Marlowe's The Character of Faustus

How does Marlowe portray the character of Faustus? What estimate of the character of Faustus have you formed?

The first thing that strikes us about Faustus is his extra-ordinary learning and scholarship. The Chorus, in his very first speech, tells us of this aspect of Faustus's character. According to the Chorus, Faustus made a rapid progress in the study of divinity and, by "gracing scholarism", was soon "graced with a doctor's degree". From Faustus's first soliloquy we learn that, before he decided to practise magic, he had already attained mastery over various other branches of study. He had acquired great proficiency in logic; his medical skill had won him great renown; he had made a name as a theologian; and so on. From his talk with Valdes and Cornelius, we learn that, "with concise syllogisms", he had baffled the priests of the German church, and made the young and promising scholars of Wittenberg flock to him in order to listen to his disquisitions. It is this learning which makes Cornelius say that Faustus knows all the principles required by magic and that soon Faustus would be visited by more people anxious to hear his prophecies than used to visit the ancient "Delphian oracle". And it is this quality of Faustus which makes Valdes say that, although Faustus may have to learn the rudiments from Valdes, soon he will become "perfecter" than the teacher. Intellectually equipped as Faustus is, he soon becomes a great magician whose wonderful performances astonish all Germany. Speaking to the Scholars towards the end of the play, Faustus recalls the wonders that he has done and that the whole world has witnessed.

Faustus is endowed with a rare imaginative faculty. Indeed, his imaginative reach is amazing, though it is something that we would naturally expect from a man whose intellectual calibre, as we have seen above, is extraordinary. Having rejected the various branches of study, Faustus visualises the wonders that he will be able to work with the power of magic:

O, what a world of profit and delight
Of power, of honour, of omnipotence,
Is promised to the studious artizan ! (Act I, Scene I, Lines 51-53)

He goes on to speak of the unlimited authority he will wield. He will be greater than emperors and kings, and his dominion will "stretch as far as doth the mind of man". He will become a "mighty god". He sees bright visions of spirits bringing him gold from India, pearls from the ocean, pleasant fruits from distant corners of the world. He hopes to wall all Germany with brass, make the Rhine circle the city of Wittenberg, chase the Prince of Parma from his land, and so on. He thinks that he will be able to make a bridge through the moving air in order to cross the ocean with an army of soldiers; he thinks of joining the hills that bind the African shore; he imagines that no ruler will be able to rule except by his permission. Not only does Faustus possess an exceptional imaginative power which enables him to see bright dreams of his future as a magician, but he is a born poet. His poetic faculty is, indeed, remarkable. Almost every major speech of Faustus is instinct with the poetry that is an innate gift with him. Even the manner in which he gives expression to his conflicts and despairs is worthy of a poet. Three outstanding examples of his poetic power may especially be pointed out. At one point (Act II, Scene II), Faustus recalls how he has made blind Homer sing to him of the love of Paris and Oenon, and how he has made Amphion produce ravishing music from his melodious harp. It is the soul of a poet that speaks in these lines. Then there is the final soliloquy in which Faustus calls upon the heavenly spheres to stop moving so that time may cease and midnight never come, in which he sees the vision of Christ's blood flowing in the firmament, in which he gives us a wonderful picture of his being drawn up by the stars, like a foggy mist, into the depths of the clouds above, and so on. But more wonderful than these two passages is his apostrophe to Helen. This speech is deservedly famous. It is a highly imaginative and passionate speech enriched with several mythological allusions and made radiant with the brightness of a thousand stars. This speech has a manifold appeal and we linger over it, trying to extract the maximum pleasure from it.

Faustus's sin is pride, presumption, and self-conceit. The Chorus refers to him as becoming "swollen with cunning, of a self-conceit," and compares him to Icarus who flew into the sky with wings made of wax which melted with the heat of the sun and led to Icarus's dropping to the earth and meeting his death because of his presumption in challenging the gods who then "conspired his overthrow". Faustus's pride is the pride of knowledge with which he proceeds to study necromancy. The Chorus puts it thus:

Nothing so sweet as magic is to him
Which he prefers before his chiefest bliss:

In his very first soliloquy, Faustus speaks of a "world of profit, and delight, of honour, of omnipotence" which he hopes to attain. He dreams of ruling all things "that move between the quiet poles" and thinks that his power will "stretch as far as doth the mind of man". "A sound magician is a mighty god", he says, and decides to exert his brains in order "to gain a deity". He quickly responds to the suggestion of the Evil Angel that he should be on earth "as Jove in the sky", and attain the position of a "lord and commander" of this world. Faustus sees extravagant visions of the power that he will wield, and is encouraged in his hopes by Valdes and Cornelius. He becomes so proud that the word "damnation", he says, "terrifies not him" and he refuses to believe that there is any pain waiting for human beings after death. He scolds Mephistophilis for feeling unhappy at having lost the joys of heaven and asks him to learn from him "manly fortitude". He expects Mephistophilis to do whatever he shall command, "be it to make the moon drop from her sphere./Or the ocean to overwhelm the world." Closely allied to the sin of pride is Faustus's "curiosity" which makes him probe the secrets of the universe. He not only wants Mephistophilis to tell him what hell is like but he would like visit to hell in order that he can see it with his own eyes: "O, might I see hell, and return again." He demands from the devil a book which can teach him all about spells and incantations, characters and planets of the heavens, the plants and trees that grow on the earth. With the power of magic, he ascends to the top of the Olympus mountain, sees the Tropic, the Zones, and the heights of Primum Mobile, and studies cosmography, not to speak of his visits to various places on the earth. This excessive curiosity is also regarded as part of Faustus's sin. But that is not all. He is also guilty of sensuality. While laying down his conditions for signing a contract with the devil, he demands that he should be allowed to live for twenty-four years "in all voluptuousness". Soon after the bond has been signed, he demands a wife, "the fairest maid in Germany" because, as he says, he cannot live without a wife. Subsequently, he asks for Helen whose sweet embraces, he says, will drive out from his mind all thoughts of rebellion against Lucifer. When Helen is brought to him, he goes into raptures over her beauty and says that none but she shall be his paramour. Faustus knows very well that the woman to whom he is making love is not the real Helen, but a succuba, a devil in the guise of Helen. This means that, in making love to her, he commits the sin of demoniality. Finally, Faustus is guilty of the sin of despair. "Despair" in this context means allegiance to the devil and loss of faith in God. At several points in the course of the play, Faustus speaks of his despair. For instance, after the Old Man, has spoken to him of his sinful life, Faustus, addressing himself, says: "Damned art thou, Faustus, damned; despair and die!"

