DOCTOR FAUSTUS AS A TRAGEDY OF AN OVERREACHER

(By; ARSLAN MALIK,DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH,ISLAMABAD MODEL POST GRADUATE COLLEGE H-8,ISLAMABAD.)

English literature owes a great debt to Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) for identifying a certain type of classical tragic hero in the works

of Sophocles and making him intelligible in English cultural terms. Harry Levin called this type “the over-reacher” after rhetorician

George Puttenham’s attempt to find a close English synonym for the Greek word ‘hyperbole’ (in The Arte of English Poesie, 1589).

Marlowe’s characters have an exaggerated appetite for achievement, whether it’s knowledge as power (Doctor Faustus), world conquest

(Tamburlaine), or revenge and the acquisition of riches (Barabus). Marlowe’s heroes were popular then, and remain fascinating now, as

portraits of English imperial ambitions dressed in the appearances of a German scholar, an Asian warlord, and a wealthy Maltese Jew.

Their exotic appearances and settings gave Marlowe an opportunity to dazzle us with some of the most elaborate and extended set speeches

in English drama.

Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. He was the foremost Elizabethan tragedian of his

day. He greatly influenced William Shakespeare, who was born in the same year as Marlowe and who rose to become the pre-

eminent Elizabethan playwright after Marlowe's mysterious early death. Marlowe’s plays are known for the use of blank verse

and their overreaching protagonists. One of the greatest achievements of Marlowe was that he broke away from the medieval

conception of tragedy. In medieval dramas, tragedy was a thing of the prince’s only dealing with the rise and fall of kings or

royal personali.ties. But it was left to Marlowe to evolve and create the real tragic hero. Almost all the heroes of Marlowe’s

great tragedies Tamburlaine, Doctor Faustus or The Jew of Malta—are of humble parentage, but they are endowed with great

heroic qualities. His tragedy is in fact the tragedy of one man—the rise, fall and death of the tragic hero. His heroes are titanic

characters afire with some indomitable passion or inordinate ambition. He was also inspired by the Machiavellian ideals of

human conduct and desires, the doctrine of complete freedom to gain one’s end by any means, fair or foul. The entire interest in

a Marlovian tragedy centres round the personality of the hero who is in a certain way of the projection of Marlowe, the

dramatist who was generally saturated with the spirit of Renaissance with its great faith in individual, with its sky kissing

ambition to gain limitless knowledge and power with its revolt against tyrannies.

The old legend that a man could obtain supernatural power by selling his soul to devil found its climax in the sixteenth century in

the person of Doctor Faustus who really lived in the first half of that century. This man was a wandering scholar who became notorious as a

necromancer, braggart, and super-quack, who, abandoning the disinterested pursuit of knowledge in favour of its worldly exploitation, and

attaining some temporary success, ultimately mate disaster. After his death, a book called Faustbuch (or, Faust-book) appeared in German

in 1587. This book was supposed to contain the experiences and adventures of Doctor Faustus. It was translated into English under the title:

The History of the Damnable Life and Deserved Death of Doctor John Faustus1. Marlowe must have taken the material for the writing of his

play from this English translation. He has the distinction of being probably the first in any country to see the dramatic possibilities of this

striking story. The story was one which subsequently led to the publication of a long series of Faustus plays in Germany, until Goethe gave

us its first perfect serious expression in his Faust. Goethe’s drama was not based on Marlowe’s play: the two works have little in common,

but both have their source in the Faust-buch. Marlowe’s play follows the Faust-book closely only in general theme and in the low comedy

scenes. The comedy scenes were probably written by Dekker: at any rate, these scenes represent Dekker’s humour at its worst and at its

1
The translation, it is believed by some critics, appeared in 1592. If Marlowe derived his
material from his English translation, his play Doctor Faustus could not have been written
earlier than 1592.
best. Marlowe raises the character of Doctor Faustus to a higher level than is touched by this character in the original, and the serious

scenes of the play seem to some extent to be a sublimation of the vulgar sensationalism of the original. The serious and the comic scenes

together form a curiously incongruous alternation. In fact, we have here the presence of the sublime and grotesque side by side. Doctor

Faustus marks the summit of Marlowe’s achievement.

