Page 174 - DENG403_BRITISH_DRAMA

British Drama

Notes • However the comic sub-plot merges with the main plot and serious characters also act in a way
that might be associated with low comedy.

Self Assessment

Multiple Choice Questions:
9. Despite its pantheon of gods, the classical world believed in
(a) humanity
(b) god
(c) knowledge
(d) supernatural power.
10. The basic difference Aristotle draws between tragedy and other genres is
(a) the pleasure of emotions, the audience feel
(b) tragic pleasure of pity and fear, the audience feel watching a tragedy
(c) the tragic flaw, the audience feel
(d) the protagonist responsible for its own feet.
Fill in the blanks:

11. The hero represents ......... or everyman.
12. The classic discussion of Greek tragedy is ......... .
13. Faustus’ end is ........., but just; there is no other fair outcome to his actions
State whether the following statements are true or false:

14. The ancient Greeks extolled the perfection of the human body and the clarity of
human thought.
15. Doctor Faustus doomed to make a serious error in judgement.
16. Faustus is born into nobility.

14.4 Summary

• Doctor Faustus has elements of both Christian morality and classical tragedy.
• In the Elizabethan age there was a strictly dichotomised attitude towards right and wrong, and
the framework of Christian morality was one by which most people aimed to live: religion was
of much more central importance than it is now.
• Abandoning God and turning to the path of sin would be seen as a shocking and unforgiveable
crime, as would experimenting with black magic and forbidden knowledge.
• The play takes place in an explicitly Christian cosmos of angels and devils.

Although Faustus’ journey ends in damnation, the essential message of the play upholds the
Protestant belief: that the journey to spiritual redemption is a personal one requiring no
intermediary. People damn themselves through their own actions but they can repent.
• The play contains Medieval and Renaissance concepts of Hell. Hell is shown as a physical
place, but there is also the interesting idea that Hell has no location and may be defined as the
absence of God.
• Marlowe uses the scenes in Rome to satirise institutions sacred to the Catholic Church. The
Pope is represented as a greedy, power-mad fool, and the power-struggle between Rome and
Germany is treated as a joke by Faustus and Mephostophilis.

168 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY