Doctor Faustus
By Christopher Marlowe
(Cristofer Marley)
Biographical Information on
Marlowe
• Born in Canterbury in 1564 (2 months before
Shakespeare)
• Son of a shoemaker
• Brilliant student
• Earned a scholarship and studied the Bible, theology,
philosophy, and history at Cambridge
• Left college to carry out a secret mission for the
government – even today the exact nature of his
mission is not known
More Background on
Marlowe…
• Cambridge life was a strange juxtaposition of secular and
spiritual.
– Studied books that lead them towards the pleasures of the world, yet the
students themselves lived essentially like medieval monks
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simple fun like swimming was severely punished.
• Although some of the details are foggy, Marlowe took a
Masters’ degree three years later (1587).
– Cambridge tried to deny him the degree because they believed he had
converted to Catholicism
– the Queen herself intervened and Marlowe was given his degree.
Marlowe after College
• Rather than taking Holy Orders, (Cambridge prepared
all of its students to be clergymen or schoolmasters)
Marlowe traveled to London to become a dramatist.
• Met and befriended powerful people such as Sir
Walter Raleigh.
• Wrote plays in blank verse and had his first play,
Tamburlaine the Great performed in 1587.
Troubles
• In 1589, Marlowe spent two weeks in jail having
been charged with the murder of William Bradley.
He was acquitted.
• In 1592, Marlowe had an injunction brought against
him for killing a man in a street fight.
• Marlowe was deported from the
Netherlands for counterfeiting gold coins.
Major Writings
• His plays:
– written in blank verse
– Contained villain-heroes
– influenced all subsequent drama including the great Bard himself.
• The Jew of Malta is a parody of Machiavelli.
• Marlowe and Faustus:
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born of humble beginnings
rebelled against the strict rules of class
made money and names for themselves.
men who desired knowledge and one who were accused of atheism
• Marlowe was probably a member of Raleigh’s School of Night, a circle of freethinkers who indulged in indiscreet philosophical discussion and allegedly in
blasphemies concerning the name of God.
Death of Marlowe
• The supposed facts:
– On Wednesday, May 30, 1593, Marlowe (age 29) and his
friend Ingram Frizer began arguing over paying their bill at
a tavern in Deptford. Marlowe, enraged, grabbed Frizer’s
dagger and struck him twice in the head with it. The two
struggled and Frizer regained control of his dagger and
stabbed Marlowe twice in his head. One stab proved
mortal as it entered Marlowe just above his right eye-ball.
Yikes!
• Sounds painful
But soMething’s
fishy…
• In the spring of 1593, a friend of Marlowe’s
was captured and tortured by the Queen’s
Privy Council.
• Based on information gathered from this friend
(probably that Marlowe was an atheist), the
Council was about to arrest Marlowe.
• Just before the arrest was to take place,
Marlowe was supposedly killed in the tavern
by his good friend.
really, really fishy…
• Ingram, that friend, also happened to be a known con artist.
• Other friends present with Marlowe: a fence, a former spy for
the Queen’s secret service, and the cousin of the Queen’s most
famous spy, Francis Walsingham.
• None of these friends severed their ties with Ingram after the
alleged murder
• The Queen herself quickly pardoned Ingram on grounds of self
defense.
• Many therefore argue that Marlowe was not killed, but faked
his own death with the help of powerful friends (the Queen
herself?!?) and escaped the country.
A Startling Possibility
• A handful of conspiracy theorists even go so
far as to suggest that Marlowe went to Italy
and wrote plays there which he couriered back
to England. A colleague in the theatre claimed
them as his own and had them performed on
the stage..
Surprise!
• That man, of course, was William
Shakespeare.
Although this theory
is intriguing, many
scholars argue that it
is highly unlikely and
that the similarities
and commonalities
between
Shakespeare’s work
and Marlowe’s were
due to intertextuality.
Makes Sense!
• Why would Marlowe give up fame and fortune by
faking his own death?
– To save his own skin! He probably would have been
executed based on whatever information the Privy Council
had.