Although it is in a mood of exhilaration and elation that Faustus decides to take to the study of necromancy and to practise magic, he has no peace once he has taken that decision. Throughout the twenty-four years during which he practises magic, he experiences a mental conflict between his godly and ungodly impulses. A feeling of regret at having alienated God keeps haunting him during this period. The Good and the Evil Angels, who appear to him on several occasions, are merely the personifications of his own good and evil impulses. The words they speak to him are symbolic of the mental debate that goes on in his own mind between his desire to enjoy the fruits of the power he has gained through magic and an urge not to renounce his trust in God. But this is not the only symptom of his mental conflict. Several times he gives an outward expression to the tussle that goes on in his mind. At the beginning of Act II, Scene I, we find him speaking of the tug-of- war that is going on in his mind:

What boots it, then, to think of God or heaven?
Away with such vain fancies and despair;
Despair in God, and trust in Belzebub:
Now go not backward; no, Faustus, be resolute:
Why waverest thou ? O, something sounds in mine ears,
"Abjure this magic, turn to God again!"
Ay, and Faustus will turn to God again,
To God? He loves thee not....... (Act II, Scene I, Lines 3-10)

This is a characteristic speech showing how Faustus, while continuing to practise magic, yet experiences the pangs and pricks of his conscience. The congealing of his blood when he is about to sign the bond shows the same thing. Immediately after completing the draft of the bond, he sees the words, "man, fly", inscribed on his arm. This too is indicative of the spiritual conflict of Faustus, and this conflict goes on.

After attaining the power of magic, Faustus does certainly pursue his intellectual ideal of acquiring knowledge which is beyond the reach of human beings. The Chorus in his speech at the beginning of Act III, tells us of Faustus's investigations into the secrets of this universe. But we feel puzzled when we find this great scholar stooping to play all kinds of silly tricks and foolish practical jokes. The manner in which Faustus harasses the Pope by snatching away eatables and drinks from the Pope's hands and the manner in which he befools and cheats the Horse-courser, far from doing him any credit, lower and degrade him in our eyes. This great scholar, who had planned to wall all Germany with brass and to drive away the Prince of Parma from his land, is now frittering away his energies by playing crude tricks and by giving magic performances to entertain the Emperor (by summoning Alexander and Thais) and the Duke and Duchess of Vanholt (by procuring grapes for the Duchess). Perhaps the scene of the Pope's harassment and the Horse-courser scene were not written by Marlowe himself. Perhaps it was Marlowe's intention to show, with the help of such scenes, the rapid deterioration that takes place in the character of Faustus after his becoming a disciple of the devil. The Faustus who plays tricks on the Pope, the Knight, and the Horse-courser is different from the Faustus of the opening scenes. The Faustus of the opening scenes commanded our respect, his decision to practise magic notwithstanding. This Faustus appears to be no more than a juggler.

In Act V, Scene III, however, Faustus rehabilitates himself in our esteem. Here we see a chastened Faustus. He is in a mood of deep despair. All his native tenderness, and humanity re-emerge. He becomes humble, too. What can be more poignant than the words in which he describes his state of distress when speaking to the Scholars: "Faustus's offence can never be pardoned: the serpent that tempted Eve may be saved, but not Faustus. Ah, gentlemen, hear me with patience, and tremble not at my speeches!........Sweet friends, what shall become of Faustus, being in hell for ever?" What words expressive of despair could be more touching than the following: "Ah, my God, I would weep! but the devil draws in my tears. O, he stays my tongue! I would lift up my hands; but see, they hold them, they hold them!....... For vain pleasure of twenty-four years hath Faustus lost eternal joy and felicity".

The final monologue of Faustus not only emphasises Faustus's imaginative and poetic faculties, but is unsurpassed as an expression of spiritual horror. Faustus here realises that time will not stop and that the devil will come at the fixed hour:

The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike,
The devil will come, and Faustus must be damned. (Act V, Scene III, Lines 76-77)

Then he sees a vision of Christ's blood in the sky but, when he appeals to Christ for pity, Lucifer, who has a proprietary claim to Faustus's soul, inflicts physical torture on him, and Faustus cries out: "Ah, rend not my heart for naming of my Christ !" Faustus wishes that he did not have a soul or that his soul were not immortal. He would like his body to turn into air and his soul to little water-drops which may mingle with the ocean and never be found again. The acme or climax of horror is reached in the last four lines of this monologue. Seeing the devils who have come to take away his soul, Faustus says:

My God, my God, look not so fierce on me!
Adders and serpents, let me breathe a while!
Ugly hell, gape not! Come not, Lucifer;
I'll burn my books! Ah, Mephistophilis ! (Act V, Scene III, Lines 120-123)

The last two words are, of course, a scream of terror.

Marlowe's The Character of Faustus

How does Marlowe portray the character of Faustus? What estimate of the character of Faustus have you formed?

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