Marlowe's Adlerian Tragedies (1990)

MARLOWE'S ADLERIAN TRAGEDIES
Author(s): William L. Stull

Source: Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol. 73, No. 2/3 (Summer/Fall 1990), pp. 443-
464
Published by: Penn State University Press
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MARLOWE'S ADLERIAN TRAGEDIES
WilliamL. Stull
Whatgloryis therein a commongood

That hangsforeverypeasantto achieve?
That likeI bestthatfliesbeyondmyreach.
Marlowe
Christopher
TheMassacreat Paris (2.40-42) 1
Tt was Friedrich Nietzsche who said thatthe falsityof an
idea constitutes no seriousobjectionto it. Truthvalueaside,
whatmatters aboutan idea is "to whatextentis itadvantageous
to life."2The statement calls to minda double misconception.
Both ChristopherMarloweand AlfredAdler are commonly
considered apologists for aggression,spokesmenfor Nie-
tzscheanWill to Power. In Marlowe's best-knownspeech,
Tamburlainedeclares:
Nature, thatframed us offourelements
Warring our
within breasts forregiment,
Dothteachus all to haveaspiring minds,
Oursouls,whosefaculties cancomprehend
The wondrous architecture oftheworld
Andmeasureeverywandering planet'scourse,
Stillclimbingafterknowledge infinite,
Andalwaysmoving as therestless spheres,
Willsus towearourselves andneverrest,
Untilwereachtheripestfruit ofall,
Thatperfect blissandsolefelicity,
The sweetfruition ofan earthly crown.(1:2.7.18-29)
Likewise,the name of AlfredAdler is commonlyassociated
witha primal"aggressiondrive"in contrastto the Freudian
William L. Stull is Associate Professorof Rhetoric,Department of English,

Universityof Hartford. Editor of ThoseDays: EarlyWntings byRaymondCarver
(1987), he is currentlyat workon a criticalbiographyof thisAmericanshort-
storywriterand poet. He also maintainshis interestin English Renaissance
poetryand drama.
1990).ISSN 0038-1861.
73.2-3(Summer/Fall
Soundings
444 SOUNDINGS WilliamL Stull
libido. This ruling passion- a passion for ruling- we recog-

nize as Tamburlaine's raisond'etre.
These views of Marlowe and of Adler are widespread, but
theydo justice neitherto Marlowe's irony(the "earthlycrown"
suggestsa headstone as well as a diadem) nor to Adler's mature
thought. True, Adler earlywrote of an aggression drive more
basic than the Freudian sex drive ("Der Aggressions triebimLeben
und in derNeurose,"1908). But he later reformulatedthe con-
cept in lightof a highervalue, Gemeinschaftsgefühlor social inter-
est ("Bolshewismus und Seelenkunde," 1918). What humankind
strivesforat its best is not power but perfection,understoodas
completeness and fulfillment."The strivingof each actively
movingindividualis towardsovercoming,not towardspower,"
Adler writes. "The neuroticstrivestowardpersonal superiority
and, in doing so, expects a contributionfrom the group in
which he lives, while the normal individual strivestoward the
perfectionwhich benefitsall."3 From the standpointof social
interest- a standpointMarlowe shares in his greatestplays- if
Tamburlaine were a hero, he would have to be a tragic one,
acting out on a grand scale a basic mistake.
Thus, in Nietzschean fashion,what begins as a double error
ends in a shared truth. No wonder, then,thatone of the earli-
est Adlerian studies of literature,Oliver Brachfeld's1928 essay
"Marloweah Vorläufer claimed Marlowe
derIndividualpsychologie"
as a forerunnerof Individual Psychology.4Adler earlyallowed
that he had gleaned many of his insightsfromliterature,in-
cluding the worksof Shakespeare and Goethe (IPAA,329). Ad-
lerian studies of both those writers,as well as of Somerset
Maugham, AlbertCamus, J.D. Salinger, and others have since
appeared.5 But in addition to the negativebenefitof correcting
misconceptions,includingthe Freudian excesses of recentMar-
lowe criticism,the Adlerianperspectivecontributesmuch to an
understandingof Marlovian tragedy. From an Adlerian stand-
point, Marlowe is a consummate tragedian,revealingthe fear-
ful waste of human potential brought about by "Faustian
wrestling" for personal superiorityinstead of social interest
(IPAA, 104).
Marlowe'sAdlerianTragedies 445
Individual Psychology
Novice readers of Shakespeare marvel that the master uses
so many clichés, unaware that it was he who minted the
phrases. So it is withAlfredAdler (1870-1937), to whom we
owe such psychological commonplaces as "inferioritycom-
plex," "overcompensation,"and "life style" {Lebenstil),Unlike
Freud, however, Adler was not a systematictheorist. (His
motto"Alleskannauchanderssein"bespeaks his intellectualflexi-
bility.) His thoughtevolved over thirtyyearsof writingand lec-
turing. The cumulative result was Individual Psychology,a
comprehensivesystemwhose parts remain betterknown than
the whole. Since Individual Psychologyis but vaguelyfamiliar
to nonspecialists, its basic concepts may require a brief
summary.6
The primemoverin the Adlerian systemis universalstriving.
From one perspective,this is the Darwinian strugglefor sur-
vival. From another,it is humankind'squasi-religiousquest for
perfection. It is emphaticallynot a struggleforpersonal supe-
riorityexcept among the maladjusted- neurotics, psychotics,
and tragicheroes. Adler wrote in a handbook on active paci-
fismthat "strivingfor personal power is a disastrous delusion
and poisons man's living together. Whoever desires the
human communitymust renounce the strivingfor power over
others."7
By definition,strivingis goal-directed. Adler's focus on
ends- cognitivegoals- contrastssharplywithFreud's empha-
sis on causes- unconscious drives. Following Darwin, Nietz-
sche, and the phenomenology of Hans Vaihinger, whose
'
Philosophy of 'As If (1911) deeply influencedhim, Adler devel-
oped the concept of "fictionalfinalism." Individuals early de-
velop styles of life based on guiding fictionsconsistent with
theirinterpretationsof the world. For the most part, we live
unaware ("unconscious") of these supreme fictions. Nonethe-
less, theyremain our own creations,open to therapeuticscru-
tinyand conscious revision. In this way, life imitatesart, and
we live, to borrow a term from Kenneth Burke, "dramatisti-
cally."8 Adler writesthat"the psychologicallife of a person is
orientedtowardsthe finalact, like thatof a charactercreated by
a good dramatist"(IPAA, 94). Unityof action, the hallmarkof
great drama, is thus a cornerstone of Individual Psychology,
whose name Adler adapted from the Latin individuus,

