Page 128 - DENG403_BRITISH_DRAMA

British Drama

Notes “Whose deepness doth entice such forward wits,

To practice more than heavenly power permits.”
The tradition of chorus is also maintained. We find the chorus introducing the story just before the
beginning of the first scene and subsequently filling in the gaps in the narrative and announcing the
end of the play with a very solemn moral. The appearance of seven deadly sins shows that the
playwright in “Doctor Faustus” adopted some of the conventions of the old morality plays. The
seven deadly sins—pride, covetousness, wrath, envy, gluttony, sloth and lechery of good old morality
plays are also very much here in this play in a grand spectacle to cheer up the dejected soul of
Faustus. And the old favourite and familiar figure of the devil is also not missing. Mephistophilis,
an assistant to Lucifer, appears as a servile slave of Faustus in many scenes. The comic scenes of
“Doctor Faustus” also belong to the tradition of old morality plays. The comic scenes were not integral
part of those plays but were introduced to entertain. In “Doctor Faustus” many comic scenes are
depicted especially his pranks on the Pope, the planting of a pair of horns on the head of a knight
and the cheating of a greedy horse-dealer. They throw light on the nature of the tragedy of Doctor
Faustus. The comic episodes underline the fact that Faustus has sunk to the low level of a sordid
fun-loving sorcerer. In “Doctor Faustus” there is only one towering figure all the action and incidents
centre round him. Then just like the earlier morality plays, it also suffers from looseness of
construction especially in the middle part of the play.

The comic scenes were not integral part of traditional morality plays, but introduced
to entertain. In “Doctor Faustus” many comic scenes are depicted especially his pranks on the
Pope, the planting of a pair of horns on the head of a knight and the cheating of a greedy
horse-dealer. Such comic scenes underline the fact that Faustus has sunk to the low level of a
sordid fun-loving sorcerer.
Though to a great extent, “Doctor Faustus” is a morality play yet there are also some other elements
which make it different from morality play. The difference is that in morality plays, all characters
are abstractions, not concrete. But in “Doctor Faustus” the main character, Faustus is not an abstraction
but as person with desires and high ambitions. He is a living person like other human beings. Then
the element of conflict is the fountain head of the entire action in the play and the movement of the
action defines the plot of the play. Faustus heart and soul is the greatest battle field for the internal
or spiritual conflict. Though Faustus has abjured God and has made his pact with the devil, yet
there is a conflict in his mind between good and evil, he feels the pricks of conscience. The growing
sense of loss and of the wages of “damnation” begins to sting him like a scorpion.
“When I behold the heaven, then I repent,
And curse thee, Wicked Mephistophilis,
Because thou hast deprived me of those joys”

This inner conflict in Faustus is the element of tragedy not of morality, on the basis of
which we some times think that it is not a morality play. In a morality play, the moral is
always positive and goodness always triumphs over evil, truth over lie and virtue over vice.
Virtue is always rewarded. But in “Doctor Faustus” we find evil spreading its powerful hands
over goodness and then laying it down.

Faustus follows the path told by evil angel and ultimately is ruined. He cannot repent and devil is
successful in getting hold of his soul. This moral is negative which is not in accordance with morality

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