 NAME : PUJA DAS

 CLASS : PG, 1ST SEM

 ROLL NO. 123

 PAPER : 101,
RANAISSANCE
STUDIES

 TOPIC : ‘Dr. Faustus’ as a

Morality Play.

 UNIVERSITY : NORTH
BENGAL
UNIVERSITY

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 INTRODUCTION
Before discussing ‘Dr. Faustus’ as a morality play, let us know exactly what a
morality play is? According to Morner- “Morality play is a type of allegory in dramatic
form, popular in the later middle ages and early Renaissance, the hero who represents
all humankind, is surrounded by personifications of virtues, vices, angels, demons,
death- all the forces of good and evil, who battle for possession for the hero’s soul.”1
this definition we can understand the main characteristics of this genre. In the beginning
Liturgical drama was divided into three forms mystery, miracle, and morality, during the
middle ages. It is a type of play, which is allegorical and popular in Europe, especially
during the 15th and 16th centuries. In a morality play a main character is met by
personifications of different types of moral attributes who try to direct him to choose a godly
and pious life over one of evil. The general theme of morality play is spiritual, and mainly
the struggle between good and evil power to dominate over the human soul. The seven
deadly sin is connected in the physical and verbal combat with basic virtues. In these plays
we can notice the presence of low comedy or buffoonery. This type of play basically ends
with the note of moral and ethical values and lessons.

‘Dr. Faustus’ is one of the immaculate and outstanding creations of morality plays
by the most famous of ‘University wits’, Christopher Marlowe. ‘Dr. Faustus’ has truly been
regarded as the connection between the miracle and morality plays, one of the most glorious
tragicomedy of Elizabethan period, because much of the first portion of the play with the
elements of dark comedy but ultimately this play is a tragedy. Dr. Faustus has many dramatic
traditions of medieval period. By the descriptions of various types of medieval plays Phillip
Tilling claims- “the morality play as a kind of medieval religious play arose alongside the
mystery play and was to continue, in modified form throughout the Elizabethan period,
culminating in Marlowe’s Faustus.”2 So, Tilling considers Dr. Faustus as “a morality play
in a modified form.” By studying about ‘Dr. Faustus’ I can see that it is a Renaissance
tragedy which have some characteristics motivated by medieval dramatic tradition and various
important traits of morality play. In this paper I am going to analyse about the features of
morality play which can be seen in ‘Dr. Faustus’.

The general theme of a morality play is the spiritual or theological matter about the
struggle between good and evil power of capturing human soul, from this perspective ‘Dr.
Faustus’ is definitely a morality play. In this play, we can see the protagonist, Faustus
completely abandoned the holy book of ‘Bible’, the Trinity and Christ. He sells his soul to
the devil for fulfilling his ambition of gaining-

“----- a world of profit and delight’

Of power, of honour, of omnipotence,”(1.1.51)

1. Morner. K., Rausch, R,. NTS’s Dictionary of Literary Terms. Lincolnwood : Textbook company, 1991, p. 139
2. Tilling, Philip. The Literature of The Pre-Renaissance England, in: Introducing Literary Studies, ed. By Richard Brandford,
Wheatseaf : Prentice Hall/Harvester, 1991, p. 75

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He also wants to gain knowledge of the art of black magic, and by reading the book of
unholy magic he says-

“These metaphysics of magicians,

And necromantic books are heavenly.”(1.1.48)

After selling his soul to the devil, Faustus will lead a irreligious life full of sensual
and mundane pleasures and gain superhuman power just for twenty four years. Faustus
accepts this disastrous deal for achieving the supreme power and all the earthly pleasure by
disobeying the path of God. But after twenty four when the time of his damnation came and
his soul was being taken to the devil, he cries with intense sorrow and says-

“My God, My God, look not so fierce to me”(5.2.118)

So, through this story, Marlowe wants to give the moral lesson, that extreme greed
will bring disaster to people, and also give the note that the man who wants to gain the
position of supreme god, completely descends to destruction.

The conflict between the good power and evil power was a significant theme in
medieval morality plays. Marlowe uses this trick in ‘Dr. Faustus’ and provides many moral
massages to audience. Marlowe’s mention of Good Angel and Bad Angel in this play is an
important characteristic of morality play. Good Angel is the personification of virtue and the
Bad Angel is the personification of sin and damnation; one of conscience, morality, and
consciousness; another for greed, over ambition and desires. Good Angel actually the massage
of God and also stands for Faustus’s conscience; Bad Angel is the agent of Lucifer, who
provokes Faustus to continue his studies of back art. Faustus chooses the evil mind and
studies magic in order to achieve supremacy, extreme power and dignity. Faustus is the man
of arrogance and wants to taste the bulging sense of his own ability and knowledge. For, his
self importance and greed for power he becomes ready to sell his soul to the devil, which is
the cause of his destruction.

The most important aim of morality play is theological. It is dramatised direction

and massage of Christian religious belief. The main massage of Dr. Faustus is that, the man
who leaves the path of God and virtue is indulged into the ultimate damnation and
destruction. It can be found in the ending lines of the play-

“Whose deepness doth entice such forward wits,

To practice more than heavenly power permits” (5.2.128)

An aspect of Christian theology is that free will and free choice. Faustus has freedom to
choose one between the path of God and Devil. He chooses devil and says that his soul is
his own. After signing the agreement with the Devil he says- ‘Conssumatum est” which
means ‘this is finished’, according to the Gospel of St. John these were the last words of
Christ on earth. With much excellence Marlowe uses these irreligious words which is said by
Faustus. A life without bad, sin and with blessing of the God is ended, and the door of
heaven is closed for him now. Faustus willingly goes against to the God’s will. Even after
the warning of Mephistopheles he did not deviate from his disastrous wish. Mephistopheles
then calls some devils, who offers crowns, rich garments, also offers him sexual satisfaction
in order to distract his mind from religious and God’s route.

