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Doctor Faustus morality play

contents

 Introduction
 Morality play
 Conclusion
Introduction
Doctor Faustus is an unimpeachable creation by The Central Sun of the University Wits,
Christopher Marlow (1564-1593). Christopher Marlowe, who lived between 1564 and 1593,
is a playwright from Britain in the Elizabethan era. He is the most famous English tragic writer
after William Shakespeare, known for his blank verse. Marlow has rightly been called The
Morning Star of the great Elizabethan drama. Doctor Faustus has been treated as a link
between the miracle and morality plays and the illustrious drama of Elizabethan period.
William Hazlitt remarks: “His Doctor Faustus, though an imperfect and unequal performance,
is his greatest work. Faustus himself is a rude sketch, but it is a gigantic one. The character
maybe considered a personification of the pride of will and eagerness of curiosity, sublimed
beyond the reach of fear and remorse.”

Morality play
The morality play is the form of the play flourished in the fifteenth century. Its general themes
revolved around the struggle between good and evil for the salvation of the human spirit. The
style of moral play was usually metaphorical or allegorical, the actors embody the qualities of
some personalities such as virtue, vice, riches, poverty, knowledge, ignorance, beauty and the
seven deadly sins. The play was about a figurative character sometimes called human beings
or humanity. The character represented the common people and their lives. The human's
enemy was usually the vice character, which sometimes appeared in the form of a demon or
under other names. Often, the vice was a comic character with many tricks and deception.
But in spite of this comedic aspect of the vice character, it was representing a human being
who is so stupid as the vice deceives him.
The major protagonist in this type of play is not individual as a character. He often owns a
name that sets him apart from others in the same play. Yet, this name is not personal. The
reader typically does not know anything concerning his communal or societal condition,
tendencies or personality. The mere thing which is clear here is that the protagonist stands
for the whole Christians. The chief protagonist should face various powers embodied by
figurative characters. Figurative characters represent different ethical issues. They are
fighting for the protagonist's spirit. The combat for possessing man's spirit is possibly
considered the key theme and notion of morality plays.
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In Doctor Faustus, though we find the elements of mystery and miracle primarily, mainly we
find the elements of morality. Morality plays were influenced by Bible, by religion. The prime
concern of morality plays was to teach moral lessons to the contemporary people. In such
plays we also see constant contradiction between good and evil, personification of abstract
ideas, crime and punishment, unlimited desire of human being, downfall of human being as
a result of the disobedience of the orders of God. All these elements we profoundly find in
this play of Marlow.
In Dr Faustus Marlowe uses the structure of the morality play intensively, most noticeably in
the characters he uses as many of them are representations of type rather than being
individuals. For example, the characters of Valdes and Cornelius are known as 'the tempters',
thus fitting the morality definition as the characters who tempt the main character into sin
(although they are not alone in this). The Good and Bad Angels can also be seen as morality
play characters, although this depends on whether or not we see them as real characters from
another world or as externalisations of Faustus' own thoughts and conscience. There is
nothing in the text which precisely determines which view is correct. However, Faustus'
speech in Act II scene I, implies they are externalisations of his conscience;

Why waver'st thou? O something soundeth in mine ear,

'Abjure this magic, turn to God again.'
Ay, and Faustus will turn to God again.
To God? He loves thee not.
Marlow is a martyr to everything that the Renaissance valued- power, curious knowledge,
enterprise, wealth and beauty. The Evil Angel urges Faustus to think of honour and of wealth.
All of such qualities we find in Faustus when he was making a comparison among medicine,
law, philosophy and logic. He found all these branches of knowledge fruitless. Finally he said,
“When all is done, divinity is best” (1. 1. 37). The good side of his soul emphasized him to
learn the knowledge related to God, related to eternity. The bad side of his soul did not let
him to go with divinity. Then Faustus compared religious scriptures as “vain trifles” and finally
decided to learn necromancy. From this very point we find a prognosis that what is going to
happen to a man who leaves the path of God and starts to follow the path of evil. In his own
voice:
“O what a world of profit and delight,
Of power, of honor, of omnipotence,
Is promis’d to the studious artisan!
All things that move between the quiet poles
Shall be at my command:”
Mephistopheles can be seen as an aspect of the morality play as he tempts the protagonist
into sin and subsequent damnation. Mephistopheles can be used as further evidence of the
morality aspects in Dr Faustus as it shows that Faustus was a man led into damnation, in fitting
with the tradition of the morality plot. Again, though, there is ambiguity as Faustus is not
merely an innocent victim.

The comic scenes in the play are another example of Marlowe's use of the morality structure.
Bawdy comic scenes were a common aspect of morality plays, and the scenes in Dr Faustus
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which feature characters such as the Horse-Courser and the Hostess are typical of this low
humour. For example, there is farcical humour when Faustus cons the Horse-Courser into
riding the horse into the water, 'O what a cozening doctor was this! I riding my horse into the
water, thinking some hidden mystery had been in the horse, I had nothing under me but a
little straw and had much ado to escape drowning.'
The characters in these comic scenes are also an aspect of the morality play as, like the
'tempters', they are representations of a type. For example, we see the Hostess, a Servant
and the Horse-Courser; these are obviously not individuals. The Seven Deadly Sins also
provide some light entertainment for the audience, Faustus himself finds great pleasure in
the display, 'O how this sight doth delight my soul!' The Seven Deadly Sins are typical of the
Vice characters in morality plays.

The general theme of morality play is the struggle of forces of good and evil of the soul of
man, and the aim is to teach doctrines and ethics of Christianity. In this sense Doctor Faustus
is a morality play to a very great extent. We see Faustus abjuring the scriptures, The Trinity
and Christ. He surrenders his soul to Lucifer for “four and twenty years” out of his ambition
to gain super-human power by mastering the unholy art of magic: “Divinity adieu! / These
metaphysics of magicians, / And necromantic books are heavenly”.

By selling his soul to Lucifer, Faustus lives a blasphemous life full of vain pleasure. There is a
fierce struggle in his soul between his ambition and conscience, between The Good and Evil
Angle that externalize his inner conflict. But Faustus ultimately surrenders to the allurements
of The Evil Angle, thereby paving his way for external damnation. Because of his crime, he
must be punished. When he wants to rue, his heart becomes stiff and he could not do so, as
we find in the case of The Old Mariner in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. We find Faustus
utters, “My heart’s so harden’d, I cannot repent”.

As the last hour approaches, Faustus realizes, with the utmost pain and horror, that his sins
cannot be ignored and nothing can save him from eternal curse. Before the demons grab his
soul into the burning hell, the scourges of the very tormented soul find the most effective
expression in his last soliloquy:
“My God, my God, look not so fierce to me!
Adders and serpents, let me breath a while!
Ugly hell, gape not: come not Lucifer:
I’ll burn my books: Ah, Mephistophilis!”

Conclusion

After reaching the marginal extent of the discussion, I can say that Doctor Faustus is a
remarkable morality play. Faustus, who was at centre of the play, tells us a moral story of a
man, who seeking for knowledge pledged his soul to the devil, only to find the misery of a
hopeless repentance. His exaggerated ambitions not only made him a sufferer in this world,
but also damned him eternally in the world to come. It is a morality play ending in damnation,
the final chorus enunciating the lesson in the way of a morality epilogue. A thorough study
thus makes clear that it is a modern time production with a distinct hang-over from the older
morality tradition. It is a medieval morality play with the theme modified by the spirit of new
age.

Injamamul Hoque