Faustus Thesis Statements
• 1. How does Faustus use the magical gifts that
he receives? How are the uses to which he
puts his powers significant? What do they
suggest about his character or about the
nature of unlimited power?
• 2. What is the role of the comic characters—
Robin, Rafe, the horse-courser, and the clown,
for example? How does Marlowe use them to
illuminate Faustus’s decline?
• 3. When does Faustus have misgivings about
his pact with Lucifer? What makes him desire
to repent? Why do you think he fails to
repent?
• 4. Is God present in the play? If so, where? If
not, what does God’s absence suggest?
• 5. Discuss the role of Faustus’s soliloquies—
particularly his speeches about the different
kinds of knowledge in scene 1 and his long
soliloquies in scene 12—in shaping our
understanding of his character.
• 6. Is Faustus misled by the devils, or is he
willfully blind to the reality of his situation?
• 1. Can Faustus be both a hero and a villain?
Guilty and good? Is there evidence in the text
to support these views?
• 2.
• Discuss the theme of forbidden knowledge.
What type of knowledge does Faustus want
and why?
• 3. Discuss the themes of free will and
predestination in the play. Is Faustus
predestined to damnation? Why or why not?
Is there a “point of no return” in Faustus’s
progress toward damnation?
• 4. The quest for forbidden knowledge usually
leads the hero to corruption and a fall. How
does Faustus’s quest degrade him? How does
he use his new power and knowledge?
• 5. What is the purpose of the sequence in
the Pope’s palace? How is the Pope a double
for Faustus?
• 6.
• Doctor Faustus is considered a tragedy. In
Poetics, Aristotle proposes the classical
definition of tragedy: a drama with a hero. . . .
According to his definition, would you
consider Faustus a tragic hero? Does he have
heroic qualities? What is his tragic flaw? Do
you pity Faustus? Does his downfall evoke
terror?
• 7. According to Dr. Arnold Schmidt of Vanderbilt
University, “Marlowe’s story illustrates the
Renaissance’s prevalent belief that “art should
‘teach and delight,’ ” that is, be entertaining while
simultaneously presenting a moral. In an essay
discuss the following questions. Do you see
Doctor Faustus as an art form that both teaches
and delights the audience while simultaneously
presenting a moral? Why or why not? Cite
specific details to support your answer.
• 8. When morality plays began, the audience
saw a switch from religious characters
(prophets and saints) to the common people
such as we see in Everyman. In an essay
discuss the following questions. Do you see
Faustus’s character as an Everyman? As a
Renaissance man? Why or why not? Cite
specific details to support your answer.
• Dr. Faustus’s deal with the devil is characterized by Faustus'
rejection of God and Christian ideals. Despite numerous
opportunities to turn back and seek redemption, Dr.
Faustus is consumed by his desire to know and learn more
than the boundaries of human knowledge permit. Each
decision to move forward in the fulfillment of the dark pact
pushes Dr. Faustus further away from the possibility of
redemption. By examining the exact nature of their
agreement, however, the reader sees that the pact is one
that can never actually be beneficial for Dr. Faustus.
Marlowe cautions the reader against such trade-offs,
showing in the fate of Dr. Faustus that a pact with the devil
will never reap true rewards.
• One of the themes in Doctor Faustus involves
the tension between magic and science. Dr.
Faustus possesses all of the knowledge and
skills to know the world as fully as a human
being can, but he decides to immerse himself
in the dark arts of magic in the hopes of
learning more. The outcome of the play
clearly asserts Marlowe’s belief that magic is
inferior to science and the true mysteries of
the Christian life.
• Dr. Faustus makes his deal with the devil because he is
frustrated with the limits of human science, reason,
understanding, and knowledge. One could argue,
however, that Dr. Faustus did not really give science,
reason, understanding and knowledge a chance. In
fact, Dr. Faustus’s chief character flaw is that he wants
the limits of knowledge and humanity to be expanded
beyond what is reasonable. Marlowe’s play is a
morality tale about wanting more than what is given to
us. Through the character of Dr. Faustus, the reader
learns that we must be satisfied with what is, rather
than what we would like the world to be.
• Dr. Faustus is a divided soul, pulled between
competing curiosities, needs, and interests. There
are many binaries that are established in
Marlowe’s play that reinforce this notion of the
divided self. Some of these binaries include the
good angel and the bad angel, God and the devil,
and magic versus science. In this essay, the writer
will examine the different binaries that Marlowe
includes in his play, their functions, and the
challenge that Dr. Faustus experiences—and
which he never resolves—in trying to negotiate
the divided self.