Elizabethan & Jacobean  Talim Enam 

Doctor Faustus as a Morality Play

“The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus” is a play by Christopher Marlowe based on
the “Faust story”, in which a man sells his soul to the devil in exchange of power and
knowledge. The play starts, like classic tragedy, with the protagonist at the zenith of his
achievement and ends with his fall into misery, death and damnation from which we get a
solemn moral. Now we are going discuss the play as a morality play.
To discuss Doctor Faustus as a morality play, we are to, at first, know what the morality
play is. Actually it an allegorical drama in which the characters personify moral qualities (such
as charity or vice) or abstraction (such as death and youth) and in which moral lessons are
taught. Morality plays are essentially dramatized Sermons (ধর্মোপদেশ), usually based on a
subject of repentance; typically, an Everyman figure will begin in innocence, and then will be
led into temptation by others, to be finally redeemed. In Doctor Faustus, Marlowe uses the
structure of morality plays intensively most notably in Faustus’s character.
The conflict between Good and Evil is a recurring theme in the medieval morality plays.
From this point of view, Marlowe’s play is the dramatized version of the medieval morality
play, Everyman. Doctor Faustus becomes a morality play in which heaven struggles for the
soul of renaissance Everyman namely Faustus.
In the play, the Good Angel and the Bad Angel derived from the medieval morality
plays like “The Castle of Perseverance”. They are, sometimes, regarded as the externalization
of the thoughts of Faustus. The Angels are independent absolutes, one wholly good and one
wholly evil. They appear in the play like allegorical figures of a morality play. They reflect the
possibility of both damnation (ধ্বংশ) and redemption (পরিত্রাণ).

The presence of seven deadly Sins (Pride র্দপ, Covetousness লোলুপতা, Wrath রোষ,
Envy ঈর্ষা, Gluttony অতিভোজন, Sloth আলস্য, Lechery লাম্পট্য) in Doctor Faustus is
another feature of the tradition of morality play. In the play to divert Faustus’s attention from
Christ, Lucifer comes with his attendant devils and then, presents the pageant (প্রদর্শন) of
the Seven Deadly Sins as diversion (চিত্তবিক্ষেপ).
In morality play, the hero often is tempted by evil force. In the play Faustus, the hero is
misguided by his sky-kissing ambition and extreme desire of worldly power. As he says:
“All things that move between the quiet poles
Shall be at my command:”

He also wants to conquer the time, apace and tries to unfold the secret of Heavens; prospect to
gain “a world of profit, and delight, of power, of honour”. To accomplish his expectation he
signs a deal with Lucifer that will serve him for twenty for years as his personal servant and at
the end he will give his soul to Lucifer as payment and spend rest of the time as one damned
to Hell.
Faustus’ attempt to repent to God and Jesus is also a device taken from medieval morality play.
Prepared by: Talim Enamur Rahman, BA (Hons.), MA, in English, IU, Kushtia
  For many more: www.enamsnote.blogspot.com , Cell: 01722 33 59 69, 01919 87 8703 [Page 1 of 2]
 
  Elizabethan & Jacobean  Talim Enam 
Faustus, as we see, appeals to Hell not to receive him; he prays to Lucifer not to take him away
and he offers to burn his magic books which once he considered heavenly. Faustus, to save his
soul, wants the mercy of god and one drop even half of the of Christ’s blood. As he says:
See, where Christ's blood streams in the firmament!
One drop of blood will save me: O my Christ!--
Rend not my heart for naming of my Christ;
“One drop would save my soul, half a drop: oh, my Christ!”
But the moments when he names the God and Christ, the Devil begins to rend his heart. As he
cries:
“Ah, rend not my heart for names of my Christ!”
At that moment he wants to be little drop of water which could mingle with the ocean and get
lost forever. As Faustus says:
“O soul, be chang'd into small water-drops,
And fall into the ocean, ne'er be found!”
But all of his appeals are useless; Mephistopheles appears and takes away the soul of Faustus.
Like medieval morality play, we find in Doctor Faustus a moral teaching that, human
should not try to cross the humanly limitations and should not be so much ambitious which
prompts his down fall. We are informed of its moral at the very beginning of the play by
Chorus.
“... of a self-conceit,
His waxen wings did mount above his reach,
And, melting, heavens conspir'd his overthrow;”

Last of all we can say that, the basic beliefs of Christianity are found in every line of
Doctor Faustus. Marlowe has also added medieval morality and renaissance temper in play.
So it has been an icon of the renaissance morality play.
 
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Prepared by: Talim Enamur Rahman, BA (Hons.), MA, in English, IU, Kushtia
  For many more: www.enamsnote.blogspot.com , Cell: 01722 33 59 69, 01919 87 8703 [Page 2 of 2]