– His reputation was already on shaky ground. He had been
accused of atheism, blasphemy, subversion, and
homosexuality. (“They be fools that love not tobacco and
boys!”) His public image was quite burdened. Leaving
England and giving his glory to someone else may have
been necessary.
Biographical Criticism
• What does background on Marlowe add to our
understanding of his purpose in writing Doctor
Faustus?
Critics Suggest
• Marlowe was accused of being an atheist
which sheds considerable doubt on his
intentions of moralizing from a Christian
stance.
Too Far-Fetched?
• While most of us have no interest in trying
to conjure up devils, in what ways might
we say that some people follow Doctor
Faustus’s path and “sell” their souls to
Satan?
• What other texts allude to “Faustian
bargains”?
What about You?
• What do you want?
• What would you be willing to do to get it?
• What wouldn’t you be willing to do? Where
would you draw the line?
• Selling your soul to the devil for knowledge
may seem far-fetched, but it may still fit
today…
Knowledge
• How much knowledge should humans have?
• Should we be able to know everything?
• In Marlowe’s time, knowledge was mainly gotten from books. From where
do we procure knowledge today? Are there any sources [like Faustus’s
black magic books; Remember that when Faustus tries to repent at the very
end he says, “Ugly Hell, gape not! Come not Lucifer! / I’ll burn my books!
(V, ii, 196 – 197)] that are considered evil or immoral?
• Should anyone and everyone be able to have all knowledge available?
• How might the following issues parallel Faustus’s story:
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Stem cells
Cloning
Designer babies
Biological weapons
Other Issues?
Back to the Text
• How would Marlowe answer some of these
questions? Think about his background and his text.
• In his time, who limited the amount of knowledge
man should / could attain?
• Is Marlowe warning his audience against wanting too
much knowledge OR is he condemning the church for
limiting people?
• Let’s look at some background information that
might help answer the last question…
Magic
• During the time of Faustus, nature was believed to be a secondary
cause of occurrences, God always being the first cause. Any study of
nature, therefore, bypassed God and caused a suspicion of atheism.
• During medieval times, magic entailed trying to stop or reverse natural
processes.
• During the Renaissance, this type of magic changed into a more
scientific approach of finding ways to work in harmony with Nature.
• While Marlowe was at Cambridge, for example, many students of
more traditional academia began turning to scientific research.
Certainly Marlowe’s friend, Sir Walter Raleigh, typified the new man
of the time whose pursuit for knowledge included both the rational and
the occult.
• Faustus, as probably Marlowe, recognized Hell and the Devil’s
personal pervasiveness, but he also wanted the powers of Nature even
with its limitations. Consider the types of knowledge Marlowe
requests… it is often regarding the planets, planetary motion, etc.
faustus’s Magic
• Think of the other so-called black magic that Faustus
performs: it is often related to changing a natural
process.
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Changing a horse into hay when it touches water
Eating large quantities of hay
Living despite losing a limb and then regenerating that limb
Producing grapes in the dead of winter
Adding horns to men
Changing men in to apes and dogs
Black Magic
• All of these magic tricks by Faustus bypass God
as the primary source of all natural occurrences
so were considered immoral or evil by the
church / society of the time.
• Consider the horrible weather the night Faustus
is dragged into hell. The scholars remark that
“such a dreadful night was never seen / Since
first the world’s creation did begin!” (V, iii, 2 – 3).
The status quo is returned at the end of the play
with only God in charge of natural phenomenon.
The Church in Doctor Faustus
• Bruno and the Italian Pope of the play
– The papacy had tremendous political power during the Middle Ages and
the early Renaissance.
– Some popes (like (H)Adrian of the play), raised armies and even went to
war themselves to settle disputes or to increase their land.
(Remember 3.1 when Faustus first arrives in Rome and Mephostophilis shows
him “such store of ordnance / As that the double canons forged of brass /
Do match the number of the days contained / Within the compass of one
year” (III, i, 41 – 44).)
