Dr.Faustus has element of Christian morality with referance to the essay by Robert Ornstein

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University Bhavnagar

Smt. S. B. Guardy Department of English

Topic:

 ‘Doctor Faustus’ has element of Christian Morality                                                        with reference to the essay by Robert Ornstein-                 ‘Marlowe and God: tragic theology’.

Paper:  1: The Renaissance Literature

Written by: Poojaba G. Jadeja

Roll No.: 25

Year: 2013, semester- 1

‘Doctor Faustus’ has element of Christian morality – with reference to

 The essay by Robert Ornstein- “Marlowe and God: Tragic Theology”. 
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1261310?uid=3738256&uid=2129&uid=2134&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21102991739827
(link of the essay)

Introduction of author:

Life:

          Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) is Elizabethan dramatist, predecessor of Shakespeare. He is the only dramatist before Shakespeare, who is still read with enthusiasm.

          Marlowe was born in Canterbury, and son of a poor shoemaker. A patron sent him to Cambridge from where he graduated at the age of 19. When he came to London, his soul was surging with the ideas of the Renaissance, which later found expression in his work –‘Doctor Faustus’, the scholar longing for unlimited knowledge and for power to grasp the universe. Marlowe had also the unbridled passions and conceit of a young man just entering the realm of knowledge.

Marlowe’s literary life:

           He died at 29! We must wonder what he might have done had he outlived his wretched youth and become man. Marlowe was a poet and dramatic both ‘Hero and Leander’ is his famous poem. But he is famous for his 4 dramas –tragedies, which are known as the “Marlowesque” or one- man type of tragedies. These four tragedies are...“Tamburlaine”, “Doctor Faustus”, “The Jew of Malta”, and “Edward п”.

          These dramas are the new chronicle plays, founded upon historical events and characters. They also show the characteristics of Elizabethan age. ‘Tamburlaine’ is an epic rather than a drama among them. And ‘Dr. Faustus’ also one of the best Elizabethan dramas.

          Marlowe’s work is remarkable for its splendid imagination for the stateliness of its verse, and for its rare bits of poetic beauty; but in dramatic instinct, in wide knowledge of human life, in humour, in delineation of woman’s character, in the delicate fancy which presents an Ariel as perfectly as a Macbeth, in all that makes a dramatic genius, Marlowe simply prepared the way for the master who was to follow.

          Marlowe lived very little but his influence in English literature is never forgettable. We remember him for his “Mighty lines” as the instrument of all dramatic expression, for his live and realistic characters, for his heroic subject matters, beautiful poetry and his passionate, energetic heroes.
      

Introduction of Dr. Faustus:

       Dr. Faustus is Marlowe’s second play, presents the tragedy of a German scholar and physician-Dr. Faustus. To learn magic he sells himself to the devil, on condition that he shall have 24 years of absolute power and knowledge. The play is the story of these 24 years. The play has an unusual number of passages of rare poetic beauty. The story of Dr. Faustus is very pathetic and the moment when he departure to hell is extremely tragic.

Element of Christian Morality in Dr. Faustus:  

      Dr. Faustus has many features of a morality play. The conflict between good and evil, theme of sin, redemption and damnation is shown. The pageant of the seven deadly sins is also shown in the play.

      Dr. Faustus has element of Christian morality. It takes place in an explicitly Christian cosmos: God sits on high, as the judge of the world and every soul goes either to hell or to heaven. There are devils and angels, the devils tempting people into sin and angels urging them to remain true to God.

      Faustus’s story is tragedy in Christian terms, because he gives into temptation and is damned to hell. His principal sin in his great pride and ambition which can be contrasted with Christian virtue of humility; by letting this traits rule his life, Faustus allows his soul to be claimed by Christian cosmology’s prince of devils Lucifer. 

     The play gives a very basic Christian message that one should avoid temptation and sin and repent. If one cannot avoid, its conclusion can be interpreted as straying from orthodox Christianity in order to conform to the structure of tragedy.

     In Christianity, as long as person is alive, there is always the possibility of repentance, so if tragic hero realises his mistake, he may still be saved even at the last moment. But though Faustus in the final wrenching scene comes to his senses and begs for a chance to repent, it is too late, and he is carried off to hell. 

         These ways, the play has many element of Christian morality. Its base is on Christianity. We can say the play Christian moral tragedy with the reasons given above.

‘Marlowe and God: the tragic theology of Dr. Faustus’ the essay by Robert Ornstein:

          In the essay ‘Marlowe and God’ Robert Ornstein presents interpretations based on the biographical evidence of atheism and scholarly investigations of Elizabethan thoughts and dramatic traditions, Marlowe’s artistic theme and moral attitude

           Robert Ornstein made thorough study of Dr. Faustus the play and biography of Christopher Marlowe and how Marlow presents his atheism or Christianity in the Christian morality play. Robert Ornstein presents his views on these subjects in the essay this way.

           Biographical investigation have not solved the problems of interpreting Marlowe’s artistic intention, they have swept away some dubious assumptions which have muddled critical inquiry.

