Explain how "Doctor Faustus" forms a bridge between the Medieval and Renaissance worlds.
This play, in the character of Doctor Faustus himself, represents not so much a bridge between Medieval values and Renaissance values, but a clash and conflict between these two opposing schools of thought. Marlowe wrote this play at a key historical period where Renaissance values of scientific discovery and the power of the individual were slowly replacing medieval values which saw God as the most important aspect of life and theology as the only way of understanding the world and man's secondary place within it. Faustus, in his opening speech in Act One, displays typical Renaissance hubris by his determination and the extent of his ambition to learn every secret he can and to profit from that knowledge:
These metaphysics of magicians,
And necromantic books are heavenly;
Lines, circles, letters, characters.
Ay, these are those that Faustus most desires.
O what a world of profit and delight,
Of power, of...
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honour, and omnipotence,
Is promised to the studious artisan?
Significantly, Faustus turns to his books as the receptacles of all knowledge, demonstrating the Renaissance belief that study and science and inquiry lie at the heart of man's search for truth and desire to unlock the mysteries of the universe. At the end of the play, however, Faustus has to acknowledge the strength of medieval values as, unfortunately for him, he has to concede that God cannot be sidelined so easily. The play therefore represents the conflict between Renaissance and medieval values, with the excesses of the Renaissance explored and condemned.
Discuss the mix of Renaissance and Reformation elements in Dr Faustus.
It is interesting to trace how some of Renaissance and Reformation ideas interact in The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus by Christoper Marlowe.
Protestantism which established itself in England and in other European lands as a result of the Reformation, was even more rigorous on the issue of sin than Catholic theology. Punishment for sin was viewed as a testimony of God's righteous judgment. And in Calvinism in particular, with its doctrine of predestination (which some treat as a Christian version of fatalism), it was regarded as proof of the sinner’s eternal damnation.
Marlowe reportedly felt a special dislike for Protestantism. His aversion to the doctrine of doom may be reflected in Faustus’s consideration of the Bible interpreted in the vein of Protestant theology. He soliloquizes:
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and there's no truth in us. Why, then, belike we must sin, and so consequently die: Ay, we must die an everlasting death. What doctrine call you this, Che sera, sera, What will be, shall be? Divinity, adieu! (1)
Though Faustus wants to reject such ideas, they are nevertheless reflected in Marlowe’s work. Protestant morality plays usually ended in a terrifying scene of the protagonist’s being dragged into hell. Some of the features of those plays can be seen in Dr. Faustus. The protagonist does not heed the good advice of the positive figures such as the Good Angel and the Old Man. He rather follows the deceptive counsel of the Bad Angel and Mephistophilis, which eventually leads him to the terrifying destruction.
While criticizing Christian dogma, especially in its Protestant version, Faustus, a true Renaissance man, dreams of becoming like God. He paints his ideal in biblical colors:
Couldst thou make men to live eternally, Or, being dead, raise them to life again… (1)
He wants to work biblical miracles and compares himself to Christ. As a true humanist, as a man of practical mind, he is concerned about issues that promote progress and man’s well-being. He wants to unify Germany and banish the spirit of asceticism from universities. And in all his hopes and pursuits, he relies on the power of knowledge rather than on piety. However, with science being still in infancy at the time of Renaissance, he turns to magic. This was the path that many of the famed humanists followed. Delving into the occult, they wanted to bridge this gap.
Dr. Faustus is a hymn to humanism, but Faustus’s humanistic individualism is tragic, because the pursuit of personal liberation and power over the world leads to rebellion against authority, loneliness, and spiritual ruin.
How does Marlowe's Doctor Faustus illustrate the fusion of medieval and Renaissance elements?
Written near the close of the sixteenth century, Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus reflects the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance characteristic of this period in Northern Europe. While writers such as Copernicus and Harvey were proposing new views of the universe and the human body respectively, other writers of the same period clung quite tenaciously to medieval perspectives. Tycho Brahe, a Danish astronomer at the close of the sixteenth century, actually adhered to a geocentric view of the cosmos in spite of the general trend to the contrary.
In Doctor Faustus, these conflicting views surface in the title character himself. At the opening of the play, Doctor Faustus studies an array of subjects most of his time considered the sources of wisdom. From theology, to medicine, to astronomy, to law, Doctor Faustus examines the current state of knowledge and finds it lacking. He ultimately determines that an older, medieval, "science" can provide the answers he seeks. Magic, particularly the magic that would allow him to manipulate the world and those around him for his own gain, proves the most enticing for him. Unlike science which governs much of Renaissance thought, and religion which dominated the Middle Ages, magic rides the fence between them. Rather than relying on empiricism as science does, or a passive approach such as revelation characteristic of religion, magic incorporates elements of both. The "magician" must actively involve himself in the process of conjuring, but he must also look/appeal to a power greater than his to accomplish his goal. The choice of magic perfectly represents the fusion of medieval and Renaissance elements, because it incorporates aspects of both.