Christopher Marlowe: Doctor Faustus

English literature owes a great debt to Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) for identifying a certain type of classical tragic hero in the works of Sophocles and making him intelligible in English cultural terms. Harry Levin called this type "the over-reacher" after rhetorician George Puttenham's attempt to find a close English synonym for the Greek word 'hyperbole' (in The Arte of English Poesie, 1589). Marlowe's characters have an exaggerated appetite for achievement, whether it's knowledge as power (Doctor Faustus), world conquest (Tamburlaine), or revenge and the acquisition of riches (Barabus). Marlowe's heroes were popular then, and remain fascinating now, as portraits of English imperial ambitions dressed in the appearances of a German scholar, an Asian warlord, and a wealthy Maltese Jew. Their exotic appearances and settings gave Marlowe an opportunity to dazzle us with some of the most elaborate and extended set speeches in English drama.

Christopher Marlowe wrote Doctor Faustus that had characters representing all segments of the society, to show the fearful price caused by pride and overreaching ambition. Faustus or Doctor Faustus studied religion, but he sold his soul to the devil. It was a punishment for his lack of satisfaction. He felt the need to be omniscient about the two sides of religion, heaven and hell. One thing was obvious about what he would prefer, because he was quite heinous. Marlowe's Doctor Faustus portrays a hero who passionately seeks power-the power of rule, the power of money, and the power of knowledge, respectively. He is an "overreacher," striving beyond the bounds of human capacity, or at least the limits imposed upon human achievement. Faustus seeks the power that comes from knowledge, no matter at what cost that knowledge is acquired. To get this power Faustus must make a bargain with the devil. Faustus on his part is in search of the power that comes from black magic, but the devil on his side exacts a fearful price in exchange-the eternal damnation of Faustus's soul. Faustus aspires to be a demigod. His fall is caused by the same pride and ambition that caused the fall of humanity in the Garden of Eden. 1 Christopher Marlowe could have been building a façade on his inner personal thoughts regarding his own experience for seeking knowledge. What they both have in common is that Marlowe went to Corpus Christie College, Cambridge, he was preparing for the ministry. He didn't take holy orders; instead he began to write plays. Faustus studied religion in the University of Wittenberg to get a degree, "in th' heavenly matters of theology." Marlowe supposes that gaining knowledge is to be humble, but Faustus is proud of himself thinking that he is better than other humans "He surfeits upon cursed necromancy; nothing so sweet as magic to him." Faustus is drawn to magic, to him magic books simply mean power, he believes that he is a good magician when he thinks of himself as a god, "and 1. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, p. 745.

 Marlowe was born in the same year as the greatest dramatist, William Shakespeare; however, Marlowe made his mark on the English theatre scene before Shakespeare. When he died under suspicious circumstances, he was the most respected dramatist of his age.

The word Renaissance itself means "REBIRTH". The idea of rebirth originated in the belief that Europeans had discovered the Greek and Roman culture after many centuries of intellectual decline. It started in Italy and spread throughout Europe including England. The Renaissance was the period of fundamental change in human outlook once dominated by religious dogma and Christian theology of Dark Ages. This age was marked by a strong desire for unlimited knowledge, love of materialistic world, supreme power, sensual pleasure of life, love for beauty, respect for classicism and individualism.

2020

A Classical allusion refers to myths in ancient Roman and Greek works of literature. Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), utilized mythological allusions in The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (1588-1592) to create a connection between ideas. Dr. Faustus wanted the infinite. He sold his soul to the devil to gain it. He rejected theology and embraced magic and mythology that epitomized pseudo-divinity. Classical mythology invites moral and theological discussion. It intensifies the aesthetic purpose and the spiritual evaluation of Dr. Faustus"s ambition.

2013

This paper is foregrounded in the premise that Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, one of the towering tragic protagonists in English Drama over the ages, is a singular character who embodies in his being the spirit of inquiry and revolt with the purpose to transcend the limits imposed on human life and endeavor by traditional religion and morality. Faustus is viewed as an embryonic protagonist for the post-Renaissance English tragedy as the potential of his character is subverted by the preclusion of sin and damnation as necessary contingent conditions for any effort to assert individual will over the established order.

Continuum Press, 2010

Critical consensus identifies Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, probably written and performed around 1588, as the first great tragedy in the English language, a powerful drama that ushered in thirty years of unparalleled dramatic creativity on the English stage. For over 400 years, Marlowe's most often read and most frequently performed play has been surrounded by conjecture; indeed, few works of literature have evoked such violent critical controversy as Marlowe's Doctor Faustus. Almost every aspect of the play has been questioned: the text has been contested; the authorship has been challenged; the date has been disputed; and the meaning has been debated. This volume seeks to guide the teacher and student of Marlowe-and, of course, all successful teachers are also students-through the labyrinth of critical controversy associated with Marlowe's most popular play, and to aid all students of Marlowe in gaining a fuller appreciation of the originality and profundity of this work.

Doctor Faustus as a man of inordinate ambition