Doctor Faustus -a morality play? we will discuss how the Renaissance tragedy Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe can be read as belonging to the realm of Morality plays with some significant deviations that indicate the ideological frameworks within whi

Further, there are elements which provide moral guidance; this can be seen in the play’s epilogue and in the character of the Old Man. The epilogue suggests this-“Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight…” Even the Old Man in Act 5 provides guidance to Faustus -“O gentle Faustus, leave this damned art…do not persevere in it like a devil…” Also,“the morality agents of temptation are vestigally represented in Doctor Faustus by the conjurors Valdes and Cornelius who lure Faustus to necromantic studies-and as quickly disappear” as noted by Robert A. Potter. The chief aim of the morality play was didactic. It was a dramatized guide to Christian living and Christian dieing. Whosoever discards the path of virtue and faith in God as well as Christ is destined to despair and eternal damnation-this can be taken to be the overt message of Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. And it has found the most touching expression in the closing lines of the play which warns against the pursuit of illegitimate forms of knowledge- “whose deepness doth entice such forward wits, to practice more than the heavenly power permits”. It is this reason why Hudson had rightly said-“No finer sermon then Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus ever came from the pulpit.” New Historicist readings however suggest that this supposedly overt cautionary Christian message may be a decoy to escape Puritan censorship. According to this perspective, the play can also be read as the atheist and nonconformist Marlowe’s critique of the regressive social and religious forces in the Renaissance world that inhibited and attempted to contain the purveyors of radical social or ideological change. (Look for quotes from the essays in your book – Sinfield etc that might support this kind of a reading)

The Morality tradition of the Presenter or Doctor who introduces and comments on the action, summing up its moral import is visible in Doctor Faustus through the chorus which unlike that of classical dramaturgy is not a group but a single choric figure. We find the chorus introducing the story in the Prologue just before the beginning of the first scene, subsequently filling the gaps of the narrative with elements that cannot be represented on stage and the ending the play with a very solemn moral in the Epilogue. Mephistopheles is clearly reminiscent of the Vice character in Morality plays, taking the role of the tempter in a manner both sinister and comic. The Morality tradition also comes into focus when salvation is being talked about as the “bliss” that ought to be the spiritual aim of every man. The pageant of the Seven Deadly Sins shows that Marlowe has adopted some of the conventions of the old Morality play, however unlike in the medieval tradition where it meant to be primarily cautionary in character, in Doctor Faustus it is a source of farcical entertainment meant to distract Faustus when he calls upon Christ. Apart from this, the comic scenes that deploy parody, slapstick humour and burlesque are similar to the farcical interludes interspersed between the scenes of serious medieval plays as a mode of comic relief and satirical comment. Finally just like many morality plays Doctor Faustus also suffers from looseness of construction especially in the middle part of the play.

Though to a great extent Doctor Faustus has most of the characteristics of a morality play, yet it’s there are some elements in which deviates it from the framework of a morality play. Such as the Seven Deadly Sins do feature, but play a tempting and a low comical role, rather than standing as a warning to the protagonist. Unlike the morality play we find evil spreading its hands over the power of goodness through the characters of Mephistopheles and the Bad Angel, who are dominant figures and influence Faustus by the temptations which ultimately lead to his ruin whereas the good characters like the Good Angel and the Old Man are simply ignored and seem ineffectual in leading Faustus to salvation. Further Faustus is a character with many traits akin to that of the hero of a tragedy where a noble man is the maker of his fate good or bad. Though his low birth makes him an “everyman” figure, his status as an accomplished scholar includes him in the ranks of the newly emerging social elite in the realm of Renaissance scholarship. His tragic flaw (hamartia) is spiritual pride (hubris) and overarching ambition-typical tragic elements.  His aspirations in the domain of knowledge, the semi-deity like powers he aspires to invite comparisons with Lucifer, Icarus as well as Adam and Eve. He falls from high to low and this is clear in his last soliloquy-“O soul, be changed into little water drops, And fall into ocean never to be found”. The colonial vocabulary that couches these aspirations locates this text in the world of the Renaissance characterised by pervasive change and ideological shifts. The contradictions of the age in the realm of scholarship (medieval scholasticism vs. Renaissance humanism) and in religion (Catholicism vs Protestantism and Free-will vs.  Calvinistic Predestination) are mapped in this play by juxtaposing elements of the Morality play and the humanistic tragedy in terms that are ambiguous and open to both conservative and radical readings.

Finally, unlike the morality plays where the moral is always positive and the goodness always triumphs over evil, truth over lies, and virtue over vice, the end is tragic, but just. There is no other fair outcome to his actions. The end of the play brings a process of catharsis for the audience, as our pity and fear for Faustus is released when we see justice being done, a typical tragic convention. Thus, Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus is “a Morality play with a difference” as it negates, to an extent, the typical notions of a Morality play. Hence, we can conclude by agreeing with Nicholas Brooke who states-“I believe that Marlowe’s adoption of Morality form must be seen as a deliberate mis-use of popular old-fashioned material”