| Doctor Faustus was written by Marlowe for the | | | | interaction between the human dimensions of the |
| Admiral's men and staged in 1588. | | | | dramatic character and the ambiguities and |
| The first Quarto edition was published in 1604. | | | | ambivalences of the cultural situation the |
| In1616, an enlarged edition of the play was | | | | character is placed in. The play is played out in |
| published containing many comics scenes that | | | | five Acts. Act I establishes Faustus' tragedy. Act |
| were absent in 1604 edition. The contemporary | | | | II unfolds his tragedy in greater detail. The |
| editions of Doctor Faustus depend upon both the | | | | egocentric self temptation of Act I give way to |
| above versions of the play. | | | | an agonizing conflict between the religiously |
| There are several conflicting traditions at the | | | | constituted self and the aberrations of its human |
| dramatic core of Doctor Faustus. There is | | | | impulses. Faustus despairs in God, a despair that |
| evidence of the influence of the traditions of | | | | makes him continue his self indulgence for which |
| orthodox Christianity, of the reformation, the | | | | the King of Devils provides the fascination and the |
| Renaissance, of Paganism, of individualism and the | | | | means. |
| incipient scientific modernity. The strength of the | | | | As despair leads to the self indulgent belief that |
| play lies in its disturbing impact on the audience, | | | | divine providence as well as divine wrath cannot |
| both Elizabethan and modern. Doctor Faustus | | | | reach him, Faustus signs the pact with the devil |
| explains a moment in history. Its tragedy is a | | | | giving away his soul in return for his services. The |
| national or cultural predicament. It is the dramatic | | | | course of Faustus rebellion through the third and |
| story of human presumption, temptation, and | | | | the fourth Acts is totally unheroic. Faustus seeks |
| damnation and fall. Doctor Faustus is a tragic | | | | and Mephistopheles plans a series of comic |
| version of heroic human possibilities where | | | | indulgences mainly to distract the former's mind |
| Faustus is the antithesis of the protagonists of | | | | from the tormenting religious awareness. As |
| morality plays. Where the morality play heroes | | | | Faustus reaches his rebellious and tragic death in |
| were passionless, Faustus was passionate. If | | | | Act V, the nature of his death and the attendant |
| morality heroes are self effacing human beings, | | | | torment bespeaks a magnificent tragedy. The |
| Faustus is superhuman in his ambitions. | | | | tragic conflict does not abate till the end. |
| Doctor Faustus is a Christian morality play. It | | | | The play is a static play of tragic irresolution. The |
| signaled the refashioning of the morality play. The | | | | play stagnates in the middle sections of the third |
| play is a human tragedy for not only is Faustus | | | | and fourth Acts, so much so that it distracts the |
| tragically constituted in his boundless ambitions but, | | | | audience. Though loose in form and disjointed in its |
| the same time, the play questions the | | | | dramatic power, Doctor Faustus has huge appeal |
| effectiveness of the cultural aspirations that shape | | | | even in the 21st century. |
| his ambitions. The play provides a complex | | | | |