A War Between Good And Evil: Marlowe's Dr. Faustus

During the Renaissance time period, an era of evolution in society and culture, the diversion of religious association was ever so present. The Catholic and Protestant churches, while deriving from the same origin, had key differences that in many ways was not favored by the other. In one of English History’s most prevailing and significant events, the English Reformation set a final and resolute division of the two religious factions. The reformation was a combination of several factors. For long, the Catholic Church, ¨…whose popes and bishops were demonstrating an increasing abuse of spiritual power for political and material gain…¨(Durham World Heritage) created a tension of both distrust and heavy rebellion. Furthermore, the Catholic rule had a Religious conflict that began with Henry VIII, the current King of England, in 1527 when he desired to annul his first of six marriages. To little surprise, the current Pope and Henry came into a disagreement that evidently led to the creation of one of English history’s most significant events, the initiation of the English Reformation. Showing the slightest backhand to the Pope’s rejection of his goals of divorce, King Henry’s initiation of the English Reformation stripped the Pope’s authority as well as the Roman Catholic Church from the Church of England, permanently severing the two. In addition, the start of the Protestant Reformation, a movement to further challenge the Catholic Church began and finalized the separation of the two factions, Protestant and Catholic. Finally, the separation and practice of Christianity and Catholicism is final and later becomes a source of inspiration to a multitude of topics.

In light of this inspiration, the vast amount of both religious and political tension was portrayed in literature in ways never seen before. Authors, poets, and novelists of the time used this historical drama and emulated it into their pieces of work, creating a reading experience that exudes relatable situations. One play in particular, Dr. Faustus, written by the great Christopher Marlowe had deep roots tied within the current religious tension. The play revolves around the showcasing of one character, Dr. Faustus, an accomplished scholar who stumbles upon religion and abruptly abandons his ways of life to pursue the title of a godlike being, driven by the power of greed. In his nearly impossible quest, the scholar dabbles the depths of dark magic to eventually conjure Lucifer. This decision and tale of Faustus become a devastating ordeal in which the tides of good and evil is summoned to be chosen. Faustus must make a decision between the two sides that become an ongoing battle. A deal is made between the two in which Faustus becomes “…completely unaware of his ignorance and blinded by his self-conceit.”( Pinciss, G.M.), and will die in 24 years whilst possessing a demonic servant, Mephastophilis, and godlike powers. In his final 24 years, Faustus contemplates the ideas of good and evil that through the craft of Christopher Marlowe, uses Elizabethan/ Renaissance views, dramatic conventions, and language.

Christian views within Dr. Faustus can be interpreted as one of its many key principles. While Christopher Marlowe was an atheist, he was also surrounded by a vast and complex relationship within society regarding religion that is frequently seen in Dr. Daustus. Marlowe was born during the start of the Renaissance, a newly awakened spirit of the English people. An incredible historical time of rebirth where cultures changed and society shifted their ideas to new ones. The main components of this new spirit are “…individualism and worldliness; and these two traits found manifestation in many forms such as its great yearning for knowledge and learning without fetters…’ (Iftikhar, Shabnum , 2014), can be directly linked to Dr. Faustus. In act 1, scene 1, Dr. Faustus is in his study, where he is in conflict by what new path of knowledge should he walk upon next. Readers are given a sense of how many degrees Faustus has, ranging from medicine to law and science that all present, yet he wants more. Faustus’s yearning for deeper knowledge and hungry willingness to attain it any means necessary eventually finds an answer. He arrives at the subject of Theology where he reads about God and the great power that religion, both good and evil holds. He quotes the first book of Jon from the Bible. He reads, “The reward of sin is death? That’s hard.” and “If we say that we have no sin, We deceive ourselves, and there’s no truth in us.” (Marlowe, pg 1130). In simple translation, the act of sinning brings our eternal damnation as people yet everyone sins, therefore Christianity shall only lead us to our doom, making it an inadequate source of gain for Faustus. However, the next lines of the book, “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9), proves the previous lines wrong but becomes unapparent to Faustus. We can see that in his insatiable obsession for knowledge, he turns to the dark arts of magic rather than the redemptive God. At this point, readers see that Faustus made the impulse decision to cross the bridge between good and evil, abandoning himself a connection with God. How this ties within Renaissance views is almost too obvious. This directly ties into the principles in which the Renaissance was known for, “ Great yearning for power”, seen in Faustus and found in his multitudes of degrees and the “learning without fetters”, simply meaning to pursue without hesitation or remorse, is exemplified by his eagerness in Theology and unwillingness to side with God. Marlowe, in one of his most precious works, creates a character that is an exemplary example of the definition of the Renaissance that also shows the struggle of good and evil within current society. Faustus is an atheist who happened to dip his toes into the waters of religion and evidently chooses the wrong path, yet in a way, his actions are an exact incarnation of the Renaissance. Marlowe conveys this, along with other ideas smoothly throughout his text.

