What do you think is the cause of the tragedy in Doctor Faustus?
We first see Faustus at the peak of his worldly career. He is already master of all the existing knowledge and skills. He is a famous physician, honored by whole cities and held in reverence by his students. Why, then did he become restless? Why was he unwilling to remain "but Faustus, and a man"? (Act I, Scene I, Line 23). Why did he feel an urge to command "all things that move between the quiet poles"? (Act I, Scene I, Line 54). It is because a tragic hero feels the compulsion to realize himself fully in the face of all the odds, and that the test of his heroism is the degree of the risk he is willing to take. In this sense, the tragedy of Faustus is the tragedy of Adam. To Adam, paradise was not enough. He sought knowledge, and this was a forward step in the direction of self-realization. To the orthodox people, Adam's action is surely sinful, just as Faustus's action is wholly devilish in the eyes of the Chorus who opens and closes the play. Faustus's opening soliloquy also represents his action as sinful because, after he has dismissed all studies but necromancy (which he thinks to be the key to his self realization), the Good Angel tells him to put aside the damned book of magic, while the Evil Angel urges him to go forward in that famous art.
Marlowe sees the whole case not only as Good or Evil would see it but as it would be seen by a man of flesh and blood, the man who takes the risk and Is prepared to face the consequences. The meaning of the play is not only that Faustus's act was sinful and foolish. The meaning is in all that Faustus says, does, and becomes. The meaning is the total yield of the situation into which Faustus walks of his own free will, in accordance with the mysterious, tragic urge of his times. Faustus's first move after deciding upon necromancy as the field of his research is one of arrogant and impatient lust for power. Marlowe sets his hero's mind completely free to range forbidden realms (Act l, Scene I, Lines 51-61). Faustus's words here give a marvelous expression to the external elements of the Renaissance. "How am I glutted with conceit of this (Act I, Scene I, Line 76)!" cries Faustus, as he gloats over the power which he expects to acquire through magic. It is true that he speaks in a random manner here, and his desires grow fantastic and vainglorious. But his absurd egotism is mixed with intellectual and humanitarian impulses. He would resolve all ambiguities, read strange philosophy, rid his country of the foreign domination and fortify It with a wall of brass, clothe the schoolboys in silk. When Valdes warns him that he must be resolute, Faustus's courage is tested and he responds like a hero: "Valdes, as resolute am I in this /As thou to live:". He is prepared, at the end of Act I, Scene I, to take the ultimate risk: "This night I'll conjure, though I die therefore". Later, in Act I. Scene Ill, he rebukes the Devil's own messenger. Mephistophilis, whose heart faints as he anticipates Faustus's awful fate. Faustus here speaks of his own "manly fortitude", he scorns Mephistophilis’s warning; he rejects all hope or heavenly joys; and he offers his soul to Lucifer for twenty-four years of his heart's desires. With this decision come new energy, new power, new command. In Act Il, Scene Faustus ridicules such notions as hell and damnation. He is elated with the success of his first conjuring (in Act I, Scene IIl).
By the time of his second conjuring (Act Il, Scene I), even before the signing of the bond, he confesses doubts. "Something sounds in mine ears: Abjure this magic, turn to God again!", he says. And he asks himself why he is wavering. He feels like turning to God again, but thinks that God does not love him. In this dialogue with the Good and Evil Angels, immediately following, the tone in which he speaks of "contrition, prayer, repentance" is hesitant and uncertain. "Sweet Faustus...” pleads the Good Angel, and Faustus seems for a moment to yield, only to revert to his ungodly ways by the Evil Angel's reminder of the "honor" and the "wealth" which now lie within his power. But the doubts will not vanish, and Faustus lives out his twenty-four years as the first modern tragic man, part believer, part unbeliever, wavering between independence, and dependence upon God, now arrogant and confident, now anxious and worried, justified yet horribly unjustified.
Faustus is forced constantly to renew his choice between two alternatives. In contrasted moods, he sees greater heights, and he experiences greater terror. Soon the gentle voice that sounded in his ears, urging him to give up his magic and return to God, takes the shape of "fearful echoes" thundering in his ears: "Faustus, thou art damned" (Act II, Scene II, Lines 20-21). What he is learning is the truth of his own nature, that he is a creature as well as a creator, a man and not a god, a dependent and a responsible part of a greater whole. He learns that his soul is not a mere trifle which he can use as a commodity, and that contrition, prayer, repentance, hell, and damnation are not just "illusions" (as the Evil Angel told him).
Between the high-soaring scholar of the first scene and the agonized figure of the final scene, there is a notable difference. In the final scene. Faustus enters with the Scholars, and for the first time in the play he has normal, compassionate discourse with his fellows. His role of demi-god is over; he is human once more, a friend and befriended. "Ah, gentlemen, hear me with patience, says he who had been only recently acting as if he were the lord of all creation. His friends now seem more “sweet” (he uses this word thrice for theme) than any “princely delicate”, or the “Signiory of Emden”. Although the thrill of his exploits still lingers (in his recollection of “the wonders he has done”), he is humble and repentant. He longs to weep and pray but finds himself prevented by the devils from doing so. He confesses to the Scholars the cause of all his misery. Knowing his doom is near, he refuses their help and asks them not to talk to him but save themselves and depart. They retire, leaving him to meet his fate alone.
Faustus reaches levels of perception never gained by less venturesome individuals. He must see things with his own eyes. He does not want so mush what power can bring: he never takes the Signiory of Emden, never builds a brass wall around Germany, never clothes the school-boys in silk. He wants what all men, good and bad, have wanted. He wants to conquer time, space, and ignorance. Above all, he wants knowledge: What is hell? Where is it? Who made the world? He wants to know everything about "the plants, the herbs, the trees that grow upon the earth". "He explores this world and also the regions above this world; he tries to understand the secrets of the heavens. He digs into the past, making blind Homer sing to him, and Amphion play the harp for him. What Marlowe dramatises is not only the terror of the black art as the old legend told about it, but the wonder of it, the wonder of the man who dared to use the black art and the wonder of the mysteries it reveals. But" the play also points to the peculiar dilemma of modern times. On the one hand is human limitation; on the other is the compulsion of the modern man to deny his limitations, and to press ever further into the mysteries of a universe which appears steadily to yield more and more of its secrets to his enquiring mind. 'To rest content with his limitations would mean that he refuses to make the fullest use of his own God-given powers; yet to explore the mysteries of the universe is somehow evil and may bring not only the present suffering but the horrors of eternity'".
In his last despairing moments, Faustus asks why he was not born a creature lacking in a soul, or why his soul had to be immortal. Medieval theology held that man is because he believes. To this the answer of the Renaissance was that man is because he thinks and acts and discovers. Neither view, as Marlowe presents Faustus's dilemma, is wholly right or wholly wrong. In the world of tragedy, the hero can only take the road of experiment. He must follow his bent, take action, and live it through.
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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
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