According to Aristotle, ‘Tragedy’ is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language

embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of

narrative; through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation-catharsis of these and similar emotions. According to Aristotle’s Poetics,

tragedy involves a protagonist of high estate who falls from prosperity to misery through a series of reversals and discoveries as a result of

a tragic flaw, generally an error caused by human frailty. In tragedy, because of the act of guilt, the hero has to suffer a lot. Specially, we

can say, his ‘error of judgment’ is responsible for his suffering. This ‘error of judgment’ is called ‘hamartia’. And because of this

‘Hamartia’, tragic hero makes a mistake in his life and he has to pay a great cost for this mistake. In other words, we can also say that this

mistake leads him to this tragic end. With all concepts like, ‘Tragic Flaw’ and ‘Hamartia’, there is a concept like, ‘hubris’ or ‘overweening

pride’ also connected with tragic hero. In Literature, if we see some examples like, King Oedipus fails to follow the path of morality. He had

to suffer because of his ‘hasty judgment or temper’. This hasty judgment became ‘error of judgment’ for him. And this ‘error of judgment’

led him to devastation. In case of Doctor Faustus, his lust for knowledge is responsible for his ruin. He chose a path of evil for fulfilling his

desires. He has sold his soul for attaining his desires or getting all kinds of knowledge. Thus, in such case, only one thing is responsible and

that is ‘error of judgment’ or ‘Hamartia’ for their declination.

The overreacher is a literary type which dates back to mythology. This special kind of rebel is a man who wants to go overcome

the limits imposed to Mankind by God or Nature. He defies the divinity or natural laws led by a great ambition. He is eventually punished

with death. Prometheus, the Titan who defied Zeus and stole the fire from the Olympus to give it back to human beings, was the first

overreacher. Famous overreachers in literature are Dante's Ulysses, Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Mary Shelley's Victor Frankenstein or R. L.

Stevenson's Doctor Jekyll. Doctor Faustus can, in fact, be considered an overreacher. In Doctor Faustus, the hero is a true Renaissance

individual and yearns for limitless knowledge, power, sensual pleasures of life, defying the spirit of atheism and above all the conventional

religious doctrines and Christian theology.

Doctor Faustus, a unique creation of Christopher Marlowe, conveys a deep conception of tragedy. In awe inspiring and terror,

the play fulfils one of the true functions of tragedy. It thrills us because there is something of the ‘desire of the moth for the star’ of

Faustus’s desire to conquer human limitation, in all of us, and we are fascinated by the audacity with which he persists in his desperate

course. Doctor Faustus deals with the heroic struggle of a ‘great souled’ man doomed to inevitable defeat. The entire interest in a

Marlovian tragedy centres round the personality of the hero, and the pleasure comes from watching the greatness and fall of a superhuman

personality. The chorus or, the speaker of the Prologue tells that, Doctor Faustus is not a play about ancient wars, or love in high places, or

great deeds. It presents the career of a scholar, a man of humble origin who has acquired great learning. His arrogance will cause him to

overreach and ruin himself. Doctor Faustus had been born of base stock in Rhodes, Germany. He belonged to a low family. In his maturity,

while living with some relatives in Wittenberg, he studied theology and was called a doctor. An ordinary German scholar, in the beginning,

Faustus’s intellectual endowment raises him to the status of a great hero. Faustus is not satisfied with his vast knowledge in

various subjects of the university, for still he is an ordinary man. He has the genuine passion for knowledge infinite. Faustus's hubris, as the

play tells us, is knowledge: Faustus is damned for seeking forbidden knowledge – but what kind of knowledge and in what sense forbidden?

The Prologue describes him as a transgressor, an Icarus, flying sunward:

“Till swoln with cunning of a self-conceit,

 His waxen wings did mount above his reach,

And melting, heavens conspir’d his overthrow.

For falling to a devilish exercise,

And glutted now with learning's golden gifts,

He surfeits upon cursed necromancy;

Nothing so sweet as magic is to him…”

The first part of the quotation is focused on the story of Icarus. According to the Greek myth, Daedalus made wings for himself and his son

Icarus to fly from the tower on the isle of Crete, where they were imprisoned by the king Minos. But Icarus flew so close to the sun that the

wax holding the feathers of the wings melted, and he fell into the sea and drowned. The myth had a well established moral – the perils of any

aspiration that transgresses the boundaries that gods have established. Harry Levin sees Icarus as the emblem of Faustus's tragic pride.

According to him, Marlowe uses Icarus in order to show what happens to a man seeking illumination and finding more heat than light -

Faustus's 'self-conceit' spurs him to 'mount above his reach' and the result is that heavens 'conspired his overthrow'.

At the beginning of the play, it is clear that Faustus could be a master of many professions if he so desired to in life. One by one

he examines the branches of higher learning as they were organised in the universities of his day: Philosophy, Medicine, Law and Theology.

One by one the feats of secular learning are rejected because their ends do not satisfy his demand. But his demand has clearly to be

understood. He does not pursue knowledge for the sake of truth, but for the sake of power, super-human power, the power over life and

death, that are beyond the limits of what a normal man can achieve. His fundamental grievance is: “Yet art thou still but Faustus, and a

man”. Dissatisfied with his human status, he rebels against human limitations. He would like to have the power to make men live eternally,

and the power to bring back to life. He rejects divine learning also, because it is based on recognition of man’s mortality and fallibility.