Throughout the play, Marlowe implores a wide range of dramatic conventions: tools, and techniques often used by authors to convey messages to the reader. In scene 5, Marlowe uses a technique that in many ways can be seen as the epitome of the struggle between good and evil. We find Faustus alone, after his summoning of a demon named Mephastophilis that presented him with a deal only the devil could conjure, contemplating over whether it is worth saying no to God for his own personal gain of the dark side. He is then accompanied by an imaginary consciousness that shows readers his internal struggle, a Good and an Evil Angel. Even though these two Angels seem to be different characters communicating to Faustus, they are simply just a representation of Faustus and his internal conflict of morals. These two sides of his consciousness give their own arguments and counterarguments to whether or not Faustus should indulge in the dark arts. Good Angel believes that Faustus should forego the path in which he seeks because it will only lead to his doom and that Scripture, the preaching of Christ, will save him. However, the Evil Angel attempts to convince Faustus into turning toward evil because of its material gain both in power and status, playing with one of Christianity’s notable ideas, the seven deadly sins, in this setting, being greed. These two continue to battle within Faustus’s conflicted mind, waging different yields of reason and debate. As the scene comes to a halt, the Good Angel and Bad Angel’s back-and-forth ends as the Good Angel admits the defeat of Faustus’s soul. The Bad Angel then informs Faustus that he must prepare for hell and the damned souls that await him. Despite the Good Angel’s greatest efforts, the Bad Angel captures Faustus’s soul, establishing the symbolic dark fate that Faustus now accepts. In this scene, readers get the perfect example of a dramatic convention Marlowe uses, internal character conflict. By using these two characters, Marlowe established a war that occurs within Faustus’s mind. Faustus, like any other human, possesses the instinct of right and wrong, however, the bridge between these two sides snap, evidently showing readers the defeat of his sense of good. The Good being Faustus’s sense of morality and his newfound belief and yearn for knowledge in God and religion that is inspired by the author’s setting during the renaissance age. And the Evil can be interpreted as the symbol of the Roman Catholic Church and their abuse of spiritual power for sinful gain, a power Faustus desperately wants and eventually accepts. This use of dramatic conventions does not end and becomes even more profound two scenes later.

As readers progress into scene 7, they are presented with an entirely different situation, one that unlike scene 5, is comical, yet it still captures the image of Faustus’s battle with good and evil. Faustus and Mephastophilis are making their way to Rome, motivated by Faustus’s interest in a place he has never ventured to. On their journey, Faustus comments on what he sees along the way, noting mountains, France, Naples, and even Venice. Once arrived, Mephastophilis makes acquaintances at a residence in which they are not invited, the pope’s “privy chamber,” (Marlowe, pg 1148), showing that Faustus simply no longer has regard for others nor respect. When the pope and a group of friars enter, Faustus begins to play tricks on them consisting of snatching plates and cups from their hands; they then end it all with a hit to the pope on his ear. Then, the friars accompanying the pope begin to sing a dirge in an attempt to rid the evil spirit, which is obviously Faustus and his pet demon, that seems to be present, Mephistophilis and Faustus begin to beat them and fling fireworks among them. At this point in the play, readers can begin to see the deterioration of Faustus’s soul and a shot fired at Catholicism. When the audience saw that he fell to the dark side in scene 5, Faustus was still himself. But, like any transition comes change and when bounded by the promises of Lucifer and hell, we can see positivity does not reside at the end of the path. We see that Faustus, once a man of great knowledge, “…renowned for his learning…going through the entire range of medieval disciplines–Aristotelian logic, Galenic medicine, Justinian law, Jerome’s Vulgate.”(Chakravorty, Swapan), collapses, emphasizing to readers the dramatic shift of the main character. His newly presented childlike behavior is the polar opposite of the character once portrayed to the audience, a once driven, knowledgable and persistent character that in his dealings with Lucifer, truly lost himself. However, this does not stop Marlowe from using satire to commemorate the presentation of this Evil. While the scene is entertaining, some might even see what Faustus is doing as good, specifically good for Christianity. Marlowe’s technique pranks the highest-ranking official of the Roman Catholic Church, the Pope, showing Marlowe has an exact target and makes it seem comical yet riddles it with a purposeful religious attack that sides with a Christian audience. This relates to the reality of the time, similar to exacting revenge to a hated enemy. Marlowe uses the internal conflict technique along with satire and executing it through the Angels and mockery of Catholicism, molded by the deep connections to the Protestant and Catholic views, shapes perfect examples of Good versus Evil. In continuation of these techniques, Marlowe uses languaged approaches to emphasize his ideas.

