All characters within the story Doctor Faustus are lonely, and some confide to evil to relinquish their loneliness.

As England moved to a Protestant country in the 16th century, Roman Catholicism were often ridiculed, which is what happened to the Pope in Doctor Faustus. He’s isolated from the rest of society and portrayed as an evil character. Christopher Marlowe depicts him as a cruel, power hungry character to please his protestant audience, in which Faustus plays some cruel tricks on him. The Pope is a perfect example of Gluttony “who’s that which snatched the meat from me?” portraying him as Gluttonous, and on stage he would most likely be played by an obese actor, it sends the message that he’s wasteful and selfish. Marlowe even shows that the Pope has lost spiritual connection with God, which also highlights his lonliness when the Friar calls upon God to get rid of Faustus who is mistaken for a spirit, God doesn’t intervene. Not only does the Friar ask God to intervene for minor things “Cursed be he that stole away his holiness’ meat from the table” it shows how foolish the whole process of rituals are. But to a modern audience, the fascination comes from seeing the Pope, the supposed ‘God on Earth’ being treated badly and shows the transformation from Catholic to Protestant, the Pope isn’t evil in respect of doing evil deeds, . But he’s been cut off from English society.

Faustus isn’t inherently evil. He doesn’t want to be evil; he just wants knowledge and power and because the only way he’ll acquire this is through Lucifer. He becomes blinded and the facade of knowledge and greed for power consumes Faustus. He’s lonely because no one can relate to him. His ‘friends’ use him because he can do supernatural things, “since we have seen the pride of Nature’s works[...]let us depart” which goes to show that Faustus is only popular when he can entertain. He has no one he can truly rely on in the play, apart from Mephastophilis, but then Mephastophilis is only doing it out of unwillingness and his only desire to acquire Faustus’ soul. Christopher Marlowe portrays Faustus as lonely through the actions he does, entertaining himself through the cruelty of others, for example when he played the trick on the horse keeper, and the Pope and also his desire to want a wife shows his loneliness as he needs a companion, someone he can trust and love. Things he lacks in reality.