"indivisible."
Along withAdler's emphasis on freewill and creativitygoes
his rejection of biological determinism. Since the fictivegoal
and lifestyleare freelycreated by the individual,theyare open
to alteration. Again, thisview contrastssharplywiththe Freud-
ian premisethatbiologyis destiny. Adler acknowledgesthe in-
fluenceof heredityand environmentwithoutallowingeitherto
eclipse free will; "the importantthingis not what one is born
with," he writes,"but what use on makes of that equipment"
(IPAA, 176). He is thus counted a "soft" determinist,a posi-
tion that furtheraligns him with a tragedian like Marlowe,
whose charactersare influencedbut not constrainedby outside
forces.
Premisedon freewill,IndividualPsychologybringswithit an
ethical philosophy. For Adler as forAristotle,to be human is
to be a zoonpolitikou."In addition to regardingan individual's
lifeas a unity,"he writes,"we mustalso take it togetherwithits
contextof social relations" {IPAA, 127). For thisreason, Adler
developed a relationalscale of value. The capstone of Individ-
ual Psychologyis the concept of social interest.9This "commu-
nity feeling" is humankind's innate ability to cooperate,
empathize,and improvethe common lot- in T.S. Eliot's para-
phrase of the Upanishads, to give, sympathize,control. It is
with social interestin mind that the healthyindividual strives
for success, a point thatGoethe dramatizesin the second part
of Faust. There, the maturingprotagonistturnsfromuseless
struggleforpersonal superiorityto usefulstrivingforthe com-
mon good. Motivatedby what Goethe terms"social impulse"
(Gerneindrang), Faust drains the swamplands to create "Green,
fertilefields,wheremen and herds go forth"(2:5.6.55). 10 On a
less epic scale, it is withsocial interestin mind thatnormalmen
and women striveforsuccess in whatAdler calls the threetasks
of life: work,love, and friendship.
Adler's theoryof mental health bringswithit a complemen-
tarytheoryof maladjustment:"the neuroticwillbe foundto be
an individual placed in a test situation who is attemptingto
solve his problems in the interestof his own personal ambition
ratherthan in the interestof the common welfare."11The fact
of universal strivingsuggests a fundamentalsense of incom-
pleteness in humankind,what PierreJanet termed le sentiment

ďincompletude. According to Adler, this "inferiorityfeeling" is
normal, an impulse toward growthand accomplishment: "to
be human means to possess a feelingof inferiority which con-
stantlypresses towardits own conquest" (IPAA, 116).
Adler did not hesitate to cast the matterin religious terms:
"Man as an everstrivingbeing cannot be like God. God who is
eternallycomplete, who directsthe stars,who is the master of
fates, who elevates man from his lowliness to Himself, who
speaks fromthe cosmos to everysingle human soul, is the most
brilliantmanifestationof the goal of perfectionto date" (IPAA,
107). What Adler termsthe "inferiority complex" arises when
normalinferiority feelinggives way to a crushingsense of inad-
a
equacy, pathological goal of godlike superiority,and a life
-
style of socially useless striving the tragic overcompensation
of the Marlovian overreacher.
An Adlerian Approach to Marlowe's Plays

Adlerian literarycriticismarises on this groundwork. In ap-
proaching literature,the Adlerian critic seeks not causes but
goals, the guiding fictionsthat direct and unifythe work. In
tragedy,this means examining the protagonist'slife styleand
seeking the "basic mistake" or tragicflawin his or her world
view. Like Adlerian therapy,Adlerian criticisminvolves value
judgments. It assesses the degree to whichcharacters(and, by
implication,theircreators) recognize or ignore social interest.
At the same time,thanksto its phenomenological orientation,
Adlerian criticismavoids biographical reductionism. Like self
and world,lifeand art emerge as interdependentterms,bound
togetherin the creativeprocess of interpretation."Every indi-
vidual representsboth a unityof personalityand the individual
fashioningofthat unity,"Adler writes. "The individualis thus
both the pictureand the artist" {IPAA, 177).
Adler regularlydrew parallels between life and art, and his
psychologicalworksare rich withliterarycomment. In one of
his specificallyliteraryessays, a lecture on the novelist Alfred
Berger (1912), he sketchedthe goals and limitsof his method.
"We have no desire to tamperwiththe marvellousoutpourings
of our poets and thinkersand shall thereforeattemptmerelyto
determine,throughtheircreations,to whatan extentwe are on
the rightpath and how much of theirworkcan be understood

by reference to the working methods of individual-psychol-
ogy."12 In quest of understanding,then, the followingpages
offeran Adlerian approach to Marlowe's major plays,withem-
phasis on his masterpiece,DoctorFaustus.
Tamburlaine
With his "aspiring mind" bent on universal conquest, Mar-

lowe's Tamburlaine would seem the archetype of neurotic
strivingforpersonal superiority.Yet the matteris complicated
by the youthfulplaywright'sambivalence toward his self-pro-
claimed "scourge and wrathof God" (1:3.3.44). In the later
tragedies,notablyEdwardII and DoctorFaustus,Marlowe treats
the aspiring mind with trenchantdramatic irony. In Tambur-
laine, however, he refuses to measure his titan hero on the
human scale of social interest. Like Faustus, Tamburlaine as-
pires to godlike powers. Unlike him,and farless movingly,he
achieves them with "a wondrous ease" (1.2.5.77). Tambur-
laine earlyboasts to Techelles, "I hold the Fates bound fastin
iron chains, / And withmy hand turnFortune's wheel about"
(1:1.2.173-74). But it is ChristopherMarlowe whose hand rigs
Fortune's wheel. Marlowe allows "that sturdyScythianthief"
(1:1.1.36) to march fromconquest to bloody conquest unim-
peded by man, god, or conscience. At the end of Part 2, having
subdued Persia,Turkey,Egypt,Hungary,Jerusalem,and Baby-
lon, Tamburlaine prepares himselffordeath. But his conquer-
ing eye stillroves towardthe Antipodes. "And shall I die, and
this unconquerèd?" he twice muses, the happy warriorto the
finalmightyline (2:5.3.150, 158).
Ironically,by issuing Tamburlaine a license to kill,Marlowe
diminishesboth the hero and the play. Tamburlaine has been
called heroic drama, moralityplay, and atheisticalblasphemy,
but no one would call it tragedyin the mannerof EdwardII or
DoctorFaustus. From the standpointof Individual Psychology,
the play is a tissue of fantasybased on what Adler called the
pampered styleof life,a dream of superiorityas attractiveto a
shoemaker'seldest son like Marlowe as to a Scythianshepherd
like Tamburlaine. "I am a lord, forso mydeeds shall prove, /
And yet a shepherd by my parentage," blushing Tamburlaine
confesses to his futurebride, Zenocrate (1:1.2.34-35). Those
who lead a pampered styleof life,Adler writes,"live under the

