A soliloquy can be defined as an act of speaking one's thoughts out loud when by oneself. In a play, it is often the case that a soliloquy reveals something very important about the character concerned, providing the audience with a privileged glimpse into what's going on inside his or her mind.

That's certainly the case with the title character's final soliloquy in Doctor Faustus. One hour away from being damned to Hell for all eternity Faustus is terrified at the prospect that awaits him. He spends his last sixty minutes on earth wondering how he might escape his impending doom. But he can't hold back the hand of time, even though, as he states at the beginning of his soliloquy, he wishes that time would stand still so that midnight would never come or that the sun, "Fair Nature's eye," would rise and make the day everlasting.

What's remarkable about Faustus's final soliloquy is its complete lack of repentance. Although he acknowledges that a drop of Christ's blood will save him, he immediately turns his attention back to Lucifer by pleading with him not harm him for naming God. In the last hour of his life, then, Faustus is calling for Lucifer to spare him, not God. He concludes that as God is too angry with him to save him, he's effectively beyond repentance.

But Faustus has no one else to blame but himself for this. Instead of looking within himself for an escape route, he should've looked upward and accepted the gift of God's salvation. But old habits die hard, and the arrogance and self-centeredness which have characterized Faustus's behavior thus far in the play are still much in evidence even as the hour of doom approaches.