Dr' Faustus

1
Dr. Faustus
2
Background

• Type of work Elizabethan tragedy
• First reproduced 1594 (written 1588)
• Setting of play Wittenberg University in
  Germany and various location sin Europe
• Time of Play over a 24 hour period (last 62
  lines depict a one hour period)

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Main themes

• Impact of pride
• Mercy and despair
• Effects of flawed judgment
• Mans free will
• Hell as a mental and moral state
• Attempts to conquer time
• Danger of black magic

4
Symbols

• Good/Evil Angels
• Congealed blood
• Seven deadly sins
• Helen of Troy
• Alexander the Great

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Style and Structure

• Interior Monologue- shows inside the characters
  mind and Faustuss exercise of free will
• Similes, Metaphors, Irony, Classical allusions
• 14 scenes ( 2,4,6-11 are comic)

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14 scenes / 5 Act structure

• Your text has been divided into a 5 act
  structure, but the original was 14 scenes
• It is very helpful to note which scenes are
  classified as comic- they are harder!
• The following slide has the pages that correlate
  with the original organization of 14 scenes

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Original 14 scenes according to your page s

• Scene 1 24-29
• 2 30-31
• 3 31-35
• 4 36-38
• 5 38-44
• 644-54
• 754-65
• 8 65-66

• 9 66-69
• 10 70-79
• 11 80-84
• 12 84-86
• 13 84-90
• 14 90-102

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A vs. B

• Text itself has survived in two forms referred to
  as A text and B text
• Alternating serious and comic scenes
• Comic scenes serve to undercut overreaching
  attitudes and ambitious presumption of Faustus
• Did Marlowe write comic scenes at all?

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A vs. B cont

• A- resembles a report from memory by some actors
  in original acting company
• B- resembles normal length of Elizabethan play
• Any text now used is usually a combination of the
  2
• So corrupt impossible to give all authorship to
  Marlowe
• Your version- mostly B

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Aristotelian characteristics

• A man like us often of high esteem
• Hamartia (tragic flaw)
• Evidence of suffering
• Evidence of enlightenment
• Opportunities for provoking catharsis in the
  reader

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The Archetypal Faustus

• Historical Faust
• Legend is long and varied
• Goethes Faustus
• Thomas Mann- remember him?!
• The Devil and Tom Walker
• Opera
• Dracula, Damn Yankees, The Little Mermaid

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Early English Drama

• Interest shifted from heaven to humanism
• Drama loosened ties with church
• Troupes would synthesize best of old and new
• Struggle with the same old ghost of conscience
  through the traditional devices of medieval and
  classical drama