pressure of a conception of the world in which theyexpect to
receive everythingfrom others, or in which, owing to their
greateractivity,theytake everythingfromthem" (IPAA, 241).
Thus, Tamburlaine bullies his way through ten acts and as
many kingdoms,sacking cities, slaughteringvirgins,and slay-
ing his own son. At the end of Part I, he boasts,
The god of warresignshis roomto me,
Meaningto makeme generalof theworld.
Jove,viewingme in arms,lookspale and wan,
Fearingmypowershouldpull himfromhis throne.
(1.5.2.387-90)
Seeking to impress the Sultan of Egypt,Tamburlaine displays
the "sights of power" (411), the corpses of Emperor Bajazeth,
Zabina, and the king of Arabia:
And suchare objectsfitforTamburlaine,
Wherein,as in a mirror,maybe seen
His honor,thatconsistsin sheddingblood
Whenmenpresumeto managearmswithhim. (412-14)
It would be a fearsomespectacle, were Marlowe to hold "The
scourge of God and terrorof the world" (2:4.2.79) accountable
forhis behavior. But social interestplays no role in eitherpart
of Tamburlaine.Instead of measuring his ambiguous hero-vil-
lain by human standards,Marlowe declares ethical neutrality:
"applaud his fortunesas you please" (Part I, Prologue, 8).
What resultsis sometimesgreat poetrybut never great drama.
TheJewofMalta
In Tamburlaine Marlowe rigs Fortune's wheel in the hero's
favor. Playwrightand protagonistrevel in unchecked fantasies
of personal superiority,blithelyignoringsocial interest. In The
JewofMalta Marlowe does exactlythe opposite, focusingrelent-
lessly on Barabas's worsening inferioritycomplex and its in-
creasinglyantisocial outcomes: overcompensation,crime,and
self-destruction.The play traces the collapse of social interest
in an initiallysympatheticfigure. At the outset, despite his in-
feriorstandingas a Jew among the Maltese Christians,Barabas
has successfullymanaged the tasks of work,family,and com-
munity.He is a prosperous merchantwitha dear daughterand
prominentconnections. By the end, he is a megalomaniac bent
on destroyinghis family,friends,and country. "For, so I live,

perish may all the world!" (5.5.10). Predictably, his last
psychoticstratagembackfires,and he is boiled in his own pot.
Machiavel's Prologue states Marlowe's premises,the cynical
guiding fictionthat unifies the play: "I count religion but a
childishtoy/ And hold thereis no sin but ignorance" (14-15).
Barabas's life style is revealed in his firstspeech. There he
stateshis fictivegoal: "Infiniterichesin a littleroom" (1.1.37).
Such self-cancelingovercompensationis a patent inversionof
social interest,whichseeks to share instead of hoard.
From the outset,Barabas's position as a Jew among the Mal-
tese Christiansis sociallyequivocal. In keeping withthisambi-
guity, he v£cillates between feelings of inferiorityand
superiority.'ΊWe Jewscan fawnlike spaniels when we please, /
And when we grin,we bite; yetare our looks / As innocentand
harmless as a lamb's" (2.3.20-22). Indeed, as he hints in his
famous quip about having committedfornicationin "another
country"(4.1.41-43), he increasinglyfeels himselfto be living
in what Adler called "enemy territory"(IPAA, 118, 294). In a
pointed aside, Barabas says of the Turks who threatenMalta's
sovereignty,"Nay, let 'em combat, conquer, and kill all, / So
theyspare me, my daughter,and mywealth" (1.1.150-51). As
the action proceeds, whatlittlesocial interesthe has developed
is undermined. His goods and house are confiscatedby the
Christians. His daughter,Abigail, convertsand confesses her
father'splot. Even Ithamore,Barabas's slavish henchman,at-
temptsto blackmailhim.
From an Adlerian perspective,the passage fromneurosis to
psychosisis expressed by a change in the individual'sresponse
to the tasksof social adaptation. Whereas the neuroticanswers
life's demands withhesitation ("Yes, but . . ."), the psychotic
replies withdenial. In the sociopath, this"No" is coupled with
defiance,ifnot delight: "Not me!"13 Earlyin TheJewofMalta,
as Barabas withdrawsfrom his community,he undergoes a
psychicdevolution. In the firstact, his neurotichesitatingatti-
tude gives way to psychoticdenial, deceit, and vengefulboast-
ing. In the second, as he links forces with the fiendish
Ithamore, psychosis turns to sociopathy. Ostensibly catechiz-
ing his accomplice, Barabas renounces social interest:
Marlowe's
Adlerian 451
Tragedies
First,be thouvoid of theseaffections:

Compassion,love,vainhope, and heartlessfear.
Be movedat nothing.See thoupitynone,
But to thyself
smilewhentheChristians moan. (2.3.166-69)
The two villainsthenengage in a braggingmatchin whicheach
strivesto outdo the other in viciousness:
Barabas.As formyself, I walkabroad 'a nights
And killsickpeople groaningunderwalls.
SometimesI go aboutand poisonwells.. . .
Ithamore. Once atJerusalemwherethepilgrimskneeled,