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 Morality play is truly a fusion of medieval allegory. Marlowe use the typical style
of allegory in this play. Many of the characters in this play are personified allegorical
figures. For example, Good and Bad angels are presented as allegorical figures. One clearly
highlights the power of good and try to make Faustus to choose the way of the God and the
other one is the force of Devil which encourages him to choose the path of evil.. But we
can see that these two allegorical characters appear in this for a short period of time, it
represents that they are not an important character from other world but allegorical and
personified figures of Faustus’s inner mind and thoughts.

The mentioning of seven deadly sins is also in a grand view in this play which to
vitalise Faustus’s despairing soul. The seven deadly sins such as- pride, envy, greed, wrath,
gluttony, lust, sloth are connected in physical and verbal battle in this play. Marlowe uses
these in this play to give us moral lessons, and this another characteristic of morality play.

Another important trait of a morality play is the presence of the comic elements.
“By the 16th century some of the morality plays had admitted so much realistic and
farcical material and they began to establish a tradition of English comedy” 3 . So in
‘Dr. Faustus’, Marlowe uses some comic scenes. These are not in the entire part of the play,
but are shown for entertaining the people and for some comic relief. We can see the
presence of comic scenes in this play, like- the pranks on the Pope, the cheating of the
greedy horse dealer and planting of a pair of horns on the head of the knight and many
more. Comic scenes foreshadows the underlying truth about the nature of the main character
in this play. These shows that Faustus has fallen to such a low level that he becomes a
foully fun-loving magician. The function of comic scenes in this play to represent the idea
that serious, religious, moral matters can be take in something differently.

The tradition of using Chorus in the beginning of the play can also be seen here.
Chorus introducing the story of whole drama in front of the audiences and to the readers
before the beginning of the play. Chorus is also used here at the end of the play to deliver
the note of morality.

Another important trait of morality play is it’s hero, he is the only main central
figure of the play. All the incidents, actions in ‘Dr. Faustus’ centre round only one character,
who is Faustus. The another characters of the play are constructed for portraying the
psychological problems of the hero from different point of view. Repentance of the hero is a
very important trait of the morality play. The moment when it is shown that Faustus is very
much sorry for his deeds, and wants mercy from the god is an significant part of the play.

Another characteristic is the looseness of construction of the plot. The in-depth study
of the play ‘Dr. Faustus’ reveals that it does not have conventional regular plot specially in
the middle part of the play. It is only stringing together of just fourteen original important
scenes. In this matter this play is very much linked with the old morality drama.

3. Harmor, W., Holman, A Handbook of Literature, 9th ed 2003, 1st ed, 1936

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 Dissimilarities of a Morality Play And ‘Dr. Faustus’
Though we can see many traits of morality play in ‘Dr. Faustus’, but there are
the presence of some other characteristics which differentiate it from a typical morality play.
In a morality play characters are abstractions, not concrete, but in ‘Dr. Faustus’, Faustus is
not a abstract character he is a lively human being of flesh and blood with high ambition
and desires. In this play we can see internal conflict in the mind of Dr. Faustus. This internal
conflict is shown between the good mind which is the path of God and the evil mind which
is the encouragement of devil. This inner conflict of the main character is not the trait of
morality play but it is the element of tragedy, but finally Faustus chooses his devil mind
leave the path of God, which causes his ultimate destruction.

In a morality play, we can see, that good is always victorious over evil, truth
over lie, virtue over vice, virtue is always rewarded. But in this play we can see that evil
power has spread his fierce hand over the good power and finishes it. In a morality play a
hero is finally forgiven by the God after repentance, but in this play we can see that Faustus
did not get any forgiveness, he is indulged into ultimate ruin. Devil succeeds in taking his
soul. This moral is negative which is not the part of a morality play.

Dr. Faustus is considered more as tragic hero than as a hero of morality play. He
is portrayed as a character who has brought his own downfall for his own fault. His fall is
not the cause of his misfortune but he is captured by Mephistopheles, the agent of Lucifer,
the devil because of his own fault. Such type of qualities of a hero cannot be seen in a
hero of morality play. It is more a characteristic of a tragedy.

CONCLUSION
Through the above discussion, we can say one thing that this play cannot be
considered totally as a morality play, though it has many elements of morality play. It is
more a heroic tragedy before Shakespeare with Elizabethan spirit in it. We can call it the
finishing of the morality play and the beginning of the tragedy created by Shakespeare.
Marlowe uses many tricks of morality play in it, but it’s painful emotional conflict, its
authentic poetry and the higher ambition of the main character for gaining all the knowledge
and power of the world, and the ultimate downfall and destruction makes his Faustus more a
tragic hero than a mere morality play hero. It can be considered as a morality play from
some point of view, but more specifically we can explain it in this quote that Dr. Faustus is-
“Both the consummation of the English morality tradition and tragedy”4.

----END-----

4. Samroo. A. R . Dr. Faustus as a Morality Play. 3rd dec, 2010

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 WORK CITED

1. www.m.grin.com
2. www.scribd.com
3. www.englishstudyhub.com
4. www.englishliterature24.com
5. www.pratikshasolanki261315.blogspot.com
6. www.enotes.com
7. www.britannica.com
8. Dr. Faustus by Dr. S. Sen

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