The Philosophy of Death in Ch. Marlowe's "Dr. Faustus

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.

 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.

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.

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.

2021

With a tragic story-arc that focuses on rationality and the breaching thereof, along with unique insight into character, Marlowe was a force that ushered in of a new instance of Renaissance tragedy. Douglas Cole describes the substantial effect Marlowe's work had on the shifting theatrical landscape as such, "In textbooks and anthologies of drama, [Doctor Faustus] stands conventionally as the most notable 'bridge-piece' between the theatrical modes of medieval drama and the more modern developments associated with the Renaissance stage" (Renaissance of Tragedy 121).

I examine the way in which Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus can be seen as a conventional morality play.

Brolly Journal of Social Sciences, 2024

The article underpins the theatrics of the tragic hero’s fall in Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. Theological concepts related to sin and damnation are applied to interpret the ironic inversions leading to the downfall of Faustus. The choice of “spectacle of blindness” emphasises the link between theatricality and irony. The concept of metatheatre is used to portray the fall of Faustus. Irony reaches grandeur thanks to the interweaving of metatheatre and the carnivalesque. The research legitimises the existence of the concept of the theatrics of irony. The research delves into the intricate layers of irony woven throughout the play as the titular character embarks on a fateful journey from humanity to damnation. Faustus’ relentless pursuit of perceived divine imperfections, his portrayal as a shrewd manipulator of thought, and his refusal to acknowledge the true nature of his transgressions are meticulously crafted into a dramatic spectacle by the playwright. Marlowe's adept use of irony is exemplified through intentional inversions and deviations from the play's source material, The English Faustbook. Embracing irony as a spectacle of blindness, the analysis reveals the amalgamation of carnivalesque elements, comedy, burlesque, and metatheatre in the play’s theatrics of irony. Faustus’ tragic downfall unfolds as a nuanced interplay between serious, tragic consequences and moments of buffoonery or carnivalesque revelry. The analysis positions Doctor Faustus as a distinctive work, departing from traditional interpretations and venturing into new theatrical aesthetics, emphasising the spectacular and the metatheatrical. The article is available online on the following links: https://journals.lapub.co.uk/index.php/brolly/article/view/2696 https://journals.lapub.co.uk/index.php/brolly/issue/view/117/123 https://journals.lapub.co.uk/index.php/brolly/issue/view/117