Doctor Faustus

Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus is perhaps one of the best known tragedies. It definitely differs from a traditional Greek tragedy, as Faustus doesn't have a high birth status (like a king,...

The primary themes of Doctor Faustus are the relationship between knowledge and power and the consequences of attempting to attain knowledge beyond a certain extent. The play's protagonist, Doctor...

Morality plays were Christian plays first performed by traveling troupes during the Middle Ages to communicate a moral message about sin and salvation. They kept audiences entertained with vivid...

Renaissance, as we know, was a widespread cultural and educational movement in history during which the old conventions of medieval age were dissolved followed by liberation in all arenas of life...

Marlowe's play is often framed as entering into a debate between medieval and Renaissance values, with Faustus representing the Renaissance. The term "Renaissance man" refers to the individuals in...

The main cause of Dr. Faustus's downfall is his hubris, or overweening pride. Faustus has a pretty good life, overall, but he's still not satisfied. He wants power; he wants to be renowned the...

In Scene XIV of Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, we meet Faustus speaking with two or three Scholars about the subject of "fair ladies". The Scholars had chosen Helen of Troy as the most...

"Homo fuge" is simply the Latin for "Fly, man!" These words appear on Faustus's arm after he makes his diabolical pact with the Devil, selling his soul in return for twenty-four years of incredible...

This play cannot be viewed as solely being about the Renaissance age. Rather, Marlow presents the clash of Renaissance values and medieval values in this play and through the person of Doctor...

Christopher Marlowe wrote The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus in about 1590, at a time when England was at the height of its Renaissance, in the latter part of the reign of...

The Good Angel and the Evil Angel in Marlowe's Dr Faustus are physical manifestations of the good and evil impulses that battle for supremacy in Faustus's conscience. Bringing the two competing...

In some senses, it's both. On the one hand, Faustus's damnation is tragic because he could've been a great man without having to sell his soul to Lucifer. There was simply no need for it. But...

Mephistopheles acts as a kind of intermediary between Dr. Faustus and Lucifer. He's the one who keeps Faustus happy with all the goodies he was promised in return for his mortal soul, such as...

Faustus in the world of Marlowe First, you need to observe Faustus in his element to be able to decipher him. He lived in 16th century (Renaissance) Europe. These were times when academia began to...

The greatest irony in Dr. Faustus is his hubris(excessive pride), and his faith in his own mortal powers to command the service of devils. in the end, he is torn limb from limb, and his soul is...

In Christopher Marlowe’s play, much as in a Greek tragedy, Faustus is brought down by a fatal flaw. There is an element of his character that is destined to clash with the proper workings of the...

Doctor Faustus isn't a hero. He performs no heroic deeds and, in fact, bargains away his soul for an eternity for a short time with more power. He is the protagonist of the story and perhaps the...

The words consummatum est are also ironic because in the Vulgate Latin text of the Gospel of John (19:30), these are the last words that Jesus speaks before he dies on the cross: cum ergo...

The fate of Dr. Faustus can be interpreted from both angles. To a large extent, it depends on one's personal beliefs. On the face of it, it does seem that Faustus only has himself to blame for his...

With a terrifying sense of inevitability Doctor Faustus meets with a pretty sticky end. It's act 5, scene 3, and the First Scholar can hear blood-curdling screams coming from Faustus's room. As the...

The most striking parallel between Lucifer and Doctor Faustus in Christopher Marlowe's The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus is that Lucifer and Faustus are their own worst...

Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus uses both blank verse and free verse to set the rhythm for the tale. Blank verse simply means that the lines do not rhyme; although it does follow iambic...

The deal that Faustus makes with Mephistophilis—twenty-four years of earthly power in exchange for his soul—might seem, on the face of it, like a good one. Faustus is itching to exert more power...

Doctor Faustus is both a morality play and a Renaissance drama, since the two are not mutually exclusive categories of drama. The play shows a man selling his own soul for power when all the normal...