Faustus in a long soliloquy discusses these high ambitions and dreams he has— of obtaining riches, becoming infinitely knowledgeable and

wise, and to even reshape the entire continent of Europe. Faustus’s opening soliloquy also represents his action as sinful because, after he

has dismissed all studies but necromancy, the Good Angel tells him to put aside the damned book of magic, while the Evil Angel urges him

to go forward in that famous art. He takes an Aristotle-like approach to reach his conclusion. Through the use of reason he decides that

magic will bring him the end he finds most desirable, and that end is total power:

“Of power, of honour, of omnipotence

Is promis’d to the studios aritizan!

All things that move between the quiet poles

Shall be at my command…

A sound magician is a mighty God:

Here, Faustus, tire thy brains to gain a deity.”

(Act I. Scene I. line-52-60)

Marlowe sees the whole case not only as Good or Evil would see it but as it would be seen by a man of flesh and blood, the man who takes

the risk and is prepared to face the consequences. The meaning of the play is not only that Faustus’s act was sinful and foolish. The meaning

is in all that Faustus says, does, and becomes. The meaning is the total yield of the situation into which Faustus walks of his own free will,

in accordance with the mysterious, tragic urge of his times. Faustus’s first move after deciding upon necromancy as the field of his research

is one of arrogant and impatient lust for power. Marlowe sets his hero’s mind completely free to range forbidden realms. Faustus’s words

here give a marvellous expression to the external elements of the Renaissance. “How am I glutted with conceit of this!” cries Faustus, as he
gloats over the power which expects to acquire through magic. It is true that he speaks in a random manner here, and his desires grow

fantastic and vainglorious. But his absurd egotism is mixed with intellectual and humanitarian impulses. He would resolve all ambiguities,

read strange philosophy, rid his country of the foreign domination and fortify it with a wall of brass, clothe the school boys in silk. When

Valdes warns him that he must be resolute, Faustus’s courage is tested and he responds like a hero:

“Valdes, as resolute am I in this

As thou to live:”

(Act I. Scene I. lines-132-133)

He is prepared, at the end of Act I, Scene I, to take the ultimate risk:

“This night I’ll conjure, though I die therefore.”

After Faustus becomes skilled in the dark arts, he summons the Devil’s own messenger Mephistophilis. He denounces God, blasphemes the

Trinity and Christian doctrines, and sells his soul to the Devil to gain superhuman power and to live a life of voluptuousness for twenty four

years. The death is cast in his very first monologue Faustus bid Divinity adieu. He turns a deaf ear to the earnest appeal of the Good Angel

to lay that book aside, and is carried away by the allurements of the Evil Angel who tells him to be “on earth as Jove in the sky.” It is

Faustus who utters such blasphemous words:

“Had I as many souls as there be stars,

I’d give them all for Mephistophilis.

By him I’ll be great emperor of the world.”

(Act I. Scene III. Lines-102-104)

Throughout the play there is clear message made that hell is a place anywhere that is devoid of God's presence. It could even be argued that

the hell discussed in the story is more of a state of being rather than a physical location. Therefore, this 'hell' is state that Faustus is in

throughout the play, but he's completely blind to it. As a character we see his tragic fall from grace: as he become more enraptured in the

dark arts, his life consists of becoming a shadow of his former self. This is shown in how a once brilliant scholar spends his days playing

tricks on others and conjuring illusions to please royalty, rather than reaching the high ideals and goals that he set out to achieve at the

beginning of the play. It appears that once he has all the power at his fingertips, he really has no idea what to do with it. This power ends up

corrupting what was once a greatly wise man. His self-pride also gets the best of him as he uses his gifts in a purely vain manner: to win the

respect and prestige from the royal and powerful. His abilities can only conjure 'illusions', as the reader witnesses him present a perfect

replica of Alexander the Great for the Emperor, but, it's merely an illusion. None of his magic is based on any form of reality or the very

real goals he desired to achieve. This blindness and detachment from reality is further shown when he asks his servant, Mephistophilis, to

change his appearance into a more attractive form. Faustus realises Mephistophilis is a demon, but some element of him is afraid of the true

devilish nature of the magic that he possesses. This is also illustrated in how Faustus claims that hell is not real place, but merely just a

myth and a wives tale:

"Think'st thou that Faustus is so fond to imagine

That after this life there is any pain?

Tush! these are trifles and mere old wives' tales."

(Act I. Scene II. line-129-131)

Mephistophilis, a devil himself, who had once even tasted the greatness of heaven, warns Faustus against selling his soul and making the

pact, claiming that hell is very real place and more terrible than he can ever imagine. However, Faustus's blindness to the truth, and

vainness in himself, is what brings about his eventual demise as a character. Faustus prides himself in his great learning and scholarship.

