Introduction to Doctor Faustus and Its Sources
The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe is one of the most remarkable plays of the Elizabethan Period. This play is based on the life and death of John Faustus of Germany from ‘Faustbuch’. Marlowe constructs Doctor Faustus from a miscellaneous collection of stories and anecdotes contained in The Damnable Life.
The Tradition of the Medieval Morality Play
Popular in medieval and Tudor times and regularly performed in schools and colleges was the ‘morality’ play. It was rather like a dramatised sermon usually on the doctrine of repentance. Though the subject matter was serious, the presentation was often amusing, since certain characters in the play known as Vices were portrayed as lively and humorous. The other characters like Virtues were more sober and serious. The morality play usually traced the fortunes of a central character in his fall from grace, through a life in sin towards eventual salvation and damnation. The Virtues tend to advocate the path of repentance to the central character, whereas vice used to tempt him towards evil.
Doctor Faustus as a Typical Morality Play
We can indeed find many elements of a morality play in Doctor Faustus. The way Faustus’s tragedy is shown—the conflict between good and evil, intrusion of supernatural entities, Faustus’s damnation for choosing Lucifer over God and the ultimate lesson directed at the audience—makes the play an overtly typical morality play.
Doctor Faustus portrays the damnation of its eponymous protagonist, Faustus, a renowned scholar of divinity. Being proud of his learning he desires to be more than a man. He is no longer content to be just a man, within the ordinary moral boundaries set up by God and Christianity. In greed of more knowledge and power he starts reading necromantic books that he can be as powerful as God on earth. He even signs a bond with Lucifer after conjuring Mephistophilis for a life of pleasure twenty-four years full of pleasures by abjuring God and salvation totally. But at the end Faustus is destined to a hellish death eternally. Hence the theme of the play is purely theological.
Faustus’s Fall and the Theological Theme of Damnation
In a morality play there is a conflict of good and evil forces over the soul of the main character that represents all mankind. Faustus’s aspiration mirror that quintessential human instinct to go after forbidden things and that forbidden quest which ultimately brings damnation. As Everyman Faustus embodies perennial human aspiration—to escape inhibitions, to control the universe, to reconstruct the cosmos in naturalistic, non-theistic terms. Thus from this perspective, Faustus does stand for all human beings. Faustus chooses Lucifer out of his own accord, repeatedly ignoring the words of Good Angel.
Allegorical Characters and Moral Conflict
In a morality play the characters are allegorical, they are personifications of some abstract virtue or vices like in the famous morality play Everyman, we have the characters named Wealth, Good Deeds, Death etc.
In this play though all the characters are not personified abstractions, but there are characters like Good Angel and Bad Angel. The former stands for the virtue and the latter for vice. They come and advise Faustus according to their ways. They characteristic trait—the Good Angel advising to do the “good” thing, and the Bad Angel tempting to do the “bad” thing. They externalise the conflict in Faustus’s mind; they dramatise his psychomachia.
The Significance of the Seven Deadly Sins
The appearance of the seven Deadly sins is another feature which connects the play with morality play. In a traditional morality play, seven Deadly sins tempt the main character to evil. But here in this play, the seven Deadly sins appear all at once, and more like in a pageant. They introduce themselves to Faustus, tell him their characteristic and then depart. They did not tempt him.
Mephistophilis and the Presence of Evil
The appearance of the devil, brings this play closer to the morality play. Here we have constant presence of the devil, Mephistophilis, who not only informs Faustus about his suffering of hell. But the pain of losing paradise too. Despite hearing a truthful account of hell from Mephistophilis, Faustus continues with his bargain and buys his damnation.
Christian Morality and Didactic Elements in the Play
Like a morality play, Doctor Faustus also teaches christian, moral and ethical ideas. Marlowe has put homiletic dialogues in the mouths of many characters here which are usually messages to the audiences. These message are delivered by Good Angel and Old Man.
Comic Relief and the Morality Play Tradition|Marlowe’s Innovations in the Morality Play Form
To conclude we can say that the play does feature elements of a morality play but they are not without the innovations of Marlowe.
In a morality play some crude comic elements are also found just as we find in this play too. The subplot of the play, comprising the minor characters, provides comic laughter. Besides, Faustus’s japes at the papal court and his ludicrous trickery with the knights, the horse-courser and the carter create low comedy in a tragedy of high intensity.
Conclusion
Doctor Faustus successfully incorporates many features of the traditional morality play, including the conflict between good and evil, allegorical characters, and the theme of damnation. However, Marlowe enriches the genre with Renaissance ideas of ambition, individualism, and the pursuit of knowledge, making the play a unique blend of medieval morality and Renaissance tragedy.