            Marlow greatly portrayed Faustus’ struggle his wavering between exhilaration and despondency stoic resolution and despair might have provided an essential core of physical and moral action between the first and the last act. But though Marlowe superbly portrays his hero on the heights of aspiration and in the depth of despair, he does not trace the path which leads Faustus from one spiritual extreme to the other. He allows the allegorical machinery of good and bad angels to conventionalize and externalize Faustus’ spiritual struggles.     

            “Marlowe attempts in art the impossible: namely, to translate into specific human terms and effective theatre his amorphous, rhapsodic idea of man’s transcendent potentialities.” With this, writer perhaps, wants to say that, with the character of Faustus, Marlowe shows his internal struggle on Christianity. He questioned the moral beliefs of Christianity and shows his uniqueness and courage to write this drama.

           We must necessarily distinguish between Marlowe’s life and his art. We cannot assume that the two are completely unrelated. We can make interpretation of Dr. Faustus by knowing about contemporary opinions about Marlowe and by putting in our mind the ideas attributed to him by contemporary accusers.

           Marlowe shows Renaissance spirit, ideas in his Dr. Faustus. His enthusiasm, liberty and trust of knowledge are also representation of contemporary era. He also, Dr. Faustus also studies as Renaissance martyr.

            Marlowe’s contemporaries exaggerated as well as distorted his heterodoxy. Vehement accusations of atheism were notoriously casual and inaccurate in the renaissance, and Marlowe was the kind of man who incited other men’s malice and enmity. Dr. Faustus is nothing else but only representation of Marlowe’s ideas, his questions, and his vision and of his time-the Elizabethan age with all his characteristics. 
    

Marlowe’s Atheism:

              The evidence of Marlowe’s “atheism” is circumstantial; one is nevertheless struck by the correspondence and consistency of the accusations made against Marlowe. The legend of Marlowe’s atheism could have flourished well into the 17^th century. That way, ‘Dr. Faustus’ is orthodox play of his time and even today.

               ‘Dr. Faustus’ is Marlowe’s last play. If we assume that ‘Dr. Faustus’ composed in the last year of Marlowe’s life, is a piece of orthodox morality, than we must wonder at the sordid and unregenerate circumstances of Marlowe’s death. We see in ‘Dr. Faustus’ Marlowe’s testament of despair, then we see also a perfect correspondence between the nihilism of Marlowe’s art and life.

                Marlowe, in the last weeks of his life, courted the stake by publicly and repeatedly declaring atheistic and treasonous libels.

                Marlowe’s atheism, we can see in ‘Dr. Faustus’ this way, it is not to be Faustus to walk the path that the chorus delineates. For though the chorus speaks of the bough that might have grown straight, its metaphor of growth and fulfilment is earthbound and passive. The heroic choice is not between alternative paths of self-fulfilment but between the self-destructiveness of mighty strivings and the salvation that demands self-abnegation and the denial of heroic aspiration. For inevitably man’s attempts at greatness must break against a universal order which is predicted on, and which is demands human obedience and denial.    

               Marlowe’s hero does not cry out against worlds out of ethical joint. They hurl the gauntlets of their will and ambition at whatever gods may be. Ultimately and inevitably he must set his standard against heavens. Dr. Faustus as cosmic tragedy, where fundamental questions are raised about man’s destiny. Dr. Faustus is an inevitable reaction against earlier attempts to magnify Marlowe’s importance as intellectual rebel and prophet.

                Marlowe was fascinated by the superhuman and by the very metaphysical speculations which seemed to Bacon barren and futile. Despite a wide- ranging scepticism about religious belief, he hungered for an altitude of thought and experience. Marlowe’s God is no tired vaudevillian, as Sartre imagines, his heroes’ blasphemy is not a denial of God but a challenge to his supremacy. They do not deify mankind, they would be Gods. Marlowe’s mind is more medieval than modern. Marlowe’s hero Dr. Faustus, begin as lovers of the world and end as nihilists. They can never accept the elemental fact of his humanity.

                 Renaissance plays saw, all philosophy is learning how to die. But for Marlowe, the crux of philosophy is ‘why’ men must die? In Dr. Faustus his quarrel with Christianity continues.

                 Thus, Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus is though Christian play, but it represents Marlowe’s atheism towards Christianity and its beliefs. That way, we can also call the play ‘anti - Christian’. Robert Ornstein can present this very beautifully and philosophically in his essay, to convince us easily.

Conclusion:

                   Marlowe is a man of free thinking. He started quarrel against God’s rules. He shows his heroes with dignity of man and cannot live with limits and under the rules of God. Marlowe believes that church is still place of superstitious rites and false authorities. The true revelation of the divine is the universe itself.

                ‘Dr. Faustus’ shows Marlowe’s questions against Christian morality. ‘Cannot god pity Faustus if Mephistopheles, old man and even fallen angels can pity him?’ ‘Is it necessary to feel guilty and pitiful condition and always repent to god? The questions are unanswerable in Marlowe’s mind. Marlow was a Renaissance man, he has enthusiasm and wanted to go beyond limits, he want to feel superior then god. So, his heroes are like that.

             Though, ‘Dr. Faustus’ has all element of Christian morality, it creates some questions in our mind about Christian superstitions and doubts Marlowe’s intentions. But Dr. Faustus can truly present Marlowe’s atheism, nihilism and internal struggle of Christianity and its ‘God’.