He is dominated by ambition to acquire knowledge infinite and through it to gain superhuman power and satisfy his sensuous and mundane

pleasures of life. His weakness is not a mechanical outcome of his pact, with the Devil. The seeds of decay are in his character from the

first, half hidden in the Marlovian glamour cast about him, though he has intense desire to know the truth and he comes to make his rash

and fatal bargain. Furthermore, in the true Aristotelian sense, he is blind to the actual implications of his action. This is the tragedy. His

sensual pleasures override all other passions and blind him to the dreadful truth. The vision of Helen conceals the vision of Absolute Truth

from the eyes of Faustus. Faustus is conscious of the weakness but he has no control over his overriding desires. ‘The vision of Helen’

allures him and her unrealisable beauty penetrates his spirits to the depths:

“Was this the face that launch’d a thousand ships,

And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?

Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss”

(Act V. Scene I. line- 91-93)

Faustus, we realize, is doomed, far from being able to reach immortality. Faustus's sole purpose in summoning the spirit of Helen was to

satisfy his adolescent desires. Faustus is so infatuated with the physical beauty of Helen that he does not realize he will lose any chance at

repenting if he kisses her because she is a devil. For this leads to Faustus's corruption as a character and to him becoming delusional to the

reality of hell and the nature of the magic he possess. It can be argued that Faustus believes that hell is not 'real' or that he can repent and

change his damned fate at any time he wishes. However, it is not until Faustus's very last day of existence that he comes to the realization of

the truth of his actions, and tries to plead to God to give him a far less dammed fate in hell. At this point in time it is far too late for Faustus

to be saved, and despite his effort of repentance at his very last moments, he is damned to go to hell for eternity - as we witness the final

scene of Faustus's tragic demise as he is taken off into hell by Lucifer and his demons.

Doctor Faustus is a man who wants to go overcome the limits imposed to Mankind by God. He reaches levels of perception never

gained by less venturesome individuals. He must see things with his own eyes. He wants what all men, good and bad have wanted. He wants

to conquer time, space and ignorance. Above all, he wants knowledge: What is hell? Where is it? Who made the world? He explores this

world and also the regions above the world; he tries to understand the secrets of the heavens. He digs into the past, making blind Homer

sings to him, and Amphion play the harp for him. What Marlowe dramatizes is not only the terror of the black art as the old legend told

about it, but the wonder of it, the wonder of the man who dared to use black art and the wonder of the mysteries it reveals. But the play

also points out to the peculiar dilemma of modern times. On the one hand is human limitation, and to press over further into the mysteries of

a universe which appears steadily to yield more and more of its secrets to his enquiring mind. To rest content with his limitations would

mean that he refuses to make the fullest use of his own God-given powers; yet to explore the mysteries of the universe is somehow evil and

may bring not only the present suffering but the horrors of eternity.

Doctor Faustus thus presents the figure of an ‘Overreacher’. The main cause of the tragedy of Doctor Faustus is ‘aspiring pride

and insolence’ for which Lucifer of Milton also fell. Pride and presumption obscure the clear vision and lead a man to take things for

granted. So his inordinate ambition and proud presumption leads him to commit the sin of practicing more than what heaven permits. And

that is why Faustus abjures God and the Trinity, denounces Christian theology and ultimately sells his soul to the Devil. The irony of this
tragic drama is slowly revealed when we find how all his sky-high expectations are belied during his career as a renowned magician. Had

he contained his ambition in permissible confines, he would have become a great person of his time with his bountiful knowledge. But, this

grim irony reaches its climax in the last scene when we find this proud and presumptuous scholar of Wittenberg who once dreamed of

becoming ‘Jove’ on this earth, who deliberately denounced God and the Trinity appealing like a pampered child:

“That Faustus may repent and save his soul!”

We may conclude with the very relevant observations of Helen Gardner2: “The great reversal from the first scene of Doctor

Faustus to the last scene can be defined in different ways: from presumption to despair; from doubt of the existence of hell to the belief in

the reality of nothing else;…from aspiration to deity and omnipotence to longing for extinction. At the beginning, Faustus wishes to rise

above his humanity, at the close he would sink below it, be transformed into the beast or ‘into little water drops.’ At the beginning he

attempts usurpation on God, at the close he is an usurper upon the Devil”. As a Marlovian hero Doctor Faustus desires for ‘absolute in the

real world’. In this sense, Doctor Faustus is an ‘overreacher’ similar to Macbeth who tries to wear a ‘giant’s robe’ which is not his own. As

an embodiment of Renaissance, Doctor Faustus longs for ‘infinite knowledge’ and with his inordinate ambition, he soars beyond the petty

possibilities of humanity, leagues himself with super human powers and rides through space in fiery chariot exploring the secrets of the

universe.

****

2
Helen Gardner, The Damnation of Faustus. In: Twentieth Century Interpretations of Doctor
Faustus, A Collection of Critical Essays