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Study Guide: The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus
Christopher Marlowe, born the same year as Shakespeare (1564), university educated but still a commoner, was the first professional literary “star” of the modern English-speaking world. He was educated for the clergy but chose instead to write professionally and (apparently) to perform some espionage for Queen Elizabeth on the side. After his death in a barroom brawl at the age of 31 (which some suspected was actually murder), many of his contemporaries believed that, had he lived, he would have been the greatest poet of the age.
Marlowe initiated the fashion for writing drama in blank verse, or
unrhymed iambic pentameter. Note that Dr. Faustus is written in two
different styles — blank verse for Faustus and Mephistopheles, and prose for the
comic scenes that many scholars believe were written by someone other than
Marlowe. For this reason, we will read only the sections dealing with Faustus’
temptation and damnation, not with his adventures among the fools and hypocrites
of Europe.
Dr. Faustus is based on an existing popular legend. In fact, “Faustbucher,” or “Faust-Books” detailing the adventures of the infamous Johann Faustus, a real-life Wittenberg scholar and magician, were read in translation with sensational illustrations (much like today’s comic books) all over Europe. Marlowe takes the original story (which has been told and retold over the centuries by writers and musicians such as Goethe, Gounod, and Randy Newman) and develops it into an elaborate allegory of the soul’s struggle to chose salvation over despair and damnation.
The theology of Dr. Faustus is a complex
mix of Catholic imagery and Protestant self-determination, told within the
context of the innovations presented by Renaissance humanism. The imagery draws
from classical and Christian texts. Following are some details to look for,
with discussion questions to answer briefly for each scene.
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THINGS TO NOTICE |
STUDY QUESTIONS |
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Scene One |
1. What are Faustus’ reasons for rejecting each area of study? Note the errors in Faustus’ reading glossed in your text.
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In lines 49-166, Faustus chooses instead to
study magic — specifically, necromancy, or the art of calling up
spirits of the dead. In mulling over this decision, he ignores the warning
of his “Good Angel” that such studies are dangerous to the soul, and instead
heeds the encouragement of his “Evil Angel” that such studies will bring him
unearthly wealth and power. The Good and Evil Angels are characters out of
the medieval tradition of psychomachia. |
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Scene Three |
2. Mephistopheles points out several errors in Faustus’ expectations about what Hell is like and what hellish power will enable him to do. Name at least one. |
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Scene Five
Faustus attempts to negotiate with
Mephistopheles as to the conditions of the bargain, but ironically, he names
his conditions after he has signed away his soul (good thing he
decided not to practice law). |
3. Name at least one instance in Scene three (lines 31-268) when Faustus ignores an opportunity to break the agreement and save his own soul. |
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We see proof that Faustus has made a bad bargain when he asks Mephistopheles for a wife, and is given a devil instead (ll. 138-154).
In lines 269-324, Mephistopheles shows Faust
a pageant of the Seven Deadly Sins. Such pageants are normally meant to
warn sinners (see The Faerie Queene, 1.4); Faustus parodically
insists that it “feeds his soul.” |
4. Why can Mephistopheles not provide a wife for Faustus? |
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Scene Twelve
The Old Man is tormented by devils for trying
to help Faustus. |
5. Contrast the Old Man’s response to the threat of torment to Faustus’. |
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Scene Thirteen His soliloquy in lines 55-111 portrays a spiritual and psychological inner struggle, in which Faustus systematically succumbs to despair. Note that Faustus reconsiders the hope offered by each of the humanistic disciplines and concepts he rejected in Scene One; each in turn fail him. |
6. At what exact point in the play, in your opinion, is Faustus irrevocably damned? |
