Write a note on Faustus's character as revealed in Marlowe's play. Show that Marlowe in this play is concerned with recording the mental history of Faustus.
Marlowe is primarily interested in a study of the mind of Faustus. Faustus's career is presented so as to show us Faustus's mental development. For instance, the first speech of Faustus is meant to suggest, in a telescoped fashion, a long period of mental debate, not to represent a single occasion. The tempo is quickened beyond that of ordinary life, just as movements are speeded up sometimes in the cinema.
The Prologue, with its subtle and perhaps intentional mixture of the past and present tenses, prepares the spectators for the summary presented in the soliloquy of Faustus, which follows. Faustus, turning from one book to the next, represents his own mental history in this soliloquy, as the Prologue has given the history of the outward events of his life. (The Good and Evil Angels may also be regarded as personifications of Faustus's own contrary impulses).
Faustus's character is not one of fixed determination, as is so often asserted. He constantly wavers, and his purpose keeps changing. Sometimes he sounds immovable:
This night I'll conjure, though I die therefore. (Act I, Scene I, Line 164)
Had I as many souls as there be stars,
I'd give them all for Mephistophilis. (Act I, Scene III, Lines 102-103)
Yet he has continually to screw up his courage. Before he begins the conjuring, he says half apprehensively: "Then fear not, Faustus, be resolute." His soliloquy at the opening of Act II is full of the twists and doublings of his mind. He thinks of his damnation and feels that it is no use thinking of God or heaven. He tries to strengthen his trust in Belzebub. He urges himself not to go backward, and to be resolute. But something sounds in his ears: "Abjure this magic, turn to God again." He almost decides to turn to God again, but stops and says that God does not love him. This is a regular mental debate showing his wavering mind. After this inner debate, the two Angels again appear, and they too are personifications representing two opposite points of view.
In this soliloquy (at the opening of Act II), Faustus for the first time tells himself to "despair". The idea of despair in the theological sense (that is, a conviction of damnation) runs through the play. It is the means by which the devils, from the very beginning, secure Faustus's soul, making him incapable of repentance, even though he exerts all his will-power to repent. The word "distressed" is also used in the play as an alternative description of this mental state. At other times, however, Faustus's determination and resolve are astonishing. He can urge Mephistophilis himself to learn "manly fortitude" from him and "to scorn the joys of heaven". His intoxication with his power to command the devil occasionally blinds him to everything else, and when Mephistophilis tells him truthfully of hell, he simply refuses to face it, saying that "hell is a fable".
Faustus's mind, as revealed in the first two Acts of the play, is seen swaying constantly between repentance and damnation, wavering remorse and fixed pride. In Act II, scene II, there is a third repentance: the two Angels again appear symbolising the conflict, but their speeches are shorter and sharper, and the passage ends with the triumph of the Evil Angel: "Faustus never shall repent." Immediately Faustus falls into despair: "My heart is so hardened I cannot repent." And he begins another cross-examination of Mephistophilis, for this is the means by which he calms the agitation of his mind. In the middle of this scene, there is the fourth and last conflict. This time Faustus goes further than before and calls upon Christ to save his soul. His appeal to Christ brings the three chief devils. There is extraordinary irony in this situation (namely, Faustus's appeal to Christ leading to the appearance of the three chief devils-Lucifer, Belzebub and Mephistophilis). This kind of irony of situation is paralleled by the use of quotations with an ironic significance. Faustus, as he signs the bond, says: "Consummatum est", the final words of Christ in St. John's Gospel. It immediately reminds us of the masterly adaptation of Ovid in the final soliloquy (O lente, lente currite, noctis equi.")*
In Act IV, Scene IV, there is a passage which recalls Faustus's earlier repentances and despairs. Faustus realises that he is but a man condemned to die and that his "fatal time doth draw to final end". He is in a state of despair, but he is able to console himself with the thought that Christ did show mercy to a thief at the last moment. In Act V, Scene I, Faustus repents but then immediately falls into a state of despair. He is ready to commit suicide: "Damned art thou, Faustus, damned; despair and die." But he is comforted by the Old Man. However, as soon as the Old Man leaves, Faustus's uncertainty returns, and he says: "Accursed Faustus, where is mercy now? I do repent; and yet I do despair." Mephistophilis forces him to sign another bond; and Faustus tries to forget his distress by making love to Helen.
In the first part of Act V, Scene III, we see Faustus's humanity. His poignant feelings are shown through the repetition of phrases: "What wonders I have done, all Germany can witness, yea, all the world: for which Faustus hath lost both Germany and the world: yea, heaven itself, heaven the seat of God, throne of the blessed, the kingdom of joy; and must remain in hell for ever-hell, ah, hell, for ever!" This repetition indicates Faustus's helplessness; he can only say the same thing again and again, the repetition also shows his fixation upon the single problem which at last he cannot evade. He already sounds broken; the devil's power over him is now of the physical kind also. He would like to weep but the devil dries up his tears. He would like to raise his hands, in prayer to God, but the devil holds his hands.
The greatness of the final speech of Faustus depends not only on its poetic power, but the subtle way in which it gathers up and focuses all the feelings of the earlier scenes. For example, the line about Christ's blood "streaming in the firmament" suggests the scene where Faustus's own blood congealed when he was about to sign the bond and he cried, in his haste to sell his soul: "Why streams it not?" Faustus's former moods reappear, intensified by the pressure of his feeling. He frantically denies the situation; he tries to conjure in a more daring manner than ever by calling upon the ever-moving spheres of heaven to stand still, by asking the sun to rise again in order to make perpetual day: "Fair Nature's eye, rise, rise again." The quick repetition comes because he is trying to cram as many words into his little hour as possible and also, by repeating the same word, to give himself the illusion that time is not passing at all. He ends with desperate commands to body and soul, to God and the devils, as though by the exercise of his will he could reverse the course of events:
Ugly hell, gape not! Come not, Lucifer!
I'll burn my book !-Ah, Mephistophilis.. (Act V, Scene III, Lines 122-123)
The last two words are, of course, a shriek, a scream of terror.
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Christopher Marlowe | The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus | Important Questions With Answers
- What do you think is the cause of the tragedy in Doctor Faustus?
- Discuss Doctor Faustus as a Morality play. Or Elaborate the view that Doctor Faustus is a thoroughly "Christian" Document.
- Discuss Doctor Faustus as an allegory. Or Bring out the symbolic meaning of Doctor Faustus.
- Do you agree with the view that Doctor Faustus has a beginning and an end but no "middle" ? Or Discuss the structure or construction or design of the play, Doctor Faustus.
- Write a note on the Renaissance character of the play, Doctor Faustus. Or Discuss Faustus as a man of Renaissance.
- Write a note on Faustus's character as revealed in Marlowe's play. Or Show that Marlowe in this play is concerned with recording the mental history of Faustus. "
- Trace the various stages of Faustus's damnation. Or "This play presents the fall and slow moral disintegration of an ardent, but erring spirit." Discuss.
- Discuss the appropriateness or otherwise of the comic and farcical scenes in Doctor Faustus. Write a note on the comic and farcical scenes in Doctor Faustus. Do you think the introduction of these scenes in the play to be justified? Give reasons for your answer.
- Conflict is the essence of drama. Illustrate this dictum with reference to Doctor Faustus. Or Trace the mental conflict of Faustus from the beginning till his last hour on this earth.
- How does Marlowe portray the character of Faustus? Or What estimate of the character of Faustus have you formed?
- Discuss Doctor Faustus as regards its construction. Do you think that it possesses what is known as organic unity?
- "If Doctor Faustus is a great work, it is also a flawed one". Discuss