"neither morality play nor unambivalent celebration of Renaissance humanism... dramatises the conflict between two irreconcilable systems of values"
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Mebane
"Promethean self-assertion could degenerate into debasing forms of self-aggrandisement"
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Davis
"struggle between the two sides of Doctor Faustus, the controlled intellectual side giving way... to the indulgent sensual"
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Davis
"he overreaches himself, his ambitions for rich reward and power driving him into wild, dangerous and ultimately tragic actions"
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Levin
"his quest for knowledge leads him to taste the fruit of the tree that shaded Adam and Eve, to savour the distinction between good and evil"
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Levin
"Marlowe's protagonists tend to isolate themselves yet they also tend... to ally themselves with some deuteragonist"
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Brooke
"Marlowe's attention is to a greater matter; to a moral, and not merely individual tragedy"
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Deliberate juxtaposition of heaven/hell. Marlowe employs this to create controversy as ‘hell’ was a topic associated with taboo.
“Necromantic books are heavenly.”
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Longs to challenge boundaries of humanity. Similar to Victor’s monster – Faustus wants to re-create self as ‘unhuman’ being. Horror genre before its time.
“Yet art thou still but Faustus and a man.”
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Antithesis, gothic!
Lucifer described as “the Prince of Hell.”
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Indulging Id – Freud! Faustus has weak superego.
Wants to live “In all voluptuousness.”
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Evil side of human nature has taken over and engulfed him – doppelganger! Marlowe suggests we all have the potential to succumb to evil.
“My heart’s so hard’ned I cannot repent.”
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Tries to repent. Climatic, intense. Does it out of fear and not through loyalty to Christianity. Classed as anti-hero? Has great potential but wastes it.
“Christ, my Saviour, seek to save distressed Faustus’ soul.”
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Readers feel this is poetic justice. Marlowe ends it this way to provide Faustus with an appropriate comeuppance. Shows you cannot abandon God.
“Now I die eternally"
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Emphasises Faustus's sexual desire for Helen; projects his own idea of female perfection onto her; makes Helen accountable for the final act which damns Faustus - like Eve; desires to be in a sexual relationship with the Devil.
“Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss. Her lips **** forth my soul: see where it flies. Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again";
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Adds irony to the thought that Helen's lips can make him immortal due to the chilling imagery that her lips could literally **** him forth.
WW Gregg "Faustus's sexual relationship with a devil in Helen's shape in which leads him to damnation".
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Faustus as a renaissance man
"To search all corners of the new found world"
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Faustus's quest for knowledge has been destructive; like the Tree of Knowledge in the story of Eden he is lost to temptation; a warning against going beyond mankind's natural limits; Epilogue reinforces the moral of the play.
"Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight"
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Humans inevitably die due to their inevitable sin; fails to consider repentance and mercy which as a part of Christian theology teaches that if we ask for forgiveness we shall live eternally.
"The reward of sin is death"
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Faustus clearly enjoys his powers despite the sense of foreboding that accompanies his use of them as is shown in the delight he takes in conjuring up Helen.
"Is this the face that launched a thousand ships?"
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Evil side of his nature has overtaken his entire soul. Marlowe suggest that we all have the potential to be evil.
“My heart’s so hard’ned I cannot repent.”
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In a climatic and intense final scene, Faustus attempts to seek forgiveness though out of desperation and not true loyalty to Christianity. Could make him an anti-hero as he has great potential but wastes it.
“Christ, my Saviour, seek to save distressed Faustus’ soul.”
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William Hazlitt, 1820
“This character may be considered as a personification of the pride of will and eagerness of curiosity, sublimed beyond the reach of fear and remorse”
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W.W.Gregg 1946
“Faustus damns himself when he commits the sin of demonaiality with the succuba that takes the form of Helen”
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J.C Maxwell 1947
he argues “pride and curiosity damn Faustus” … “Curiosity is a theme which links the intellectual and sensual aspects of Faustus’s sin”
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Helen Gardner, 1948
argues that “pride and its two faces – presumption and despair – damn Faustus”
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Other cards in this set
Card 2
Front
"Promethean self-assertion could degenerate into debasing forms of self-aggrandisement"
Back
Mebane
Card 3
Front
"struggle between the two sides of Doctor Faustus, the controlled intellectual side giving way... to the indulgent sensual"
Back
Card 4
Front
"he overreaches himself, his ambitions for rich reward and power driving him into wild, dangerous and ultimately tragic actions"
Back
Card 5
Front
"his quest for knowledge leads him to taste the fruit of the tree that shaded Adam and Eve, to savour the distinction between good and evil"
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