dr. faustus as a morality play

 

dr. faustus as a morality play  

DR FAUSTUS AS A MORALITY PLAY:

 

There were three sorts of liturgical theatre in the beginning: mystery, morality and miracle. The morality play is a type of miracle play that combines allegory with religious theatre. It grew in popularity during the Middle Ages. Good acts, Faith, Mercy, Anger, Truth, Pride, and other virtues and vices were personified abstractions in this drama.

The overriding theme of the moralities was religious, with the fundamental theme being the struggle for control of man's soul between good and evil energies, with good always triumphing. A single enormous figure dominates the entire morality drama. The seven deadly sins were discovered physically and verbally combating cardinal virtues. For example, the antics of vices and devils gave plenty of fodder for low humor or buffoonery.

Morality plays sometimes concluded with a serious moral. Taking into considerations, we can label Marlowe's "Dr. Faustus," despite its tragic finale, a late morality play. Characters in morality plays were once thought to be embodied abstractions of vice or virtue. The Good and Evil angels appear in ''Dr. Faustus,'' the former representing goodness and the latter doom and sin , the former representing knowing and the latter yearning. Then there's the old man, who tells Faustus that he's there ''To guide’ thistles unto the way of life." He represents the energies of  morality and justice. The seven deadly sins are also there in a spectacular display to pick up Faustus's despondent soul. 

If the general theme of morality plays was theological "Dr. Faustus" may be classified as a religion or morality play to a large extent. We find Faustus rejecting the Bible, Christ the Trinity. He surrenders his soul to the Devil out of his unreasonable goal to gain:

''-----a world of profit and delight ‘..... of omnipotence.’’

 About the books of magic, he declares:

''These metaphysics of magicians,..... are heavenly''

 He lives a vulgar life after selling his soul to the Devil.  His colossal ambition and conscience, as displaced by good and evil angels, are at odds. But Faustus has already embraced Evil Angel's advice, which is to ''Be thou on earth as Jove in the sky.'' The idea fascinates Faustus as well:

''A sound magician is a mighty god,

Here, Faustus, tire thy brains to gain a deity.''

Whenever the final hours approach, Faustus realizes he is on the verge of eternal punishment and sobs bitterly:

''My God, my God, look not so fierce to me!''

The chorus tradition has been preserved as well. The chorus introduces the play by telling the story just before the first scene. The inclusion of seven deadly sins demonstrates that Marlowe used some of the patterns of previous Morality plays in "Dr. Faustus." The seven deadly sins of classic Morality plays—pride, covetousness, wrath, envy, gluttony, sloth, and lechery—are very much present in this play in a big spectacle to pick up Faustus's downtrodden soul. The ancient popular and well-known figure of the devil is also there. In numerous instances, Mephistopheles, Lucifer's assistant, appears as a submissive slave of Faustus. The humorous moments in "Dr. Faustus" are also reminiscent of classic Morality plays. The comedy moments were not a necessary part of the plays, but they were included to keep the audience entertained.

The morality play's main goal was didactic, and through this drama, Marlowe teaches that a man who wishes to be God is bound to eternal damnation. It was a dramatic portrayal of Christian living and dying. The message of Marlowe's Dr. Faustus is that whomever abandons the path of virtue and faith in God and Christ is doomed to despair and eternal damnation.

And it gets the most emotional expression in the play's last lines: 

''Whose deepness doth …… power permits.''

 Many hilarious scenes are depicted in "Dr. Faustus," including  the planting of horns on the head of a knight, his pranks on the Pope, and the deception of a greedy horse-dealer. They shed light on the nature of Dr. Faustus' tragedy. The comedic episodes emphasize Faustus' descent to the level of a depraved, fun-loving magician. There is only one towering figure in "Dr. Faustus," and all of the action and happenings revolve around him. The play thereafter suffers from loose composition, much like the previous Morality plays, especially in the middle section.

Though "Dr. Faustus" is primarily a morality drama, it does contain some characteristics that distinguish it from previous morality plays. The difference is that all characters in morality plays are concepts rather than concrete people. However, in "Dr. Faustus," the main figure, Faustus, is a human with passions and high ambitions, not an abstraction. He, like all other humans, is a living being. The element of conflict, on the other hand, is the source of the whole action in the play, and the plot of the play is defined by the movement of the action. The greatest battleground for internal or spiritual warfare is Faustus' heart and soul. Despite the fact that Faustus has rejected God and formed a bargain with the devil, there is a fight in his thoughts between good and evil, and he suffers from conscience pricks.

Like a scorpion, a rising sense of loss and the wages of "damnation" begins to bite him.

''When I behold the heaven, ……deprived me of those joys''

This internal conflict in Faustus is a tragedy, not a morality play, which leads us to believe that it is not a morality play. The moral of a morality play is always positive, with kindness triumphing over evil, truth over deception, and virtue over vice. Virtue is rewarded at all times. However, in "Dr. Faustus," evil spreads its mighty hands over kindness before laying it down.

Faustus obeys the evil angel's advice and is finally devastated.   He is unable to repent, and the devil has gained possession of his soul. This moral is negative, which is contrary to how morality is played. Furthermore, in this play, Faustus plays joks on the pope and the knight, mocking them. Instead of the devil, the Pope plays the butt of this terrible comedy. Faustus is the ideal hero for a tragedy in which man alone determines his fate, whether good or bad. He falls because of his own free will, not because of the vagaries of fate or even though he's been corrupted by Mephistopheles, Lucifer's agent; the devil. Faustus, as a tragic hero, was ruled by an uncontrollable passion or inordinate ambition. He deteriorates from high to low, as evidenced by his soliloquy, in which he says:

''O soul, be changed …….never to be found!''

The hero of a morality drama cannot be such a horrible character. As a result Dr. Faustus can never be fully understood as a morality play. It is the finest heroic tragedy before Shakespeare. This play serves as the conclusion of Shakespeare's Morality plays and the start of his tragedy.