I strewedpowderon themarblestones,
And therewithal theirkneeswouldrankleso
That I have laugheda-good to see thecripples
Go limpinghometo Christendom on stilts.
Barabas.Whythisis something.Makeaccountof me
As of thyfellow;we are villainsboth.(171-73,205-11)
Fittingly,Marlowe's symbol for the pathological strivingthat
kills offsocial interestis poison. Barabas and Ithamore go on
to poison Abigail's convent, and Barabas later kills Ithamore
and Bellamira witha poisoned bouquet. Thrown into prison,
theJew of Malta pretendsto poison himselfin order to be cast
outside the citywalls. From there,he leads a Turkish assault
against the Maltese, whom he later rejoins against the Turks.
The culminationof this schizoid patternis, of course, the final
turnabout, Barabas caught in his own trap for the Turkish
leaders.
Adler's definitionof crime as "a coward's imitationof hero-
ism" (IPAA, 414) illuminatesboth Tamburlaine and TheJewof
Malta. Despite theirantitheticaloutcomes, the two plays share
a guiding fiction. The common goal of Tamburlaine and
Barabas, world-conqueringhero and self-destroying villain,is
the absolute superioritythat Marlowe elsewhere termsdomin-
ion. ("Dominion cannot sufferpartnership,"runs a line in his
translationof Lucan.14) Like Tamburlaine, TheJewofMalta ex-
pounds this theme relentlessly. In the prologue the ghost of
Machiavelli sets in motion an infernalmachine. By the final
line it has squeezed everydrop of social interestout of not only
Barabas but also his Christian counterparts. As the Jew of
Malta early notes, the gentiles' conduct is no better than his:
'Tor I can see no fruitsin all their faith,/ But malice, false-
hood, and excessive pride,/ Which methinksfitsnot theirpro-

fession" (1.1.114-16).
Here as in Tamburlaine, Marlowe's singlemindedexposition
of his theme diminishesthe play. For Adler, no criminal,not
even Dostoevsky'sRaskolnikov,was whollydevoid of social in-
terest (IPAA, 412). Marlowe, however, sets out to prove that
neitherBarabas nor his communityis worthsaving. He dem-
onstratesthe point, but at great dramaticcost. What resultsis
not tragedybut,in T.S. Eliot's memorablephrase, "the terribly
serious, even savage comic humour" of farce.15
Edward II
It was EdwardII thatpromptedOliver Brachfeldto call Mar-

lowe a forerunnerof Adler. For Brachfeld,the increasinglyan-
tisocial behavior of the "brain-sick"king- Edward's rejection
of his queen in favorof a homosexual "minion" and his fatal
war of wills with the English barons- illustratesAdler's con-
cept of "masculine protest." In answer to Freud, who argued
that the conflictsassociated with the castrationcomplex and
penis envyare biological in origin,Adler proposed a social the-
ory of overcompensation. A lifelongadvocate of sexual equal-
ity,he noted that "The neurotic goal of superiorityis always
more or less identifiedwith the masculine role owing to the
privileges,both real and imaginary,withwhichour presentcul-
ture has investedthe male" {IPAA, 313). For men and women
alike, then, an obsessive effortto prove oneself "a real man"
(i.e., potentand commanding)emerges as a misguidedformof
strivingbased on a culturallyconditioned fictionof authority.
At the outset of the play,Edward wears his father'scrownbut
remains a pampered son who still smarts at his "dethrone-
ment" in the familyhierarchy.(The fourthof Eleanor of Cas-
tile's thirteenchildren,Edward was the firstand only male to
survivechildhood.) "The first-bornis in a unique situation,"
Adler writes;"fora whilehe is an onlychild and sometimelater
he is 'dethroned' " {IPAA,377). Strugglingto convincehimself
of his newly conferredauthority,Edward directs a masculine
protestagainst fourperceivedantagonists. The firstis his dead
father,the immenselysuccessful Edward I, who had earlier
banished Piers Gaveston, Edward's unworthyfavorite,from
" "
England. 'My father is deceased,' reads the letter that
"
opens the play. 'Come, Gaveston, / And share the kingdom
withthydearest friend'" (1.1.1-2). Edward's second imagined
enemy is his younger half brother, the Earl of Kent, whose
sound advice he spurns:
MyLord,I see yourlove to Gaveston
Willbe theruinof therealmand you,
For now thewrathful noblesthreatenwars,
And therefore,brother,banishhimforever. (2.2.206-09)
The king's thirdand most dangerous antagonistis, of course,
the English nobility,principallythe two Mortimers,Warwick,
and Lancaster,whose hatredof the "base and obscure" Gaves-
ton unites them in rebellion (1.1.101). From an Adlerian per-
spective, however, it is Edward's fourthperceived antagonist
thatreveals the most about his guiding fiction. "People witha
masculine protest must emotionallydistance themselvesfrom
the 'opposite' sex because the latteris considered subjectively
to be the enemy."16 The king's estrangementfromhis wife,
Queen Isabella, increases in proportionto his riftwiththe bar-
ons. The two protests become one when Edward's coldness
drivesIsabella into the arms of the rebel leader. "In vain I look
for love at Edward's hand," she laments to Young Mortimer,
"Whose eyes are fixedon none but Gaveston" (2.4.61-62). To
the Adlerian,all behavior,no matterhow irrationalor self-de-
feating,is purposive. The goal of Edward's masculine protest
becomes clear when Isabella's defectiontips the balance in the
rebels' favor. By engineeringhis own quite literal dethrone-
ment, King Edward turnshis lifelongguiding fictioninto fact.
The extended titlesof both Tamburlaine and TheJewofMalta
apply the words "tragedy" and "tragical" to the protagonists'
fates. Neitherword, however,appears in the main titleof The
TroublesomeRaigne and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second.
Nonetheless, by Adlerian as well as Aristotelianstandards,Ed-
wardII is the only tragedyamong the threeplays. Witha com-
pelling admixtureof sympathyand irony,Marlowe recountsthe
storyof a man neither thoroughlygood nor thoroughlyevil
who comes to ruin throughan errorofjudgment- a basic mis-
take in lifestyle. King Edward turnshis back on social interest,
makingit his goal to revel privatelywitha childhood playmate.
To the nobles and Archbishopof Canterburyhe declares,
Makeseveralkingdomsof thismonarchy
And share it equally amongst you all,

So I may have some nook or corner left
To frolicwithmy dearest Gaveston. (1.4.70-73)
This "desperate and unnaturalresolution" (3.3.32) throwsthe
kingdom into insurrection. (In keeping with Marlowe's focus
on the active will, "resolve" and its inflectionsemerge as
keywordsin the play,repeated some ten times.) Withinthe mi-
crocosm of the family,Edward's struggle to distance himself
fromall thingsfeminineestrangeshimfromhis nearestally,his
wife. At court, his obsession withpersonal superioritydrives
himdeep into whatAdler considered to be the hallmarkof neu-
rotic "private logic," antitheticalthinking:"They love me not
that hate my Gaveston" (2.2.37). 17 Accustomed to givingor-
ders, Edward demands his pampered style of life: "Am I a
king, and must be overruled?" (1.1.135). The essentiallyde-
fensivecharacterof his behavior leaves him open to manipula-
tion, as the ambitious Gaveston perceives:
I musthavewantonpoets,pleasantwits,
Musicians,thatwithtouchingof a string
MaydrawthepliantkingwhichwayI please. (1.1.51-53)
Only too late, afterGaveston has been executed, Isabella has
defected,and the king has been forced to abdicate, does Ed-
ward see and feel the differencebetween fictionsand facts.
"But what are kingswhen regimentis gone," he says upon his
deposition, "But perfectshadows in a sunshine day?" (5.1.26-
27). Like Tamburlaine, throughoutmost of the play Edward
associates his "earthlycrown" with superhuman powers. Be-
reftof it, he achieves fargreaterstaturethan his titancounter-
part. Relieved of the hollow symbol, Edward accepts his
human limitations:"of thisam I assured, / That death ends all,
and I can die but once" (5.1.152-53).
In a compellingturnabout,as Edward's fortunessink(a motif
made literal by his descent into the fetid dungeons of Kenil-
worthand Berkeleycastles), his spiritrises. Studyingthe face
of his executioner,the brutalLightborn,he reads a play thathe
has scripted: "I see my tragedywrittenin thybrows" (5.5.73).
Stripped of regal authority,he draws strengthfroma higher
power:
Yet stayawhile; forbearthybloody hand
And let me see the strokebefore it comes,
That even then when I shall lose my life,
Adlerian
Marlowe's 455
Tragedies
Mymindmaybe moresteadfaston myGod. (74-77)

"Know thatI am a king," the crownlessmonarch says (88). In
this moment of tragicrecognition,Edward attains the dignity
and confidencethathe has so long sought in vain.
By couching Edward's insight in Christian terms,Marlowe
departs fromthe "atheism" of his earlier plays. But the over-
archingframeworkοι EdwardII - what the titlepage calls "the
tragicallfallof proud Mortimer"- remainsstoical and fatalistic.
"ÇÏuemdies viditvenienssuperbum,/ Hunc dies viditfugiensjacentem,"
sternLancaster intones,quoting Seneca (4.6.53-54). Oblivious
to the hero's newfound personal freedom, Fortune's wheel
grindson. Lightbornstampsout Edward's nascent social inter-
est along with his life. History doubles as necessityin Mar-
lowe's chronicle play, and only after Edward's death is
Mortimerslain, Isabella imprisoned,and order restored to the
realm.
DoctorFaustus
In EdwardII, the tragic stature of the fallen king becomes

apparent onlyin the finalact. In DoctorFaustus,the tremendous
-
potentialof the scholar-herois obvious fromthe beginning to
everyonebut him. Blinded a
by crushinginferiority complex,
Faustus turnsa freelychosen fictioninto ironclad fate. Having
strucka bad bargain withthe devil, he insists that his damna-
tion is foreversealed. "The serpent that temptedEve may be
saved," he tells himself,"but not Faustus" (5.2.41-42). Fatal-
ism of thissort would not be out of place in Tamburlaine or The
Jew of Malta, but it runs against the Christian metaphysicsof
Marlowe's greatest play. In the nondeterministicuniverse of
DoctorFaustus,salvationremainsnigh on everyside. Persuaded
of his unique sinfulessness,Faustus damns himselfto a life of
useless striving,deepening isolation, and suicidal despair.
Adler's mature work stresses the meliorative aspect of
"Faustian wrestlingagainst the forcesof nature," humankind's
endless quest for knowledge and fulfillment."The origin of
humanityand the ever-repeated beginning of infantlife im-
presses" with every psychological act: 'Achieve! Arise! Con-
quer!' he writes. "This feeling, this longing for the
abrogationsof everyimperfection,is neverabsent" (IPAA, 103-
104). Thus, for Adler as for Goethe, the Faust legend brings
with it a happy ending in which the hero redeems himself

throughfreelychosen toil. "He only earns his freedom and
existence," Goethe's Faust concludes, "Who daily conquers
them anew."18 Such is not the case in Marlowe's tragedy,
which ends with Faustus's "hellish fall" (Epilogue, 4). But if
the play is outwardlyless hopefulthan the poem, it is also more
compelling, focused as it is on a brilliant thinker's self-
deception.
The choral Prologue sketchesFaustus's background,includ-
ing his birth"of parentsbase of stock" (1 1). From an Adlerian
standpoint,this familyhistoryis significant,since despite the
hero's later accomplishments - his mastery of logic, law,
medicine, and divinity - he remains at heart a neglected child.
Years of private strugglehave won Faustus a comfortable,if
not pampered, style of life: "the fruitfulplot of scholarism"
(16). Nonetheless,his childhood sense of slightpersists. "This
study fitsa mercenarydrudge," he complains in his opening
soliloquy, "Who aims at nothingbut externaltrash,/ Too ser-
vile and illiberalforme" (1.1.34-36).
Marlowe earlyreveals the tragicflawin Faustus's guidingfic-
tion or *'self-conceit" (Prologue, 20), his denial of Christian
freedom and community.Opening the Bible, he translates 1
John 1:8: "If we say that we have no sin, / We deceive our-
selves, and there's no truthin us" (1.1.43-44). As he says, the
words are hard. But Faustus deceives himselfindeed by skip-
ping the next verse. "If we acknowledgeour sinnes,he is faith-
ful and just, to forgiveus our sinnes, & to dense us fromall
unrighteousness."19
Upon this faultyinterpretationFaustus builds a line of pri-
vate logic:
Why then belike we must sin,
And so consequentlydie.
Ay, we must die an everlastingdeath.
What doctrinecall you this?Chesera,sera:
What will be, shall be! (45-49)
His guidingfictionconfirmed,Faustus next reversesfield. Fol-
lowing a well-establishedpatternin Marlowe's plays (and Ad-
ler's observations),the hero overcompensatesforhis inferiority
complex by seeking godlike superiority:
Adlerian
Marlowe's 457
Tragedies
O, whata worldof profitand delight,

