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Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University Unit 14: Doctor Faustus: A Tragedy and all Concepts of Tragedy

Unit 14: Doctor Faustus: A Tragedy Notes

and all Concepts of Tragedy

CONTENTS
Objectives

Introduction

14.1 Doctor Faustus—A Tragedy: Tragedy in Christian Terms

14.2 Elements of Classical Tragedy in Doctor Faustus

14.3 Elements of Aristotle’s Tragedy in Doctor Faustus

14.4 Summary

14.5 Keywords

14.6 Review Questions

14.7 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to:
• Elucidate that Doctor Faustus is a tragedy;
• Explain the element of Christian Morality in Doctor Faustus;
• Examine the elements of classical tragedy in Doctor Faustus;
• Illustrate the elements of Aristotle’s tragedy in Doctor Faustus.

Introduction

Doctor Faustus is a tragedy based upon a traditional morality story. The thing that makes Doctor
Faustus a tragedy is the ending where Faustus ends up damned. In effect he has learned nothing
because he knows the consequences of his actions and all goes as he planned. As Homer Simpson
said “There’s no moral to it. It’s just a bunch of stuff that happened.” Faustus makes his bed and lies
in it. In effect Faustus is an anti-hero.
In the original morality story Faust is saved by the power of love and penitence. The moral is that
even a fallen man can be saved by the power of God if he repents and feels love. How nice. Goethe’s
version of Faust plays out very much as a morality play because it retains the traditional ending.
This unit elaborates the tragic features of Doctor Faustus at length. More emphasis is given to justify
that it is a tragedy in Christian and Classical terms. All concepts of tragedy in context to Doctor
Faustus have also been dealt with in this unit.

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