Discuss Doctor Faustus as an allegory. Bring out the symbolic meanings of Doctor Faustus.

It is possible to treat Dr. Faustus as an allegory. A large measure of the action of the play takes place not so much between characters as within a single character, namely Faustus himself. We can look upon the good angel, the evil angel, the old man and even Helen, Mephistopheles, Lucifer as part of Faustus. Yet obviously these characters are not merely parts of Faustus. The two angels are messengers of powers of independent of Faustus, while Helen though a phantom is not just a figment of Faustus's imagination. Hence, although an allegory, the play does not altogether exclude realism or we might say that this allegory employs realism as an instrument. Marlowe choose certain characters who are capable of serving a double purpose. These character are significant as symbols, by virtue of what they symbolize, but they are significant also as themselves, by virtue of what they are. And they are not significant now as the one thing, now as the other, by a sort of alternation. But continuously and simultaneously as both.
The good angel, for example, represent the principle of goodness, independent of Faustus in that this principle is not affected by whether Faustus is loyal to it or not. Faustus can neither increase nor diminish its perfection, nor can create or destroy it.
At the same time the good angel symbolises a part of Faustus's nature. Only by loyalty to this part of his nature can Faustus attain his own perfection and therefore peace, if disloyal, he is tormented by regret for the perfection he has missed. And thus a synthesis is suggested by the allegory, that Faustus's life, though single and indivisible, is both his own and not his own. In much the same way, Helen is the lust of the eyes and of the flesh, both as these are objects in an external world, other than Faustus and as they are his own passions, leading him to seek happiness within those objects, inevitably they are part of his living. But there is a sense in which he and Helen must be distinct. While the good angel, at least as substantial as Faustus could ensure a lasting happiness, the angel at least as substantial as Faustus could ensure a lasting happiness, the happiness offered by Helen can only be momentary for she is hardly substantial- she is a shade.
The allegorical interpretation should not be limited to space but extended also to time. In other words just as the spatial distinction between Faustus and the good angel is accepted as a device, so also should the temporal separation between Faustus's death and his singing of the bond. The one event follows the other after a period of 24 years. This period is significant as itself, but it is symbolical also the moment of singing, which is the moment of his plunging to spiritual death. He kills his soul, which does not need 24 years to weaken or to wither. But as death, whether spiritual or physical, does not annihilate a soul, the consequences of singing the bond are not confined to a moment. Without the intervention of grace, the consequences will stretch through eternity and can therefore be represented, if at all only under some figure of time. And this is the purpose of the 24 years. Which as has been said are significant as themselves, but are so only that a single moment may be the more adequately symbolised.
A recognition of both these allegories is necessary to make it possible for the reader to understand and enjoy the play fully.
If the allegories are not recognised various absurdities may arise. If for example, the two angels are accepted merely in their symbolical sense, as parts of Faustus, the are nothing but ideals or aspirations opposing one another within his brain. To one or other he must attach himself and the two must argue for his allegiance. If on the other hand, the Angel are accepted as at the same time Angels that is as representatives of certain principles recognised in a universe outside Faustus, it cannot appear doubtful even for a moment which of them should be followed. For Faustus is submitted to tha universe as creature, though a free one and it is precisely to express this submission that he is symbolised by the Angel at all. The sole problem, given the angel as an objective evil and an objective good, is not which of them ought to be followed, but which of them will be followed in fact and what the consequences will be.
The consequences are for their fuller comprehension spread over 24 years. Faustus is allowed to explore evil with all patience and all diligence. During the whole of this period each of the Angel continues in his double role, as part of Faustus, expressing his pre-occupations and as external agent, either encouraging those pre-occupations or seeking to end them. In both these roles, the evil Angel are inevitably more prominent in the earlier scenes. Evil is a new toy and Faustus cannot resist any invitations to evil that he may receive. Once Faustus has chosen evil, he has neither eyes nor ears except for the immediate advantages of having done so.
The gifts of the devil, however neither satisfy nor last. Power and wealth, all that Faustus hitherto has obtained, are not in themselves either bad or good and so long as they are contemplated only, he need not be disturbed. But once the attempt is made to use them, disillusion begins. In his inexperience he thinks that, having sold himself to the devil, he will be allowed to retain some part of his integrity, to seize the opportunity, for example, of new found wealth to set up an orderly household. Therefore he asks for a wife and one is brought. But she proves to be an ugly devil. "A plague on her”, he cries, and must henceforth content himself with mistresses. His fleshly desires are thus satisfied, but the result is that his spiritual desires, as they are the more isolated, become the more insistent. The devil, having already supplied a book of spells, of planets, and of herbs, is summoned to discuss "divine astrology. The joy of learning, however, is no more permissible to Faustus than that of domestic bliss; for if pursued in due order and in the proper temper, it can lead to one thing only-the knowledge, the love, and ultimately the vision of God. And all these, along with goodness, he has renounced. When he asks: "Tell me who made the world", Mephistophilis refuses to answer. The whole economy of hell is disturbed; Lucifer appears with his companion-prince, Belzebub, and demands obedience. As a substitute for the vision of God, Lucifer shows him the Seven Deadly Sins, and at the end of the parade Faustus says: "O, this feeds my soul'. Then he goes on to express a desire to see hell and return:" might I see hell, and return again. How happy were I then ! "At this point he has fallen a victim to the vice of curiosity. The Seven Deadly Sins do not move him as they would move an ordinary man, and as a man should be moved. Faustus has begun to collect sensations without judgment and without order, not as an aid to right living but merely for their own sake. And the further descent from curiosity of the senses to that of the intellect is easy. No longer able to establish a contact with God, Faustus is now better qualified to tease Popes, oblige Duchesses, and entertain Emperors. The eternal, which Faustus neglects, cannot but avenge itself. By the choice of evil Faustus has forfeited not only spiritual but physical integrity, such as in the allegory is destroyed by the passage of time. The Old Man reminds him of this. He is seized with fury against an agent of good, and asks for him to be tormented. But in vain, for Mephistophilis is powerless against one who, unlike Faustus, has laid fast hold on the eternal. The Old Man will “fly unto his God", Faustus, on the contrary, has nowhere to fly but to what remains of his youth; the more fleeting as youth itself is a shadow. He begs Helen to make him immortal with a kiss, meaning thereby not that he himself (for to his misfortune, he is immortal already), but that what remains of youth, the present moment, shall not pass away. By the nature of things, this is Impossible. The twenty-four years draw to a close and before the allegory ends the last gift of the Evil Angel (namely, Helen) has already crumbled in his hands.