Of power,of honor,of omnipotence
Is promisedto thestudiousartisan!
All thingsthatmovebetweenthequietpoles
Shall be at mycommand.Emperorsand kings
Are but obeyedin theirseveralprovinces,
Nor can theyraisethewindor rendtheclouds,
But his dominionthatexceedsin this
Stretcheth as faras doththemindof man. (1.1.54-62)
It little mattersthat the "dominion" Faustus craves is nomi-
nally intellectual rather than militaryor financial. Like the
strivingsof Tamburlaine and Barabas, his quest is devoid of
social interest,dooming him to a sense of isolation that is no
less real for being fictive.
Once Faustus sets out to "over-reachthe devil" (5.2.15), the
self-determinedlimitsof his project glare withdramaticirony.
Beginning the "desperate enterprise" (1.1.82), he states his
goals. These include combing the world fordelicacies, walling
Germany with brass, and building a better fire-ship. Briefly
recollectinghis own childhood, he proposes to "fill the public
schools with silk / Wherewiththe students shall be bravely
clad" (1.91-92). What is strikingin the list is, of course, its es-
sential triviality.
The patternof anticlimaxcontinues in the contractscenes.
Mephistophilisappears, raised not by the hero's power but by
his disaffection.Faustus himselfproposes the originaltermsof
the bargain,requestinga mere twenty-four years of pampering
and "voluptuousness" in exchange for his immortal soul
(1.3.92). He also writesthe contract,adding needless conces-
sions and penning the instrumentin his blood. By the timethe
lengthybill is ended, he has given over not only his soul but
also his body, flesh, blood, and worldly goods (2.1.94-109).
The ill-conceived arrangementat once proves disappointing,
bringinghim littlemore than a set of new clothes, a she-devil
"wife," and a tawdrypageant of the seven deadly sins. In an-
swer to even the most "slender questions" of cosmology,
Mephistophilis replies with truisms worthy of a schoolboy
(2.2.49).
Acts three and four of DoctorFaustusare notoriouslyslack,
and scholars have long suspected that the weakness results
fromthe hand of a collaborator. Whateverthe cause, the feel-
458 SOUNDINGS L Stull
William
ing of letdown is psychologicallyappropriate. Faustus rest-

lessly traverses Europe, in the process descending from
metaphysicsinto mischief. Lewis Way's analysis of "timid ag-
gression" illuminatesthe increasinglybizarre behavior of the
hero in the middle acts:
Thoughhe fights witha blindtenacityagainstthepossibilitiesof
defeat,distrustof himselfand hostilitytowardsthe worldpre-
venthim fromfollowingthe path thatmightlead to achieve-
ment. He has not realized the need to train in order to
accomplishsomething, butthinksthateverything can be had for
theasking,as itwas forthepamperedchild. Whenhe discovers
he is onlythemoreresentful
hisfallacy, and disappointed.Every
tasksets himtrembling withdesireto succeed,and makeshim
trembleequallylest he should fail,so thatthe timewhenhe
shouldbe accomplishing something is wastedin interiorconflict
betweenhis hopes and fears.Outwardadjustment is moreand
morereplacedby inwardstruggle,and his activity comesto be
made up onlyof hesitations and half-finished
projects.20
In Rome, invisibleFaustus snatchesfood fromthe Pontiff'sta-
ble and wins himselfanathema. At the court of Charles V, he
mountsa shadow play and claps horns on the head of skeptical
Benvolio. At his lowest ebb, he caters to the whim of a preg-
nant Duchess, fetchingher ripe grapes inJanuary.The unwor-
thiness of these exploits is underscored by the darklycomic
subplot, where servantsand stableboysperformfeats equal to
the master's.
Were parlor magic the only manifestationof Faustus's use-
less striving,the play would, like TheJew of Malta, sink into
farce. What makes DoctorFaustusMarlowe's greatesttragedyis
the insight with which it probes the hero's self-tormented
psyche in the finalact. For in true Adlerian fashion,it is not
God or Luciferwho damns Faustus to a livinghell. It is Faustus
himself. Earlyon, he strugglesto convincehimselfthathis fate
is sealed, despite a healthy impulse to change his guiding
fiction:
Now Faustusmustthouneeds be damned,
And canstthounotbe saved.
Whatbootsit thento thinkon God or heaven?
Awaywithsuchvainfancies,and despair;
Despairin God, and trustin Beelzebub. (2.1.1-5)
"Why waver'st thou?" he cries in a typical moment of
anguished vacillation (7). From an Adlerian standpoint,the
hero's hesitatingattitudeis a familiarformof self-protection.

"The neurotic is always an ambitious person who has lost his
courage," RudolfDreikurswrites. "As faras possible he avoids
making his mind up about anything."21To reveal Faustus's
rigidly dualistic mode of apperception, Marlowe employs a
number of paired characters,most prominentlythe Good and
Bad Angels. He also relies heavilyon the rhetoricalfigureof
antithesis,repeatedly contrastingthe joys of heaven and the
pains of hell. At the level of plot, compulsiverepetitionshapes
the action, forin the finalscene Faustus ends where he began,
in his study,solus.22
Having chosen fate instead of freedom,the hero stubbornly
pursues his guiding fictionto its self-destructive end. "Promi-
nent among the formsof neurotic behavior which safeguard
the superiorityfictionare cursingoneself,reproachingoneself,
self-torture,and suicide," Adler writes(IPAA,271). These mo-
tifspervade the action, and in the final scenes they rise to a
crescendo. As the finalhour approaches, the godly Old Man
appears, remindingFaustus of his freedom: "Yet, yetthou hast
an amiable soul" (5.1.43). In reply,the protagonistsafeguards
his guidingfictionby cursinghimself: "Damned art thou,Faus-
tus, damned; despair and die!" (56). Handed a dagger, he
once more turnsit on himself,stabbing his arm to reseal the
fatalbargain.
Physical self-abuse gives way to spiritual suicide in the fa-
mous last soliloquy, which Edgar Snow has aptly termed "a
nightmareof self-fragmenting solipsism."23 Desperately seek-
to
ing escape his crushing sense Faustus praysto
of inferiority,
lose himselfamong the elements. First,he calls on the earth:
"Mountains and hills, come, come and fall on me, / And hide
me fromthe heavy wrathof God" (5.2.149-50). This escape
failing,he next seeks dissolution in the air:
You starsthatreignedat mynativity,
Whoseinfluencehathallotteddeathand hell,
Now drawup Faustuslikea foggymist
Into theentrailsof yonlaboringcloud
That whenyouvomitforthintotheair,
Mylimbsmayissue fromyoursmokymouths
So thatmysoul maybut ascend to heaven. (154-60)
Last and most poignantly,he imagines himselfturningto rain
and fallingon the sea (182-83). In the end, there is only the
William
fieryhellmouthand the cohort of devils who make literal the

