Doctor Faustus - Christopher Marlowe

This is a joy to be able to write a review on my favourite play, I done this is 6th Year and got top marks coming first in the class for my essay and it was a play that I read that I could identify with quite readily.

Doctor Faustus is a play by Christopher Marlowe, and the ploit is that Faustus, a German scholar and lecturer of theology becomes obssessed with power and knowledge and thus makes a pact with the Devil to sell his soul in order to acheive this. For 20 years total knowledge and power, Faustus will sell his soul to the Devil. The plot may sound trivial at first glance, but upon reading it, the reader is rewarded with an incredibly masterful, rich and engaging performance that really does take the breath away.

The most successful aspect of the play is the character of Faustus and his doom, to begin with, in the very first scene, Faustus is considering all of the various schools of knowledge from law to medicine, to magic to theology. One cannot help but be impressed by the depths or heights of his ambitions, and though his language reveals someone who is obviously self-indulgent and pompous, at this stage Faustus is a lovable character because he is so human, and exudes a tragic grandeur about him .

", what a world of profit and delight, Of power, of honour, and omnipotence, Is promis'd to the studious artizan! All things that move between the quiet poles Shall be at my command: emperors and kings Are but obeyed in their several provinces; But his dominion that exceeds in this, Stretcheth as far as doth the mind of man; A sound magician is a demigod: Here tire, my brains, to gain a deity"

He quickly makes contact with the Devil and agrees upon the conditions of the agreement. An aspect of this play which many people are not fully aware of is that it was designed as a subtle criticism of the Catholic Church and though i am a member, the sardonic humour expressed is very amusing indeed. When Faustus makes contact with the Devils servant the demon true form is so repulsive, that Faustus requests that he return in a more suitable form:

" Thou art too ugly to attend on me: Go, and return an old Franciscan friar; That holy shape becomes a devil best".

An element of the play that I found so poignant is the degradation of Faustus, in the beginning, we intends to rule the oceand converse with kings, but towards the end of the play he is reduced to boxing the ears of the Pope, and to fetching out of season grapes for a bored noblewoman. This is so tragic as Faustus is wretched not only in thathe refuses to repent and to return to Christ, but because he has been tricked so cunningly, and has sold his soul in vain.

He is denied that what he truly desires, when he asks of Mephastophiles, the demon and servant of Lucifer, who created the stars and heavens, the demon is unable to respond, stating

"that is not against our kingdom; this is. Thou art damned; think thou of hell."

When he asks for a wife, he is instead given a she-demon, as marriage is a holy sacrament, and not something that the minions of Hell can provide.

One of the most touching scenes is before the end when Faustus realises that his time is drawing to an end, and seeks redemption not in God, but Helen of Troy in perhaps the most poignant and heart-breaking monologues in drama:

"Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.-- [Kisses her.] Her lips suck forth my soul: see, where it flies!-- Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again. Here will I dwell, for heaven is in these lips, And all is dross that is not Helena"

Here, Fausutus is so deluded and desperate he thinks that beauty can somehow elevate him and save, him the bitter irony that true beauty comes from God, as does all things, and the reader is left breathless as to how Faustus can be so close to redemption and yet still refuse to be saved. The inevitbale fate of Faustus though not unexpected is still painful, and the urgnecy to which he contemplates the final moments of his life is heart-wrenching.

Faustus, the true tragic figure serves as a painful reminder of the dangers of temptation and serves