– Within England, antagonism between Anglicans and Catholics ran
extremely high (consider Henry VIII!) and reached a fever pitch when Pope
Pius V excommunicated Queen Elizabeth.
– Riots occurred as did the burning of Jesuit priests. Common villagers had
to prove that they attended Anglican church each weekend.
– Marlowe lived during the height of the anti-Catholic sentiment and even
spied on English Catholics abroad for the crown. (Remember his secret
mission!)
Bruno
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Although Bruno is a fictional character created by Marlowe, his name alludes to St.
Giordano Bruno.
In the play, Bruno is the emperor’s choice for Pope and much hated by Adrian.
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Remember when Bruno tries to argue to the Pope that the emperor elected him and therefore he
has rights to the Papacy, Adrian responds that the emperor will be excommunicated and he
“grows too proud in his authority, / Lifting his lofty head above the clouds, / And like a steeple
overpeers the church. / But we’ll pull down his haughty insolence” (III, i, 133 – 136).
Significance of this scene?
A few lines later when Bruno questions Adrian’s ideas, Adrian questions, “Is not all power on
earth bestowed on us? / And therefore though we would, we cannot err” (III, i, 152 – 153).
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The real Bruno was a Catholic who spent 8 years in prison for his heretical ideas which
included agreeing with Copernicus and believing that the universe was infinite,
containing infinite worlds inhabited by infinite intelligent beings.
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Bruno was eventually burned at the stake in Rome when he refused to recant his beliefs.
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Faustus favors this follower of natural magic over the sitting Pope, probably a hint at
Marlowe’s real opinion of Catholicism and the nature of knowledge. Although Faustus
is relegated to hell for his actions, Marlowe may not agree with the society and the
religion that would send him there as it sent Bruno to the stake.
Structure
• Looking at the elements of Marlowe’s
structure may also help us to understand
his intent…
Significance of Structure
• Doctor Faustus uses aspects of traditional
dramatic structure:
– Medieval morality play
– Alternating comic and serious scenes
Morality Plays
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During the middle ages, in order to make church teachings accessible to the
common people, clergymen began to dramatize stories from the Bible (mystery
plays) and episodes from the lives of saints (miracle plays)
These plays became too elaborate for the church to hold, so craft guilds took them
over and created traveling stage sets for performances on feast days. These plays
often lasted 3 days, included comedy, music, dance, and elaborate special effects to
create the illusion of rain, lightning and flying. People’s interest in drama was
sparked.
By the 1400s, professional acting troops were performing morality plays – drama
about the moral struggles of everyday people. They used allegory in order to
present a lesson concerning the soul’s salvation
The characters have names that indicated their allegorical significance, such as
Truth, Gluttony, King, Mankind
Everyman is the most famous morality play (written at the end of 15th c.)
Message of play = when we die, we take nothing with us from this world except the
record of our good deeds
Morality plays grew more sophisticated as time went by and set the stage for
Elizabethan drama and geniuses such as Shakespeare.
Morality Play Elements
• Clearest morality play element in Faustus
= Good Angel and Bad Angel.
• Marlowe deviates a bit from traditional
morality plays, however.
• A formalist analysis helps a reader to
understand Marlowe’s view of religion and
morality.
Comic Scenes
• The play is organized around alternating comic
and serious scenes. Some scholars in the past have
noted that the quality of the comic sections differs
greatly from that of the serious and therefore may
not have been written by Marlowe at all but rather
added at a later time for “sight gags” which may
have appealed to the “groundling” audience. The
comic scenes also tend to be written in prose while
the more serious scenes are written in blank verse.
However, more modern scholars argue that the
comic scenes are actually an integral part of the
story.
Comic Scenes Analysis
• How do the comic scenes parallel the
dynamic character of Doctor Faustus?
• How do the scenes foreshadow events in the
life of Doctor Faustus?
• How do the scenes serve to subtly mock
Catholicism / religion?
So What?
• In the last eight lines of the play, what does
the Chorus say we should learn from
Faustus’s experience?
• Based on all that you know about the play,
Marlowe, etc. what else might Marlowe
want us to learn from his play?