic leaves us with feelings of desperation and dejection. What a pity
shame and tragedy that a noble scholar once starts on the road to moral disintegration, there is
none holding him back. Many aspects of Faustus’ character lead him to the final
damnation………intellectual pride, Renaissance yearning, wish for kingly glory, voluptuousness
and above all his wish to be on earth as Jove is on the sky……..all combine to make a hideous
monster of this once scholar of cosmic fame. He does not only commit a spiritual sin of bartering
his soul to the power of evil, but the physical counterpart of sin is also prevailing. In short, the
stages of damnation can be summed up in the alluding words of Leightful:

‘’Sin is first pleasing, when it grows easy, then delightful, then frequent, then habitual, then
confirmed, then the man is impenitent, then he is obstinate, then he is resolved never to
repent, and then he is ruined’’.
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 ASSIGNMENT IV
‘’Doctor Faustus’' as a Morality Play
IFTIKHAR AHMAD TARAR (MPhil Linguistics)
(Lec. Superior Group of Colleges)
03349395715
The morality play is a fusion of the medieval allegory and the religious drama of the miracle
plays. It developed at the end of the fourteenth century and gained much popularity in the
fifteenth century.These plays were designed to represent a dramatized guide of Christian way of
living and Christian dying. Hence, the general theme of these plays was theological. They dealt
with the conflict between good and evil forces, in which the good was ultimately victorious and
evil was defeated. In this kind of plays, Satan worked as the central figure of the play. In these
plays the characters were generally personified abstractions of vice or virtues such as Good
Deeds, Faith, Mercy, Anger etc.Hence, the main aim of these plays is to teach ethics and
doctrines of Christianity.

As far as ‘Doctor Faustus’ is concerned, it may be called a morality play to a very great extent.
In fact, ‘Doctor Faustus’ is a didactic play and holds a moral lesson. By selling his soul to the
Devil, Faustus lives a very blasphemous life full of vain and sensual pleasures just for twenty
four years. He does not shirk from insulting and even assaulting the Pope with the Holy Fathers
at Rome. Of course, there is a fierce struggle in his soul between his over-weening ambition and
conscience, between the Good Angel and the Evil Angel that externalize this internal conflict.
The good Angel is the voice of God and the voice of Faustus’ conscience. But Faustus is more
inclined to the ‘sweet’ music played by the evil Angel, who is the emissary of Lucifer. The
reward that he expects for practicing the forbidden black magic, is the world of ‘profit and
delight’, ‘of power’, ‘of honour and omnipotence’.The spirits will bring him ‘gold’, ‘orient
pearls’’, ‘’pleasant fruits’’, and ‘’silk’’. So, Faustus ultimately surrenders to the allurements of
Evil Angel, thereby paving the way for eternal damnation.

The struggle between Faustus’ uncontrolled appetites and the power of heaven is a concept
originally aligned to ‘’Morality devices.’’ Thus, Faustus consciously and deliberately sets his
will against God’s. However, it is observed throughout the play that Faustus does not have ‘’A
Dead Conscience’’.

Ah, Christ, My Saviour, seek to save distressed Faustus’ soul.’’

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Whenever, there is danger from the devil’s view point that Faustus will turn to God’s mercy, the
power of hell suppresses the victim’s conscience by providing him with some satisfaction of the
senses. Faustus instead of enjoying the sensuous pleasures is always caught up in his struggle
between repentance and non-repentance. In act II, scene II, Faustus characteristically blames
Mephistophilis for his wretched condition:

‘’Tis thou hast damned distressed Faustus’ soul’’

The Good Angel tells him that there is still time to repent. But the Evil Angel gives him the
threat that if he repents devils will tear him apart. When Faustus calls upon Christ to save his
soul, Lucifer with company appears and reminds him of his promise and tranquilizes Faustus’wit
the show of seven deadly sins.

When final hour approaches, Faustus, in his utmost pain and horror, realizes that his sins are
unpardonable and nothing can save him from eternal damnation. And before the devils snatch
away his soul to burning hell, the excreting pangs of a deeply agonized soul finds the most
poignant expression in Faustus’ final soliloquy.

My God, my God, look not so fierce on me!

Alders and serpents, let me breathe a while!
Ugly hell, gape not! come not Lucifer!
I’ll burn my books!Ah,Mephistophilis!
 The chief aim of a morality play was didactic--- it was a dramatized guide to Christian living
and Christian dying. Whoever discards the path of virtue and abjures faith in God and Christ is
destined to despair and eternal damnation--- this is also the message of Marlow’s Doctor
Faustus. And it has found the most touching expression in the mournful monody of the chorus in
the closing lines.

Faustus is gone: regard his hellish fall,

Whose fiendful fortune may exhort the wise,
In morality plays the characters were personified abstractions of vice or virtues. So in ‘Doctor
Faustus’ also we find the Good Angel and Evil Angel, the former stands for the path of virtue
and the latter for sin and damnation. Then we have the Old Man, symbolizing the forces of
righteousness and morality. The comic scenes of Doctor Faustus also belong to the tradition of
14
old Miracle and Morality plays, especially the scene I of the third act where Faustus is found
playing vile tricks on the Pope and the scene IV of act IV where the horse-courser is totally
outwitted and befooled by Faustus.

