To an Elizabethan audience we can be sure that Faustus rebellion would be exhilarating and terrifying in equal measure. Explore this statement considering the cultural and religious values of Marlowes day.

Faustus’ eyes are glistened by the idea of gold and power, but he doesn’t realise until late on that he is losing his soul to a power he cannot control.

However, it is not only the religious values of an Elizabethan audience that would have lead to an exhilarating yet terrifying response. Cultural factors, including the society at the time, would have had a major affect on the audience’s reaction. In the Elizabethan era, there was the controlled and the controlling, the peasants and the ruling. This therefore meant that if given the chance to gain power, as Faustus had, many if not all of the people at that time would have snatched at the opportunity to gain immediate gratification, especially peasants. However, knowing the consequences, most people wouldn’t dare commit blasphemy, which is another reason as to why it would be so exciting yet frightening for an audience to watch.

It is understandable that a peasant, which was the dominant group in the Elizabethan era, would have wanted this immediate gratification, as they had nothing else and nothing to live for. They were uneducated and perhaps unaware of the consequences they would face. However, for Faustus, who was an educated doctor of middle class, it was both a naïve, and selfish act, as he set out to gain for himself, he was full of greed and used his power unwisely. As an audience at the theatre in those times, you were more often than not of a middle class background, and therefore you were more likely to be able to relate to the play as it was about someone of the same class as yourself. If it was a play of a peasant who sold his soul to the Devil, the audience were less likely to be excited and exhilarated, as they probably didn’t particularly care about peasants as they were of a lower class and status. But the fact that it was a tale of a man of their class and status made it much more dramatic, tense, exciting, yet terrifying to watch.

To conclude, it is clear that Faustus’ act of rebellion was both exhilarating and terrifying in equal measure, due to cultural factors at the time such as the  class differences in society, and also because of the religious values in a highly non-secular society. However, I believe that the audience would have had more of an exciting reaction to the play, as it was so dramatic and unheard of that no-one really knew the true consequence, but were excited to find out what would really happen.