Doctor Faustus: Is it a morality play? Or Renaissance element in Doctor Faustus.
Name:
Raval Mital M.
Roll
no: 26
Year:
2016 – 2018
M.A.
Semester: 1
Paper
no: (1) The Renaissance Literature
Email
Id: ravalmital5292@gmail.com
Assignment
topic: Doctor Faustus: Is it morality play? Or
Renaissance element in Doctor
Faustus.
Submited
to: Dr. Dilip Barad
Smt.S.B.Gardi
Department of English
M.K.Bhavnagar University.
Introduction:
“Doctor Faustus” play is
written by Christopher Marlowe. He was an English playwright, poet
and translator of the Elizabethan era. He was greatly influenced by
William Shakespeare. Of the drama attributed to Marlowe, ‘Dido,
Queen of cartage’ is the very first play. Then he writes many play
like, ‘Tamburlaine the Great’, ‘The Jew of Malta’, ‘Edward
the second’, ‘The Massacre at Paris’ and ‘Doctor Faustus’.
In which Doctor Faustus is based on the German Faustbuch.
It’s full title “The Tragical History of the Life and
Death of Doctor Faustus”. It is a Elizabethan tragedy by
Christopher Marlowe, based on German stories about the title
character Faustus. It is also a type of morality play.
Morality play:
Morality plays are a type of theatrical allegory in which the protagonist is met by personifications of various moral attributes who try to prompt him to choose a godly life over one of evil. The plays were most popular in Europe during the 15th and 16th century. Having grown out of the religiously based mystery plays of the middle ages, they represented a shift towards a more secular base for European theatre. In these plays the characters were generally personified abstractions of vice or virtues such as Good Deeds, faith, mercy, anger etc…The general theme of the moralities was theological and he main one was the struggle between good and evil powers for capturing man’s soul and the journey of life with its choice of eternal destination and the aim is to teach ethics and doctrines of Christianity. According to M.H. Abrams…,
“Morality plays were dramatized
Allegories of a representation.”
Doctor
Faustus as a morality play:
Doctor Faustus has many features of morality play: like, the conflict between good and evil, the creation of good and bad Angels, the old Man as Good Counsel Belzebub and Mephistophilis to ensnare his “glorious soul”.
The conflict between Good and Evil was a recurring theme in the medieval morality play. From this point of view Marlowe’s play is a dramatization of the medieval morality play, Everyman. Doctor Faustus becomes a morality in which heaven struggles for the soul of the Renaissance Everyman, namely Doctor Faustus.
“Dr. Faustus” may be called a religious or morality play to a very great “we find Marlowe’s hero, Faustus adjuring the trinity and Christ”. He surrenders his soul to the devil out of his inordinate ambition to get gain.
"A world of profit and delight of
Power, of honour, of omnipotence.”
In morality play the moral is always positive and goodness always triumphs over evil, truth over lie and virtue over voice. “Dr. Faustus” can never be treated wholly as a morality play. It’s greatest heroic tragedy before Shekespeare.
The comic scenes of Doctor Faustus also belong to the tradition of old Miracle and Morality play, especially the scene I of the third act where Faustus is found playing vile tricks on the Pope and the scene IV of act IV where the horse courses is totally outwitted and be fooled by Faustus.
Good and Evil Angle:
The Good Angle and the Bad Angle are characters derived from the medieval morality play like “The castle of Perseverance”. They are sometime regarded as an externalization of the thoughts of Faustus. This is Twentieth century view. The Angles are independent absolutes one wholly good and one wholly evil. They appear in doctor Faustus like allegorical figures of morality play. They reflect the possibility of both damnation and redemption being open to Faustus. A close examination shows that the Evil Angel declines in importance as the play advances. The angels work by suggestion, as allegorical characters in morality plays do.
The good and evil Angels… the forms stand for the path of virtue and the latter sin and damnation……
“One for conscience and the other for
Desires…..”