These are the characteristics, which are taken to prove that Doctor Faustus is a morality play
with its vindication of humility, faith and obedience to the law of God. Despite all this, it does
not thoroughly match with the medieval morality plays because it also deals with the inner
conflict of the hero in the play. It powerfully reflects the spirit of the Renaissance and
Machiavellian ideas, an indomitable spirit of adventure, audacious ambition, a staunch faith in
the powers of the individual and supreme yearning for limited power and knowledge, and the
enchanting sensuous pleasures of life.Some critics pronounce Dr. Faustus as an atheistic
document, because it presents the victory of Evil or Satan in the end. These critics hold the view
that as Marlowe himself was an atheist, therefore, he presented the fall of divinity in his
play.       

But this accusation does not hold much strength. Because the end of the play does not project the
fall of divinity rather it reflects the defeat of Machiavellianism and the fall of Renaissance ideals,
in the form of Faustus damnation. The dispute shown in the play, is not between God and Satan,
it is between man and devil. And here Marlowe denounces himself, when he resents through
Faustus that any man, who leads to some devilish ambition, leaves the path of God, would be
punished because of his blasphemous act, just like Faustus. That’s why a critic utters:

‘’Dr. Faustus is an inverted morality play’’.

Thus we can conclude that ‘’Dr. Faustus’’ can be pronounced as a connecting link between the
medieval morality plays and the illustrious Elizabethan drama.

IFTIKHAR AHMAD TARAR (MPhil Linguistics)

(Lec. Superior Group of Colleges)
03349395715

15
 ASSIGNMENT V
PLOT CONSTRUCTION OF ‘’DR. FAUSTUS’’OR
‘’DR. FAUSTUS’’: DETACHED SCENESRATHER THAN A REGULAR PLAY
IFTIKHAR AHMAD TARAR (MPhil Linguistics)
(Lec. Superior Group of Colleges)
03349395715
Aristotle’s Concept of Plot +

There cannot be any denying of the fact that the most glaring weakness of Doctor Faustus lies
in the lack of well-knit or an organic plot. A careful study of the play reveals that it has no
regular plot in the conventional sense of the term. We find this regular division into acts and
scenes only in the early eighteenth century edition. In this respect it is very much linked with the
old Miracle and Morality plays.

It is mainly a one-man show as it is the hero who completely dominates the stage. Let us take up
Aristotle’s five distinct divisions of an ideal plot of a tragedy and apply them to the plot-
construction of Doctor Faustus. We have first the initial incident or ‘Paritass’ giving birth to the
conflict and there is the rising action or ‘Epitass’ to intensify the conflict; thirdly we get the
climax, the turning point or ‘Peripetora’ and fourthly there is denouement, the falling action or
‘Calabasm’; and finally we have the Catastrophe or conclusion in which the conflict is brought to
its inevitable end. Now a critical study of the play in the light of the above division will clearly
reveal the drawbacks of the plot-construction of Doctor Faustus. In the first few scenes we get
the initial incident of the plot. This is well-planned. When we find Faustus discarding all other
branches of knowledge to accept only the art of necromancy as sole subject of his study the birth
of conflict takes place. Then in the scenes in which Faustus raises the spirit of Mephistophilis
and ultimately sells his soul to the Devil by writing a deed of gift in blood, we have the rising
action and climax of the drama developed to a great extent on the right lines.

But then comes the scenes—specially the comic scenes—which serve very little purpose in the
development of the plot to reveal the denouement, or the falling action leading to the catastrophe.
From the stand point of plot-construction this middle portion of the play is the weakest. These
scenes may be treated as separate episodes without any organic unity with the structure of the
drama. But just like the beginning, the end is also nobly executed. The final action of the play
has been executed in the most sublime and poignant manner. The last scene in which the conflict

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is brought to its natural tragic end is probably unsurpassed in English dramatic literature with its
most poignant monologue of a horror-struck soul facing eternal damnation. Levin’s comment on
the structural weakness of the play is just and quite relevant:

“Examined more technically, the play has a strong beginning and even a stronger end but
its middle section, whether we abridge it or bombast it out, is unquestionably weak.”

There are some modern critics who ascribe three plots to Doctor Faustus: the main plot, the
under plot and the over-plot. The first one deals with Faustus’s inordinate ambition to acquire
super-human power by mastering the art of unholy necromancy bringing about his ultimate
doom and damnation. The under-plot with its fun and frolics is more or less, a foil to the main
plot. The main plot and the under plot represent the two main facts of life—pleasant and painful
or comic and tragic. The over plot according to them is the philosophical plot that reveals the
conflict or struggle between the forces of good and evil in the external world as well as in the
soul of man. And it is this philosophical plot that adds real greatness and grandeur to this tragic
play. The arguments regarding the significance of the main plot and the over-plot undoubtedly
carries weight, but the points put forward in favour of the comic scenes do not seem to impress.
Almost all the critics are unanimous that the comic scenes with its frivolity and buffoonery,
weakens the tragic effects and are discordant with its general tone.

Whatever may be the drawbacks and deficiencies, Marlowe’s “The Tragical History of Doctor
Faustus” is a great and magnificent tragedy—the greatest of tragedies outside Shakespeare.
Marlowe was a genius—and geniuses like alchemists can transform base metal into gold. So
Marlowe produced a great work of art from the crude Faustus legend. And the greatness of the
drama lies in its absorbing inner conflict.

IFTIKHAR AHMAD TARAR (MPhil Linguistics)

(Lec. Superior Group of Colleges)
03349395715

17