Marlowe's Doctor Faustus as a tragic hero / subject matter of the play is aspiration and frustration / various stages of Faustus's damnation / Faustus's character in Marlowe's play "Doctor Faustus"

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Question: Doctor Faustus as a tragic hero / the subject matter of this tragedy is aspiration and frustration / the various stages of Faustus’s damnation / character of Doctor Faustus


Answer: Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe is a tragic drama of five Acts written in blank verse and prose. The legend first appeared in the ‘Faustbuch’ published in 1587. It was translated into English as The History of the Damnable Life and Deserved Death of Doctor John Faustus. Marlowe in his play followed such an outline of the story. Many critics have interpreted that Doctor Faustus is a genuine tragedy in English literature. In the other plays like Tamburlaine, The Jew of Malta etc, Christopher Marlowe had concentrated on the theme of ambition or aspiration. Naturally, Doctor Faustus as a tragic play is no exception. It is outstanding in its maturity and brilliance in the grand tragic conception as well as its execution. In Act I or in the opening section of the play, we see Doctor Faustus cultivating every branch of knowledge like logic, medicine, law, divinity etc and rejecting every discipline scornfully and embracing necromancy as Divine and Heavenly. Faustus became excited and committed another wrongful act of the mind which took him away from the true path of Renaissance. Like a typical Shakespearean hero, Faustus finally feels repentant and he goes on whining within him that he has sinned but externally he indulges in self-indulgence and he feels that he would not be able to abjure the evil track. At this point, the tragedy of Faustus turns upon his intellectual rejection of Christianity and his emotional attachment to it. His conscience and passion are in unresolved conflict between the Good Angel and the Evil Angel. He faced a tug of war between faith and knowledge. When at midnight Doctor Faustus was alone in his study, the Angels put their counsels into his ears. The Good Angel rebuked Faustus for his perverseness and commanded his turn away from the path of necromancy. However, the Evil Angel had a strong effect on his heart. Faustus could not avoid temptation. He did not retreat but surrendered to temptations and had a fatal agreement by bartering away his soul to the Devil in lieu of a life filled “in all voluptuousness” for only twenty-four years. The Devil Mephistopheles slowly but surely consumed Doctor Faustus. At heart, he was overpowered with a strong desire for exploiting the scope at random. He desired to become “the Emperor of the world”. In a particular scene, we notice how he started executing the bond with his own blood coagulated. Right then, Mephistopheles brought in a piece of live coal to heat the blood. Afterwards, we see that Faustus became repentant as he realised his sin. He was agonized and depressed at heart. Now he invoked Jesus Christ for consolation, because he knew that He had shown mercy to a thief at the last moment. He was ready to commit suicide.

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