As the attractiveness of evil gradually declines, that of goodness grows. Accordingly the more prominent role which in the earlier scenes fell to the Evil Angel, is in the latter assumed by the Good Angel and his associates: the Old Man and Faustus’s own conscience. Speaking to the Scholars, Faustus laments: “What wonders have I done, all Germany can witness, yea, all the world; for which Faustus hath lost both Germany and the world, yea, heaven itself; and must remain in hell for ever!....for vain pleasure of twenty-four years hath Faustus lost eternal joy and felicity. " The Good Angel wins after all; for he or his allies speak last and, in an argument, he who speaks last wins.

It would be wrong to say that Faustus is brow-beaten by the devil and forbidden to repent. Faustus has identified himself with the devil as far as he possibly can; and he has done so, not by brow-beatings and threats so much as by his own free will. The devils have an affection to evil; they have so formed or de-formed themselves that they can desire only what brings them misery. Had they, for example, the opportunity to escape from hell, they would not utilize it, even though hell is a place only of suffering. A similar state of disorder exists in Faustus's soul. It is not only Lucifer who drags a reluctant Faustus from thoughts of heaven. Faustus also drags himself. For Lucifer, like the Good Angel, is here playing a double role: he is devil, but also he is part of Faustus's nature. Faustus is thus agent as well as victim in his own torment. We should not therefore question Faustus's moral freedom. It is not, for example, only Lucifer and Belzebub who forbid him to continue the study of "astrology"; it is his own evil will which has already determined not to embrace the truths to which astrology is leading.

The allegory in this play is, because of its complication, more than an allegory. One picture is not substituted for and therefore weakened by another: two pictures are retained, to give each other strength. Faustus suffers not merely as though he were struggling with an outside enemy, but he does have such an enemy; not merely as though he were torn within, but he is so torn. Against Lucifer he must struggle with the persistence called for against himself; and against himself he must struggle with the violence for which Lucifer calls. The whole of his strength seems to lie on both sides of the struggle and therefore he is indeed, as he says, torn as by devils. But he has an affection for the devils which tears equally. The temporal allegory is effective in a similar way. We must conceive of pain or sorrow persisting at its acutest only in the hope that one day it will cease; otherwise it must either blunt itself, or wear out its possessor. As he is alive, Faustus has hope and therefore pain of this intensity. But at the same time, he has no hope, for he is already dead. This is not to say that he unites contradictories in himself, as life and death, but that he must be conceived as continuing after death to suffer the utmost that he has even suffered in life.

It should be further noted that the allegories not only provide material and machinery for the body of the play, but shape it. The play begins with a monologue, for example, and ends with one. As Faustus alone can commit the act for which he is to be punished, he enters alone to commit it so that responsibility shall be clear. He alone can endure the punishment, and is therefore left alone to meet it. But between these two points the stage is crowded with figure who, if they cannot commit an act, may influence the act; or if not influence, may be influenced by it, in order more fully to exhibit its nature and its workings. Only towards the end the stage thins out, and Faustus is left alone with the Scholars. The Scholars are little more than conveniences, to allow him to soliloquize in public. Similarly with the allegory of time. In the body of the play scene succeeds scene, not indeed in any order, but in one which is more of psychological than chronological significance. "They illustrate the possibly simultaneous aspects of a man's state of soul, rather than events in his history. But towards the end, references to time begin to multiply. In the final monologue a clock is on the stage, and Faustus's imagery. now seeking to halt time, now yielding to it in despair, only succeeds in making it fly the faster. The general effect of this is that he seems to be rushing upon his doom. And very much the same effect results from the opening monologue, in which he rushes on the act from which the doom proceeds. From the one, as the consequences of an act committed in it, the whole play issues; into the other, where the consequences are resumed, the whole play is absorbed. There is, however, more; according to one sensei of the temporal allegory both points are the same, for the consequence follow immediately upon the act. And thus the play is not only symmetrical; it has the. form of a closed circle: it ends where it begins; it leaves Faustus where and as it found him.

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Discuss Doctor Faustus as an allegory. Bring out the symbolic meanings of Doctor Faustus.