dismembermentthatFaustus has metaphoricallyenacted.
Three scholars discover Faustus torn to pieces the next
morning. To the end, however,his fatalisticguidingfictionre-
mains whole. Writingof the "exclusion tendency"in neurosis,
Adler offersa telling epitome of Faustus's career- including
the death wish thatbringsit to an end:
The neurotic'sfaultypictureof theworldis constantly beingso
shakenbyreality thathe feelsthreatenedfrommanysides. Con-
sequentlyhe narrowsdown his sphere of activity;he always
presentspedantically thesame opinionsand thesame attitudes
whichhe acceptedearlyin hislife. Eventually,as a resultof the
"narrowing down"process,he showsan inferiority complexwith
all itsconsequences.Then,in orderto escape fromthisinferi-
oritycomplexand becausehe finally sees himselfthreatened by
the problemof death,he convulsively constructs a superiority
complex.. . . For the safeguardingof his pictureof theworld
and for the defenseof his vanity,the neuroticerectsa wall
againstthedemandsof actualcommunity life. (IPAA,277-78).
Withresolutionworthyof Tamburlaine,Faustus blinds himself
to the elements of social interestand Christian community,
most notablyfreechoice. Fictivethoughit be, his self-imposed
isolation growsabsolute, and under its weighthis ego crumbles
into emptiness.24
As the finalchorus indicates,the outcome is a tragicwaste of
human promise: "Cut is the branch thatmighthave grownfull
straight/ And burned is Apollo's laurel bough / That some-
time grew withinthis learned man" (Epilogue, 1-3). The last
word, however, comes from Marlowe. "Terminâthora diem;
terminât authoropus" he inscribesat the end of the text. By re-
storingthe link between life and art, natural fact and created
fiction,the playwrightlocates the tragedyin a perspective of
freedom.
Adler, Freud, and Marlowe

Brachfeld'sclaim that Marlowe anticipatesthe major tenets
of Individual Psychologyappears warranted. Adlerian insights
clarifyMarlowe's tragicvision of aspiringminds freelyundone
by their own guiding fictions. Moreover, the Adlerian ap-
proach correctsthe excesses of recent Freudian studies, most
notablyConstance Brown Kuriyama'sHammerorAnvil: Psycho-
logicalPatternsin ChristopherMarlowe'sPlays.25 It is worthhere

brieflyrecalling what prompted the break between Adler and
Freud, turningpoint in psychologyand hence in psychologi-
a
cal criticism.
From 1902 to 191 1, Freud and Adler were closely associated
in what became the Vienna PsychoanalyticSociety, of which
Adler was elected president in 1910. As early as 1908, how-
ever, a riftwas apparent to both. It widened steadilybefore
and afterAdler leftFreud's circle to found the SocietyforFree
PsychoanalyticResearch, whichin 1912 became the Societyfor
Individual Psychology.
Following a mechanisticparadigm of inquiryderived from
medicine, Freud sought the physical causes of neurosis: un-
conscious drives and repressions. Adler, using a humanistic
paradigm derived fromphilosophy,looked to the fictivegoals
of neuroticand normal behavior: survival,superiority,perfec-
tion. "The most importantquestion of the healthyand the dis-
eased mentallife,"he stated,"is not whence? but, whither?. . .
In thiswhither?the cause is contained" (IPAA,91). Adler's soft
determinism,his emphasis on free interpretivecreativity,and
the ethical capstone of his system,the concept of social inter-
est- all these contrastmarkedlywithFreud's darkvision of civ-
ilizationand its discontents. For Freud, the functionof art is to
sublimateantisocial instincts.26For Adler, art bodies forththe
perfectiontoward which humanitystrives. "Some day soon it
will be realized that the artistis the leader of mankindon the
path to the absolute truth"(IPAA, 329).
In her psychoanalyticstudyof Marlowe, Kuriyamatreatsthe
plays in classic Freudian fashion,as symptomsof the author's
sickness unto death, his repressed homosexuality. Her com-
ments on TheJewofMalta illustratethe reductivetendencyof
whatis finallya deductivemethod: "It would perhaps be more
correctto speak of Marlowe's Oedipal tensionsas the source of
the play's obsession withrevenge, instead of tryingto fillthe
lacunae in Barabas's sporadically realized 'character'" (148).
WithoutAdler's mediatingconcept of the life style,the fiction
that"makes sense" of the facts,art collapses into life,and Mar-
lowe's oeuvre becomes a seven-volume suicide note. For
Kuriyama,Marlowe's death in a tavernbrawl "seems a logical
culminationof all the self-definitive acts, real and imaginary,
William
that preceded it" (231). In the end, we have little to regret,

since "the psychological and intellectualcul-de-sac that Mar-
lowe flailedabout in was probablyinescapable, and his human
insightmightneverhave broadened or deepened significantly"
(232).
Perhaps so. But as Adler oftensaid, everythingcan also be
different:
The uniquenessoftheindividualcannotbe expressedin a short
formula,and generalrules- even thoselaid downbyIndividual
Psychology,ofmyowncreation - shouldbe regardedas nothing
more thanan aid to a preliminary of the fieldof
illumination
view in whichthe singleindividualcan be found-or missed.
Thus we assignonlylimitedvalue to generalrulesand instead
and on empathyintonuances.
laystrongemphasison flexibility
(IPAA,194-95)
From an Adlerian viewpoint,Marlowe's mighty"flailing" re-
sulted in two of the finestplays of the English Renaissance.
What caused him to create them we can never know, nor can
we knowmuch beyond the materialcauses of his tragicdeath at
twenty-nine.What we know with certainty,thanks to Alfred
Adler, is thatMarlowe and his charactersstroveforperfection
according to theirlights. To the degree thathis art illuminates
our strivingsafter that noble goal, we are richer,wiser, and
more trulypowerful.
NOTES
A versionof thisessaywas presentedat theMarlowe SocietyofAmerica Workshopheld

at the Modern Language Associationmeetingin Chicago on 20 December1985. The
authorwishesto thankRobertL. Powers,presidentof The AmericasInstituteofAdlerian
Studies,for insightfulcommentson the argument.
1. For convenience, all quotations from Marlowe follow a modernized-

spellingedition,TheComplete Marlowe,ed. IrvingRibner
PlaysofChristopher
(New York: OdysseyPress, 1963). Furtherreferencesappear parentheti-
cally in the text.
2. Cited by Hans Vaihingerin ThePhilosophy of'AsIfy:A System oftheTheoreti-
cal, Practicaland ReligiousFictionsofMankind,2nd ed., trans.C.K. Ogden
(1935; rpt. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1965) 354.
3. The Individual PsychologyofAlfredAdler: A SystematicPresentationin Selections
fromHis Writings [IPAA], ed. Heinz L. and Rowena R. Ansbacher (1956;
rpt. New York: Harper & Row, 1964) 1 14. Furtherreferencesappear
parentheticallyin the text.
4. Oliver Brachfeld,"Marlowe als Vorläuferder Individualpsychologie,"In-

