Marlowe

Christopher Marlowe
Marlowe was one of the most important writers of this period. He was born in Canterbury in 1564
(two months before Shakespeare).
He studied at Cambridge University. , where he obtained a degree. He became part of a group of
intellectuals called University Wits*. He moved to London where he established himself
as the most important playwright of the day.
In an age of Catholic versus Protestant political intrigue he became a very important secret agent
of the Queen.
He died in a mysterious way in a London tavern in 1593.
* The phrase “University Wits” refers to a group of young intellectuals who had a University
degree (mainly from Oxford or Cambridge) and contributed to transforming English medieval
drama into early modern drama, thus preparing the way for Shakespeare.
Main Works
Tamburlaine the Great: (1587) a play that speaks about a man who looks for material power and
becomes the ruler of Asia.
Doctor Faustus: (1588-89) a play based on the Old German legend of a man who sells his soul to
the devil to have an unlimited knowledge.
The Jew of Malta (1590), the protagonist aspires to become richer, he wants more money, but he is
punished for his arrogance,
Edward II (1591)
Main themes
Marlowe’s plays embody the true spirit of the Renaissance, concentrating on man as opposed to
God,
The main themes are the lust for power, the desire to break free from the restrictions of the Church,
the limitations of knowledge and the demands of ruthless ambition in the face of the prevailing
morality - lust for power and ambition,
- desire to break free from the limitations of the Church and knowledge
Doctor Faustus
It speaks about the actions of a man called John Faustus a magician and charlatan who lived in
Germany at the beginning of the 16th century.
Faustus is a man who has studied a lot, knows everything about theology, knowledge. philosophy
and medicine. But is not enough for him, he wants to know more and achieve unlimited knowledge.
Faustus is attracted by the possibility of obtaining universal knowledge, something that belongs
only to God and human beings.
The devil tempts him and tells him he will give him absolute knowledge for 24 years in exchange
for his soul.
Attracted by the dream of supreme power, Faustus agrees to sell his soul.
The devil gives him a knowledge that does not satisfy Faustus completely: the devil’s knowledge
turns to be disappointing.
After 24 years the devil comes to take his soul: in the last minute he repents his sins and begs for
mercy, but it is too late, there is no salvation for him. At midnight the devil appears and carries his
soul off to Hell.
The original title of this play was “The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus”. The play is seen as a
tragedy, a play in which the arrogance of its protagonist leads him to damnation and self-
destruction.
The title (Doctor) makes it clear that he is a learned man, an individual who has obtained a title of
doctor at university (he studied at Wittenberg, the same University as Luther). He is just like
Marlowe, a graduated man with lots of aspirations: the knowledge that he obtained at University has
led him to go beyond the limits and reach absolute power and knowledge.
Even if Doctor Faustus is regarded as a morality play, it is different from the medieval play
Everyman, where Death is a character, God is rigid and vindictive, and the only life possible to
reach eternal salvation is the one leading to death.
Faustus does not believe in predestination and in life after death; according to him, theology and
philosophy, that is, medieval and Renaissance thought, are too restrictive. Faustus views his pact
with the devil as the only means to fulfill his ambitions.
Doctor Faustus has many elements in common with the morality plays. It centred around a
symbolic character who has universal status and becomes a model of misconduct.
In Doctor Faustus there are lots of allegorical characters such as Good and the Bad Angels, who
appear to warn him like allegories in a morality plays.
What is different from the morality plays is that:

- there is a tragic end (damnation instead of salvation)
- dramatic quality (the play is a tragedy and not a morality play)
- the play is written in blank verse, an unrhyming verse written in iambic pentameters,,
Marlowe was the first English writer who used it and transformed it into the main verse of
Elizabethan drama.
The moral of the play  ambition and dissatisfaction with what God had given man can only lead
to damnation.
The style
There is a great use of the soliloquy, it shows both sides of Faustus’s character.
He improved the dramatic possibilities of blank verse = unrhymed iambic pentameter.
There is a great energy and life in his use of colour and description:
Faustus’s last monologue

Faustus’s final speech is the most powerful scene in the play. Doctor Faustus’s last soliloquy occurs
at the end of the play, just one hour before his damnation. It is 11 o’clock pm and Faustus is waiting
for the Devils to pick him up and him to Hell. He is obsessed with time and Marlowe makes the
audience be aware of the passing of it.
This part, allows the audience to enter the character’s mind, it shows a desperate man. He appeals to
God, Christ and Lucifer, but there is no answer.
At first he begs time to slow down in order to make that day eternal, then he implores Christ for
mercy.
He asks the elements of nature to hide him but it vain. Time passes fast. In the end, the learned man
who has damned his soul in exchange of knowledge would exchange place with beasts who are
happier because they have no soul.
Then Faustus curses his parents for giving birth to him, but later he understands his responsibility
and curses himself and Lucifer. When the clock strikes midnight, Faustus asks for his body to be
turned into air or into water drops that fall into the ocean never to be found. Faustus’s last line, ‘I’ll
burn my books’
At the beginning of the speech it is 11 o’clock at night at the beginning; then the clock strikes 11.30,
and in the end Faustus hears the clock strike 12, midnight. In lines 4-8 he asks for time to stop.
Then he will have time to repent and save his soul.
When he looks up to heaven (lines 13-20) he sees Christ crucified, whose blood was spent to save
mankind. but not Faustus. He also sees God stretching out his arm and bending his ‘ireful brows’.
In lines 25 and 26 he refers to astrology. At this time all men believed that the stars could influence
man’s fate. In lines 40-46 he wishes he were an animal because all beasts are happy and their souls
don’t have an afterlife. He offers God to burn his books, which represent his knowledge.

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Christopher Marlowe

What is different from the morality plays is that:

Faustus’s last monologue

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