Written by English playwright Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus is an Elizabethan tragedy written in the sixteenth century. It is written in Old English and consists mainly of dialogue and soliloquies (when a character speaks to himself but is also sharing his thoughts with the reader/audience).

That time doth run with calm and silent foot,
Short'ning my days and threat of vital life,
Calls for the payment of my latest years.

The play is written in a three-part structure and tells the story of brilliant German scholar Doctor Faustus who gives up his studies for the pursuit of magic and supernatural power. It begins with a prologue and then fourteen scenes. These scenes move from one to the other quickly, moving from the comic to the serious and then back again. This rapid succession of scenes gives the reader the impression of the speed at which Doctor Faustus is approaching his fate. There are a series of plots, but the main plot focuses on Faustus as he sells his soul to the devil in a trade-off for a longer life and extended knowledge.

Marlowe was inspired by the morality and mystery plays of his time, but Doctor Faustus also contains dark and Gothic horror elements, as it tells the story of a protagonist whose pride brings about his ruin.

Now that the gloomy shadow of the earth,
Longing to view Orions drisling looke,
Leapes from th’antartike world unto the skie,
And dimmes the welkin with her pitchy breath.

The vocabulary used is descriptive and includes much-exaggerated language. This aids in the creation of a vivid, imaginary, supernatural world for the reader. For example, Marlowe writes,

I see there's virtue in my heavenly words;
Who would not be proficient in this art?

The play ends with Doctor Faustus’s final soliloquy.

All beasts are happy,
For, when they die,
Their souls are soon dissolv'd in elements;
But mine must live, still to be plagu'd in hell.