Homework Help
Good students ask more questions. eNotes educators are standing by.
Topic: Doctor Faustus
What is a comic scene in Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, and what is its significance?
Share this question:
2 Answers | add yours
Teacher
eNotes Employee, Expert, Instructor, Scribe, Whitman, Poe, Dickens, The Bard, Churchill, Einstein
One comic scene is that with the horse-courser (one who trains horses to be raced) while Faustus and Mephistophilis are at the Emperor's court. The courser wants to buy Faustus' horse for its...
(The entire answer is 448 words.)
This is an expert answer, written by an eNotes educator. To read the entire answer, please join eNotes.
In tragedies, the playwright tries to give relief to the audience by introducing comic scenes or episodes. Literally such comic interludes is known as tragic relief. A tragedy creates tension in the mind of the audience. Therefore it becomes necessary to relax the minds of the audience by including comic scenes in the play. Otherwise, it generates some sort of emotional weakness. The audience of the Elizabethan period pressed for comic interludes to ease their emotion. The producers also demanded them for success of the play. The comic interlude may have an appropriate emotional connection in the development of the tragic play but it is also admitted that in Marlowe’s dramas, this tragic relief seems to be crude. Due to these often Dr Faustus is called a play of weak plot.
If we give a close study of Marlowe’s “Dr. Faustus” it shows that there are fourteen scenes in all. Out of them, comic scenes are five or six. Many critics are of the opinion that the comic elements in these scenes are low and vulgar. They can not be accepted as organic parts of the tragic play.
According to the critics, the first comic scene has been worked out with some care, a comic burlesque of the main plot. It is also felt that most of the comic scenes in Dr. Faustus are of later interpolation and not of Marlowe.
Marlowe must have cherished a strong dislike for clownage conceits. It is known to us that the first edition of the play was published in 1604 and the second edition in 1616. Second edition contains more scenes of clownage with new additions. So it proves that these scenes were not of Marlowe. T.S. Eliot asserts that Marlowe was not devoid of a high developed sense of humour and Marlowe should not be judged by a Shakespeare standard in this respect.
Marlowe introduced the comic scenes in “Dr. Faustus” for many purposes. First of all he introduced crude buffoonery because it was common stock-in-trade of the Elizabethan dramatists. They could not ignore the demands of the groundlings. The Elizabethan audiences justified the inclusion of comic scenes in which Faustus teases and trouble the Pope and his guests, outwit the horse-dealer, and make a fool of the talkative knight, planting a pair of horns on his head. They are essential for dramatic purpose to enable Faustus to display his miraculous powers. Secondly, the purpose of the comic scenes was to offer a temporary relaxation to the audience. Third, Marlowe’s description about Faustus’ pranks on the Pope shows Marlowe’s hatred for church and Pope.
Join to answer this question
Join a community of thousands of dedicated teachers and students.
Related Content
Recommended Questions
- What was Marlowe's debt to Moralities in Doctor Faustus?
- How might one explain and analyze the encounter between the good and bad angels in Christopher Marlowe's play Doctor Faustus?
- Both the medieval and Renaissance worlds are depicted in Christopher Marlowe's play Doctor Faustus. What was Marlowe's aim and how...
- How does Christopher Marlowe use classical and religious imagery throughout Doctor Faustus to emphasize the play's themes?
- In Christopher Marlowe's play Doctor Faustus, how might one trace Faustus' gradual downfall as a tragic hero?
- In his play titled Doctor Faustus, Christopher Marlowe positions Faustus between two worlds. How is this positioning reflected in...
- How might one explain the meaning of envy and link it to the contents of Christopher Marlowe's play Doctor Faustus?
- Comment on the following extract from Doctor Faustus: "Mephistophilis: Why this is hell, nor am I out of...
- Compare Faustus’ beginning and final speeches of his initial and final wishes in Doctor Faustus by Marlowe, and say what...
- Explain this quote from Doctor Faustus by Marlowe: "This the face that launch'd a thousand ships,......