ternationaleZeitschnft
für Individualpsychologie6.1 (1928): 63-66.
5. See Harold H. and Birdie Mosak, A Bibliography for AdlerianPsychology
(Washington,D.C.: Hemisphere, 1975), as well as more recent literary
studies in theJournalofIndividualPsychology.
6. IPAA remainsthe best general introductionto Adler's thought. See also
Rudolf R. Dreikurs,Fundamentah ofAdlerianPsychology (Chicago: Alfred
Adler Institute,1955); and GuyJ. Manasterand RaymondJ. Corsini,Indi-
vidualPsychology: Theory and Practice(Itasca, 111.:Peacock, 1982).
7. AlfredAdler, "The Psychologyof Power,"JournalofIndividualPsychology
22 (1966): 169.
8. KennethBurke,"Dramatism,"International Encyclopedia oftheSocialSciences
(1968), VII, 445-52.
9. See Heinz L. Ansbacher,"The Concept of Social Interest,"JournalofIn-
dividualPsychology 24 (1968): 131-49.
10. Goethe'sFaust, trans. Bayard Taylor (London: Oxford UniversityPress,
1932) 373. See Samuel Osherson, "An Adlerian Approach to Goethe's
Faust," JournalofIndividualPsychology 21 (1965): 194-98.
11. AlfredAdler,Superiority and SocialInterest:A CollectionofLaterWritings , ed.
Heinz L. and Rowena R. Ansbacher (Evanston, 111.:NorthwesternUni-
versityPress, 1964) 91, italics removed.
12. Alfred Adler, "Individual-Psychological Remarks on Alfred Berger's
HofratEysenhardt," in ThePracticeand Theory ofIndividualPsychobgy, trans.
P. Radin, 2nd rev. ed. (1929; rpt. New York: Humanities Press, 1971)
267, italics removed.
13. See Lewis Way,Adler'sPlacein Psychology: An ExpositionofIndividualPsychol-
ogy(New York: Collier, 1962) 126.
14. Lucans FirstBooke, 1. 93. The CompleteWorksof Christopher Marlowe,ed.
Roma Gill (Oxford: Clarendon, 1987) I, 96.
15. "ChristopherMarlowe," in Selected Essays,new ed. (New York: Harcourt,
Brace 8c World, 1950) 105.
16. Harold H. Mosak and Seymour Schneider, ' Masculine Protest, Penis
Envy,Women's Liberationand Sexual Equality,"JournalofIndividualPsy-
chology 33 (1977): 199.
17. "The understandingof the world according to concrete pairs of oppo-
sites corresponds to the primitiveattemptsof the child to orienthimself
in the world and to safeguardhimself. Among these pairs I have regu-
larlyfound: (1) above-below and (2) masculine-feminine" (IPAA, 249).
18. Goethe'sFaust,373.
19. The GenevaBible: A Facsimileof the 1560 Edition,ed. Lloyd E. Berry
(Madison: Universityof Wisconsin Press, 1969).
20. Way 111.
21. Dreikurs64.
22. On cyclicalpatternsin the play, see C.L. Barber, "The Form of Faustus
Fortunes Good or Bad," TulaneDrama Review8 (1964): 92-119.
23. Edgar Snow, "Marlowe's DoctorFaustusand the Ends of Desire," in Two
RenaissanceMythmakers, ed. Alvin Kernan (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins,
1977) 97.
24. For a non-Adlerian analysis of "disintegrationanxiety" in Marlowe's
plays,see Peter S. Donaldson, "Conflictand Coherence: Narcissismand
Tragic Structurein Marlowe," in Narcissism and theText: Studiesin Litera-
tureand thePsychology ofSelf,eds. Lynne Layton and Barbara Ann Schapiro
(New York: New York UniversityPress, 1986) 36-63.
25. Constance Brown Kuriyama,Hammeror Anvil: PsychobgicalPatternsin

Christopher Marlowe'sPlays (New Brunswick,N.J.: Rutgers University
Press, 1980). Furtherreferencesappear parentheticallyin the text.
26. "Sublimation of instinctis an especially conspicuous featureof cultural
development; it is what makes it possible for higherpsychicalactivities,
scientific,artisticor ideological, to play such an importantpart in civi-
lized life." Sigmund Freud, Civilization trans,and ed.
and Its Discontents,
James Strachey(New York: W.W. Norton, 1962) 44.

Marlowe's Adlerian Tragedies (1990)

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MARLOWE'S ADLERIAN TRAGEDIES

Author(s): William L. Stull

You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references.

Whatgloryis therein a commongood

William L. Stull is Associate Professorof Rhetoric,Department of English,

libido. This ruling passion- a passion for ruling- we recog-

whose name Adler adapted from the Latin individuus,

pleteness in humankind,what PierreJanet termed le sentiment

An Adlerian Approach to Marlowe's Plays

the rightpath and how much of theirworkcan be understood

With his "aspiring mind" bent on universal conquest, Mar-

who lead a pampered styleof life,Adler writes,"live under the

on destroyinghis family,friends,and country. "For, so I live,

First,be thouvoid of theseaffections:

Ithamore. Once atJerusalemwherethepilgrimskneeled,

hood, and excessive pride,/ Which methinksfitsnot theirpro-

It was EdwardII thatpromptedOliver Brachfeldto call Mar-

And share it equally amongst you all,

Mymindmaybe moresteadfaston myGod. (74-77)

In EdwardII, the tragic stature of the fallen king becomes

with it a happy ending in which the hero redeems himself

O, whata worldof profitand delight,

ing of letdown is psychologicallyappropriate. Faustus rest-

hero's hesitatingattitudeis a familiarformof self-protection.

fieryhellmouthand the cohort of devils who make literal the

Adler, Freud, and Marlowe

logicalPatternsin ChristopherMarlowe'sPlays.25 It is worthhere

that preceded it" (231). In the end, we have little to regret,

A versionof thisessaywas presentedat theMarlowe SocietyofAmerica Workshopheld

1. For convenience, all quotations from Marlowe follow a modernized-

4. Oliver Brachfeld,"Marlowe als Vorläuferder Individualpsychologie,"In-

25. Constance Brown Kuriyama,Hammeror Anvil: PsychobgicalPatternsin

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