The expression of language, particularly Latin, within society at the time of Faustus was written was strictly regulated. Latin is most notably the language of the Roman Catholic Church, found in the Bible and scripture in every church known to man. Often times, the individuals that speak Latin can be found within the Church or the higher class of society. Latin is also used on rare occasions throughout history for exorcisms and supernatural occurrences aligning itself directly to the context of our play that involves quite the amount of supernatural operations. Previously in scene 3, Faustus attempts to summon Evil with his newfound fondness for dark magic.

“…Within this circle is Jehovah’s name,

Forward and backward anagrammatis’d, 10

The breviated names of holy saints,…” (Marlowe, pg 1134)

Here we see a collision of confusion within Faustus. That night, Faustus stands in a magical circle marked with various signs and words, and then chants in Latin. Four devils and Lucifer, the ruler of hell, watch him from the shadows. Faustus renounces heaven and God, swears allegiance to hell, and demands that Mephastophilis must rise to serve him. A sense of irony is seen in this transaction. Marlowe uses language to incorporate the irony between good and evil that establishes to the readers that Faustus is becoming closer to eternal damnation. Readers can link this to scene 3 in order to understand that Faustus, in his goal of achieving great power through the arms of Evil, must first handshake with the grips of God. It is a sacrilegious act and Faustus takes care to abolish every hallmark of salvation, “…the triune God, the Christian Redemption, and the Baptismal inclusion of man into Redemptive powers…” (O’Brien, Margaret Ann , pg 4), through his vows by which he farewells Satan and adopts the belief in Christ. In his goal to summon evil and to also grasp the power he seeks must first preach and language that ties deeply into what he ignores, the love and grace of Jehovah, “…the true God of the Bible, the Creator of all things.” (Jehovah’s Witnesses). As early as scene 3, Marlowe has already sealed the fate of Faustus, telling readers that he will in the end, fall victim to evil and will have a tale worth telling.

The play of Dr. Faustusis a winding and tumbling play that by the hands of Christopher Marlowe becomes a deep, hypnotizing spell of good and evil through a multitude of historical relations, literary techniques, and adaptations of language. Marlowe provides the audience with an exemplary incarnation of the Renaissance times including its initiation, the English Reformation. By using the reality that encompassed his life, Marlowe molded his play entirely on historical drama. Faustus’s actions acted out on the pages gave a clear and concise inspiration of the Renaissance’s theme of exploration, knowledge-seeking, and the will to do so without the shackles of fear. Marlowe also uses techniques that embody good and evil such as using the Good Angel and Evil Angel tactic. A process in which the conflict of the mind is laid out like war. His other technique of satire reflects not only upon Faustus’s now evil nature but the mockery of the Roman Catholic Church, a clear enemy of the Protestant/ Christian faction. Marlowe also wittily creates a seriously offensive religious attack that is also comedic to Christian audiences. Finally, Marlowe meddles within the language of Latin. Encasing the transition of Faustus’s alignment with good and evil as an ironic twist of words and incantation that leads to Faustus’s doom. However, the rain of curiosity is unclouded in such circumstances. The chances of Faustus defeating the grips of Evil and embracing the hugs of Christ are not far fetched. His possible venture into salvation and redemption is possible. In another story, written by another author, maybe the Scholar could have lived an educated and enlightened life distanced from hell.