Damnation of a Hero or Villain: Christopher Marlowe’s: The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus

Abstract

In this chapter, the focus will be on the Faustus myth in which Faustus is an overreacher, in pursuit of self knowledge, which he will achieve by going beyond the boundaries of traditional knowledge as propagated by the Orthodox institutions in the given culture.1 The Faustus myth, before being identified as a myth, was the folktale of a man named Faustus who lived in Germany. After his story became popular, he reappeared, even in contemporary culture, in different art forms such as literature both highbrow and popular, including comics, the ballet and the opera. The real historical Faustus came onto the scene as a scholar and persistently reappeared in literature assuming different identities, which however, shared basically the same qualities. In this study, the text of Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragicall Hiftory of the Life and Death of Doctor Favstvs which followed the original story of P.F. Gent’s translation of The Damnable Life and Deserved Death of Dr. Faustus from Johann Spies’ publication of the German Faustus Book is going to be analysed and interpreted. In spite of the different ages, cultures, histories, philosophies, what is common in all is that Faustian man and the basis of the Faustus myth has never changed and the underlying qualities remain the same throughout history. The Faustus myth starting with a historical person mirrors the Renaissance ambition of transcending the restrictions and limits drawn by God, and then it progresses towards the Enlightenment Period in which magic is overshadowed by money and materialism. Then gradual change gives birth to ambiguous, blurred, confusing values in the twentieth century. How each era, particularly the Renaissance Age, creates its own Faustus whether as a hero or a villain in a context of societal, political and historical in spite of the fact that the main concerns almost remain same is going to be scrutinized in this chapter. © Inter-Disciplinary Press 2011.