Name: Mehak Shahab

R. No: 02
Program: Masters
Semester: 3rd
Department : English
Subject: English Drama
Course instructor: Miss Malghalara

DR FAUSTUS AS A RELIGIOUS PLAY.

• Dr Faustus as a religious play

In his tragedy ‘Doctor Faustus’ Christopher Marlowe

extensively explores the religious tensions and constraints
within society, often satirising and mocking the institutions
of established religion — particularly the Catholic church —
as he examines the dual forces of damnation and
redemption. Marlowe’s titular character of Faustus
challenges order and divine forces at every turn, and religion,
which was a theme highly topical and sometimes
controversial in post-Reformation Protestant England with its
hatred of Catholicism and emphasis on the divinely
appointed hierarchy The Great Chain of Being, holds a key
role in the play.
In ‘Doctor Faustus’, Marlowe explores religious tensions. The
Great Chain of Being — the divinely appointed hierarchy that
formed a defining part of sixteenth century religious thinking
— is never mentioned by name in the play, but Faustus’s
challenge to it is clear when in the first scene he proclaims
his high aspirations and revels in his dreams of omnipotence,
repeatedly stating ‘I’ll have them.’
As Faustus continues to turn away from religion and divine
order, his fatal hubris grows, along with his belief that he has
the ability to abrogate divine law. ‘Come, I think Hell’s a
fable,’ he states in scene five, following Mephistopheles’s
description of the torment of eternal damnation. This
flippant, wilful ignorance sets Faustus against religion; his
challenge to established views of society and ordered faith
have now become an integral part of his vivid character.
Faustus could be seen as a humanist ‘Renaissance Man,’
using reason and human knowledge to reject the existence of
hell and seek intelligence. Faustus’s fluctuation between
total denial of divine force and wondering about religious
salvation serves to question humanity’s own place in the
universe, a relevant topic at the time of the play’s
publication. Marlowe also explores the tensions between
science-based humanism and religion, another important
philosophical and scientific question of the time. At multiple
 points in the play Marlowe draws the classical Hellenism of
Faustus’s studies and love of antiquity.
Religion in Doctor Faustus Elizabethan Audience Anti-Catholic
literature was hugely popular in Elizabethan times. The
unnecessary pomp and ceremony of Catholic institutions was
satirised, like in Act 3 Scene 1when Faustus mock the Pope as
was wider corruption within the Catholic Church. The power
struggles within the Church and the Catholic nations,
specifically the Holy Roman Empire, were a central force for
European politics. The Greenwich Theatre production of Dr
Faustus clearly demonstrates this as Faustus is staged in a way
that tricks the pope into bowing down to him. In the
Elizabethan age there was strictly dichotomised attitude
towards right and wrong, and the framework of Christian
morality was one by which most people aimed to live: religion
was of much more central importance than it is now.
Abandoning God and turning to the path of sin would be seen
as shocking and unforgiveable crime, as would experimenting
with black magic and forbidden knowledge. Elizabethan
audiences would be more familiar with the concepts of sinful
distraction and the soul-poisoning influences of the Seven
Deadly Sins. Elizabethan audiences firmly believed in the
Christian cosmology of angels and devils. Context Marlowe’s
Atheism Marlowe was reputed to be an atheist, which at the
time held the dangerous implication of being an enemy of God.
The character of Dr Faustus can perhaps be seen as a
mouthpiece for
Marlowe’s atheism. Faustus rejects just about all forms of
Institutionalized belief structures and close to our first meeting
with him, he announces in one of the important quotations
from “Doctor Faustus”
By Christopher Marlowe, “Philosophy is odious and obscure, /
Both law
And physic are for petty wits, / Divinity is the best of the three.”
(Scene
1, lines 107-109) Faustus is looking for something more
substantial than academia, much as Marlowe himself was
engaged with looking beyond academic religious pursuits.
Christopher Marlowe can be seen as
Marlowe “speaking” through Faustus, describing his denial of
taking the religious life and instead, seeking something more (in
his case, writing
Plays, in Faustus’ case, summoning the devil) Marlowe was
arrested for
Being an atheist. Quotations The use of Latin throughout the
play “Jerome’s bible, Faustus, new it well stupendium peccati
mars est,’ ha!”’wilfully omit divine promises of salvation to
those who truly repent theirsins’he translates the Latin then
laughs at it, he is not taking it seriously. ‘Nothing so sweet as
magic is to him’ this is were magic becomes his passion.
Religion ‘All things that move between the quiet poles shall be
at my command’ he takes on the role of God denying him,
making God seem weak and ‘Nothing’ Wagner- ‘and so the lord
bless you, preserve you, and keep you’, Wagner mocks prayer
and religion, using the words sarcastically and as if nothing will
happen if you pray. Mephistopheles-‘For when we hear one
rack the name of God... we fly in hope to get his glorious soul’
he says this as if it happens alot, and that Faustus may not be
the only one that disregards religion (The Pope crosseth
himself)Faustus- ‘what, are you crossing of yourself’, slapstick
comedy with the Pope falling over himself again shows how
Marlowe doesn’t take religion seriously. Critical Views The
greatest controversies surrounding Doctor Faustus have turned
on the question of orthodoxy: whether the play serves
Protestant theology or subverts at one school of critical thought
holds that reformation theology provides dramatic unity in the
play. Douglas Cole argues that Doctor Faustus is “thoroughly
Christian in conception and import”; pointing out that Faustus
sins knowingly, does not repent, and suffers eternal
damnation—a plot that in no way challenges Christian doctrine.
Wow. Hope you enjoyed that, we truly are Prezi Gods! In the
Greenwich Theatre Production they use staging to show that
Mephistopheles and Lucifer are of a higher status than Faustus,
who is ‘but a man’. This is shown by Lucifer and
Mephistopheles being positioned on the upper level of the
stage.
• Conclusion
We have talked about the significance of miracle, mystery and
morality plays. They belong to 14th century and 15th century
plays. “Dr Faustus” can never be treated wholly a miracle,
Mystery and Morality play. It is also a greatest heroic tragedy
before Shakespeare with its enormous stress on
characterizations and Inner conflict in the Soul of towering
personality. No Doubted it represented the Humility, Faith,
obedience of the law of god, also it represented the power,
Beauty, Riches and Knowledge.