Dr. Faustus as a Spiritual Tragedy
Marlowe is a renowned dramatist of the Renaissance era. He has a unique place in the realm of English literature. He is a great innovator of techniques and styles. He has infused new life into the blank verse. His mighty lines are as famous as the pyramids of Egypt. Dr. Faustus is Marlowe’s masterpiece. It is written in blank verse and dramatizes the medieval legend of Dr. Faustus, a necromancer of the 16th century. Marlowe has transformed this legendary character into a tragic hero who has a hunger for infinite power. This is the main theme of this drama. The plot or structure of the play is loose and weak, but the interest and appeal of the play lie in its unity of character. Dr. Faustus himself is a living play with living acts, scenes, incidents, and episodes.
In the play, Dr. Faustus is an avid scholar who explores various subjects. However, he finally decides to study magic and necromancy to gain power, wealth, and honour. With the help of this dark art, he summons Mephistopheles, a servant of the Devil. He sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for 24 years of service from Mephistopheles, who will grant him whatever he asks for. He uses his magical power to summon visions of Paris and Helen, among other things. When the stipulated period is about to end, he becomes extremely agonized and fearful of his impending doom. Dr. Faustus is Marlowe’s most personal tragedy. It reflects Marlowe’s innermost thoughts and experiences. He concentrates all his dramatic skill in portraying the main character of the play, who has a passion for knowledge and a love for power but lacks firm determination. He creates his own tragedy by rejecting Christian values and ignoring his conscience. Therefore, he suffers for his sin and faces eternal damnation. In this sense, this drama can be called a spiritual tragedy or the tragedy of the human soul.
From the beginning of the play, Faustus is torn between two opposing forces within himself: appetite and timidity, good and evil, God and Devil. He wants to be a mighty magician and a mighty God, but he also fears the consequences of his actions. He is caught in a dilemma that is aggravated by the Good Angel and the Bad Angel, who represent his inner conflict. The Good Angel urges him to abandon necromancy and repent, while the Bad Angel encourages him to pursue magic and enjoy its benefits. Faustus is unable to make a decisive choice and remains indecisive until the end. He becomes a victim of his own ambition and falls prey to the evil forces that have lured him into temptation. The evil forces triumph over his soul and we witness his tragic fall into hell. Thus, Dr. Faustus is a remarkable spiritual tragedy of the human soul that shows the struggle between good and evil, God and the Devil, and appetite and timidity.
To conclude, Dr. Faustus is a play of immense conflict, dreadful failure, intense feeling, and stirring emotion. Its central idea is loss: loss of faith, loss of grace, loss of salvation. Here sin is presented with its inevitable punishment. It is an unparalleled spiritual tragedy in which a mighty protagonist is a man who defies God and challenges fate with his overreaching ambition. He falls from grace but his fall is a glorious fall that evokes pity and awe in our hearts.