Holy moly I really enjoyed this week’s text. I was only slightly familiar with the basic story because I enjoy listening to opera, and there happens to be an opera called Faust by Gounod. Also, I finally got my wish for some Elizabethan drama.
Faustus is a bit of a fool. I found that I didn’t feel bad for him even at the end of the play. I found it interesting that Marlowe kept the story going so swiftly – it almost seemed like a reflection of how Faustus must have felt like his life was going by so fast. It seems as though Faustus only sees the world as he wants to see it, which I think is his most tragic flaw. Even when Mephastophilis tells him that hell is all around us, Faustus misinterprets that and thinks that his time in hell will simply be a continuation of his life on earth thus far.
I find it interesting that this play is such a reaction to the Renaissance. There seem to be a lot of clashes in the text between Renaissance and Medieval values and norms, but I think it’s kind of ambiguous where Marlowe stands on this subject. Maybe the lecture will clear this up.
I wonder why, on his downward spiral, Faustus didn’t repent sooner? I feel like he had so many opportunities to do that. Heck, he should’ve just not signed the deal in the first place, but that wouldn’t make for much of a story would it? I think that in the end, Marlowe wanted Christianity to prevail, and it did.
I’m looking forward to this lecture and the questions that will come up in discussion this week. Marlowe’s got some pretty deep stuff going on here.
One reply on “Faustus, You Fool”
Good point about the events of the play going by very quickly–24 years go by between signing the pact and the ending! It makes sense that this could be how Faustus as a character would see his own life, as he enjoys his life with power (such as it is). The time for reckoning would come all to quick, I should think.
I’m curious, though, about the clashes between medieval and Renaissance values and norms in the text–I’d love to hear a bit more about that, as it’s not something I’m very familiar with!