Scene 1 of Christopher Marlowe's The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus opens with a lengthy soliloquy by Doctor Faustus, in which he praises himself as what is now termed a...

Both of these elements are certainly present in Marlowe's Dr Faustus. The element of peripeteia in a drama—or, indeed, any other literary work—represents a turning point for the character, or a...

This quotation is part of an early discussion between Faustus and Mephistopheles regarding what Faustus will be able to receive in exchange for his soul. Faustus has achieved everything one could...

The character of Doctor Faustus certainly coincides well with the tragic flaw theory of character development. From the opening lines, the reader already gets a sense that Faustus has an...

In scene 5 of Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, the title character signs the contract giving Lucifer his soul in exchange for twenty-four years of Mephistophilis's obedience to do whatever...

In traditional European literature, especially fables and fairy tales, a day often equals a year. As a result, although granting Faustus 24 years of as much knowledge as his brain can handle in...

To understand these lines from Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe, you first need to appreciate the circumstance in which he finds himself. He has sold his soul to the devil in order to obtain...

Faustus views the traditional disciplines of "analytics," "economy" and "physic" to be too confining for him. They do not allow him to satisfy his true ambitions. Magic, on the other hand, offers...

Christopher Marlowe’s Elizabethan tragedy, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, traces the damnation of the protagonist using a traditional unified plot with a beginning, middle, and end....

The question of what Doctor Faustus wanted is critical to understanding whether his plan failed or succeeded and, in correlation, whether the price he paid was worth the gain he procured. This,...

The Chorus in Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, the inspiration for Goethe's Faust Parts I & II, serves two purposes. First, it is transitional and, second, it is expository. The first purpose of the...

If we look at the broad definitions of comedy and tragedy, we understand that a comedy is a play in which nobody dies, even if bad things do happen. A tragedy is a play in which the stage is...

Everyman, composed in the late 15th century by an unknown author, is a good deal more simplistic in its presentation of good and evil than Christopher Marlowe's 1592 play Doctor Faustus. The...

The importance of any work of literature is clearly a matter for debate. There must be a great many people in the world to whom Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus is not remotely important. Nonetheless, some...

Doctor Faustus ends with the title character being savagely ripped to pieces by evil devils before his soul his dragged down to Hell, where it will spend eternity in the company of Lucifer and all...

The Chorus in Christopher Marlowe's The Tragical History Of Doctor Faustus performs many of the same functions as the Chorus in ancient Greek plays, as well as in other Elizabethan plays, such as...

Dr. Faustus is riven with internal conflict throughout the play. He craves worldly fame and success and is prepared to sign up to a devilish bargain in order to obtain them. Yet he never feels...

This quotation is found in the Chorus of Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus. The Chorus introduces us to Doctor Faustus's character, starting with his infancy, and throughout his lifespan until...

A brief encapsulation of Faustus's mental conflict begins with the description given by the Chorus in Act I, scene i of Dr. Faustus and ends with the Chorus's summary of his plight. The Chorus...

Envy is the act of resenting the good fortune, power, health, or appearance (among other things) of other people. It also includes the act of wishing away those good qualities from those who...

European Renaissance thought centered around the belief that man had the right to value and to celebrate earthly life and also to improve himself and advance; although, the latter idea did not...

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...

Part of the reason that Marlowe's Faustus is tragic is due to our own susceptibilities and foibles that would compel us to do the same. This is to say that Faustuts' tragic flaw was his greed....

Drama and poetry are two distinct literary forms that, when combined, can create a powerful literary work in its own right. Dramatists like Christopher Marlowe and his contemporary, William...

Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, written sometime between 1589–92, is in early modern English. Early modern English began to be used about 1500 and was in use until about 1700, when it was replaced by...

Faustus abuses his power from the very beginning of the play. He uses his intellectual capacities and the knowledge he gained from his study of divinity to summon demons. He states in his initial...