“Symbolizes the force of righteousness
And morality plays”.
Seven deadly sin:
Seven deadly sin is another feature borrowed by Marlowe from the tradition of the morality play. The seven deadly sins like; Pride, Covetousness, Wrath, Envy, Gluttony, Sloth and Lechery, all those sins are shows that old morality plays are also very much in this play. In Marlowe’s play, divert Faustus attention from Christ, his attendant devils to rebuke him for invoking Christ and then presents the pageant of the seven Deadly sins as a diversion.
The series of dialogues spoken by Good angle and old man are yet another example of morality play. Faustus final resorts to god Almighty to save are soul from perpetual damnation:
Faustus: Christ, My savior, my savior help to save distressed
Faustus’ soul!
(II, ii, 85, 87)
The bad side of Dr. Faustus soul did not let him to go with divinity. Then Faustus compared religious scriptures as “vain trifles” and finally decided to learn necromancy. From this very point we find a prognosis that what is we find a prognosis that what is going to happen to a man who leaves the path of God and starts to follow the path of evil the particular things that intoxicated him to learn this black art are him to learn this own voice.
“O what a world of profit and delight
Of power, of honour, of omnipotence,
Is promis’d to the studious artisan!
All things that move between the quiet
Poles shall be at my command
[1.1 51-55]
Renaissance
element in Doctor Faustus.
The Renaissance man was fascinated by new learning and knowledge. He took all knowledge to be his province. He regarded knowledge to be power. He developed an insatiable thirst for further curiosity, Knowledge, power, beauty, riches, worldly pleasures and the like. The writer of this age represented their age in their work. Marlow is the greatest and truest reperesentative of his age. So the renaissance influence is seen in everywhere of his plays. Dr. Faustus represents the renaissance spirit in various ways.
Craving
for knowledge:
This characteristic has been injected in Faustus properly. He has achieved knowledge of all branches. He has already studied various subjects at the universities and impressed scholars with his knowledge. After considering the relative importance of various subjects as logic, metaphysics, medicine, law and theology, yet he feels unfulfilled. He remarks “Yet art thou still but Faustus and a man”. So he wants to practice with black art and with this he would able to know all things. He decided to study the “metaphysics of magician” and “necromantic books as heavenly”. With the help of his knowledge he won’t to acquire power and became “as powerful as love in the sky”. In Dr. Faustus, Marlow has expressed such ideas, of an intellectual curiosity.
Wealth
and Exploration:
The Renaissance man desired wealth and worldly pleasures. After his agreement with the Devil he would have spirits at his command to do whatever he liked. He would like them to bring gold from India, pearls from oceans and delicacies from every part of the word. In this way he would have a lot of power and wealth to enjoy worldly pleasures. Like the Renaissance man Dr. Faustus wanted to travel across the world. So with the help of Mephistopheles he traveled to distant countries and,
“He
views the clouds, the planets and the
start
The
tropes, zones and quarters of the sky
From
east to west his dragons swiftly glide”.
Love
for Beauty:
Besides having love of knowledge, power, worldly pleasure Dr. Faustus has the Renaissance love of beauty, so he wanted to have a wife the fairest maid that is in Germany. As he wanted to see the most beautiful woman in the world, he conjured the vision of Helen. He expressed his feeling of great delight in the following words…
“Was
this the face that launched a thousand
ships?
And
burnt the topless tower of llium.”
Conclusion:
Thus, we can say that Doctor Faustus has many features of the morality play of the middle ages and also we see the element of Renaissance in this play. Marlowe himself was a child of the Renaissance and he invariably projected his personality into the mighty characters of his towering heroes. In the play ‘Doctor Faustus’, it’s hero was ‘incarnation of the genius of renaissance’ with his great yearning for ‘knowledge infinite’.
Reference:
Shuaib6727.blogspot.com
Pratikhasolanki261315.bogspot.com
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