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Unit 10: Doctor Faustus: Morality Play

plays. Moreover, in this play, Faustus plays pranks with pope and knight and makes fun of them. Notes
Unlike morality plays the butt of this low comedy is Pope instead of devil.
Faustus is a character ideal to be the hero of a tragedy where man alone is the maker of his fate,good
or bad. He falls not by the fickleness of fortune or the decree of fate, or because he has been corrupted
by Mephistophilis, the agent of Lucifer; the devil, but because of his own will. Faustus, being a
tragic hero was dominated by some uncontrollable passion or inordinate ambition. There is a conflict
in his mind between good and evil. He falls from high to low and this degradation is clear in his
soliloquy, when he says:
“O soul, be changed into little water drops,
And fall into ocean, never to be found!”
Such a tragic hero cannot be the hero of a morality play. Thus we see that in spite of its entire links
with medieval miracle plays or moralities, Doctor Faustus can never be treated wholly as a morality
play. It is the greatest heroic tragedy before Shakespeare with its enormous stress on characterization
and inner conflict in the soul of a towering personality. We may call this play the last of the morality
plays and the beginning of tragedy that was developed by Shakespeare. We may conclude in the
words of a critic: “Doctor Faustus is both the consummation of the English morality,tradition and
the last and the finest of Marlowe’s heroic plays.”

Is Doctor Faustus a morality play? Why or why not? Illustrate.
We conclude that how Doctor Faustus came from a respected and admired person by society to a
corrupted person. He embarked on this path due to his temptations. At the beginning of the story
scene 1 “Shall I make spirits fetch me what I please, perform what desperate enterprise I will? Have
them fly to India for gold, Ransack the ocean for orient pearl.” In this part we have both angels
telling Doctor Faustus what to do. But he only seems to listen to the bad angel because he not
thinking about God but only of the benefits that performing black magic would bring to him. Doctor
Faustus did a conjured as a result Mephastophilis appeared to him. All he could think about was
possibilities. All he would think about was all the things he was going to be able to accomplish with
Mephastophilis assistance. Another example of how Doctor Faustus resembles a morality play can
be seen on scene 5 here on this scene with have the good and evil angel trying to convince Doctor
Faustus to do what is right. Both sides tell their point of view. Good angel tells him to leave dark
magic and evil angel tells him to think of honor and wealth. But once again Doctor Faustus only
thinks about the benefits that giving up his soul would bring to him without thinking of the
consequences. Another scene in which we see how this story resembles a morality play is scene 5.
“ Good Angel Never Too late, if Faustus will repent.” And the “Evil Angel if thou repent, devils.”

Self Assessment

Multiple Choice Questions:

1. Liturgical drama in the beginning had three forms, viz.
(a) Mystery, Miracle, and Morality
(b) Tragedy, Mystery, and Miracle
(c) Mercy, Tragedy, and Morality
(d) Mercy, Anger, and Truth.
2. Which of the following statements is correct about the Doctor Faustus ?
(a) It is a typical morality play

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