An Abstract on “Doctor Faustus”
This drama should be regarded as a skeletal structure of the play written by Marlowe,
for the surviving manuscripts are so interspersed with comic
scenes and the lines themselves so often revised according to whims of the actors that the original writing must be culled out of the surviving version. Even so, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus is worth reading and study because of the many remaining examples of the poet’s skill it contains.
There is evidently more than what meets the eye in Doctor Faustus, otherwise, its story-element which is too brief and simple, has not by itself the power of creating a lasting impression and an abiding appeal. The play may have had an immediate interest to the people of the Renaissance age because it was written in and for that age, and also because Faustus typifies the genuine Renaissance passion for knowledge infinite. The play, it is true, is a typical Renaissance rendering of the story upon which it is based. But the fact that it is still a favourite of every reader of English drama inspite of three-and-half centuries of changing tastes and temperaments, goes to prove that Doctor Faustus has its greatness not as a mere typical. Renaissance play but as a play embodying eternal significance.
Faustus, the chief and central figure of Marlowe’s play, stands not for a character, not for a man, but for Man, for everyman. The grim tragedy that befalls him is not a personal tragedy, but one that overtakes all those who dare ‘practise more than heavenly power permits.’ The terrible
conflict that rages in his mind is not peculiar to him alone, but common to all who waver between truth and delusion. The play presents
not the conflict between man and man, but the eternal battle between the world-old protagonists-Man and Spiritual Power. And the battle takes place not in any known battlefield but in the invisible and illimitable region of the mind. And the object of fight—not scepters and crowns, not kingdoms ande mpires, but the knowledge of man’s final fate’
The mystery of life is an alluring and impenetrable one. Innumerable have been the attempts of scholars and scientists, poets and prophets, to pluck out the heart of this mystery. Yet baffling one and all, it continues to be a mystery. Part at least of this mystery is due to the perpetual conflict between good and evil—a conflict without beginning and end. The conflict is terrible, but in that very terror there is an irresistible fascination. Doctor Faustus exercises on its readers, Faustus, the Teutonic and medieval sceptic, personifies disbelief in all its strength and weakness. Tired of what he calls barren knowledge, he deliberately seeks`to learn and practice magic, magic that has been practiced since te beginning of
The history of thought by those who have `chosen wrong road. Blind in is blind determination, Faustus becomes ideal to the counsels of good that are constantly whispered into his ears by the Good Angel.
And too, there is ever present in man irrepressible temptation to reach that which is beyond his grasp, to conquer the infinite, to touch the impalpable, to see the invisible, to attain the impossible. In spite of examples from history, in spite of warnings and threats man never gives up this instinct of his, never rests contented with what he has. He is forever eager to follow the dubious trial of some melting mirage of the mind, and ready to stake his all, if necessary, in its pursuit. Doubtful though of his success, he still throws his red gauntlet in the face of fate, defies chance and circumstance, and hopes to reach his goal. May be the roses of reward will not be his, but his surely will be crown of martyrdom. And both the attempts--- the attempt to acquire forbidden things and the attempt to secure martyrdom--- have their fascinating appeal. And Faustus, as we know, is both the hero and martyr of forbidden knowledge.
As already mentioned Doctor Faustus consists only of scenes, of fourteen short scenes. Marlowe never cared to arrange them in Acts and Scenes according to the traditional manner. Some of the recent editors, have, however, attempted to do so. According to this arrangement the first Act consists of the first four scenes. The next two scenes constitue the second Act. The seventh scene, with the Chorus preceding it, is the third Act. Scenes eight, nine, ten and eleven are marked off as the fourth Act. The last two scenes form the fifth Act.
Conclusion
In spite of this, Doctor Faustus is a great play and a great tragedy. A close examination will reveal to us how wonderfully Marlowe has succeeded in producing a work of at from the chaotic Northern and Teutonic Faustus. The most striking thing that endows the play with a tragic unity is the character of the hero—whose mind is a battle-ground between the forces of curiosity and conscience. Marlowe’s indisputable merit consists in delineating with great tragic power the figure of great tragic hero. Marlowe’s Faustus, scholarly and skeptical, defiant and desperate, combines in himself the characteristics of medieval rebel and a Renaissance adventure. It is the psychological study of this character that Marlowe draws with great mastery, and it is this that makes Doctor Faustus more a dramatic poem that a drama proper.