“The Definite Article, You Might Say”: The character of the Doctor as a bridge from Medieval to Early Modern popular drama (original) (raw)
Related papers
Brolly Journal of Social Sciences, 2024
The article underpins the theatrics of the tragic hero’s fall in Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. Theological concepts related to sin and damnation are applied to interpret the ironic inversions leading to the downfall of Faustus. The choice of “spectacle of blindness” emphasises the link between theatricality and irony. The concept of metatheatre is used to portray the fall of Faustus. Irony reaches grandeur thanks to the interweaving of metatheatre and the carnivalesque. The research legitimises the existence of the concept of the theatrics of irony. The research delves into the intricate layers of irony woven throughout the play as the titular character embarks on a fateful journey from humanity to damnation. Faustus’ relentless pursuit of perceived divine imperfections, his portrayal as a shrewd manipulator of thought, and his refusal to acknowledge the true nature of his transgressions are meticulously crafted into a dramatic spectacle by the playwright. Marlowe's adept use of irony is exemplified through intentional inversions and deviations from the play's source material, The English Faustbook. Embracing irony as a spectacle of blindness, the analysis reveals the amalgamation of carnivalesque elements, comedy, burlesque, and metatheatre in the play’s theatrics of irony. Faustus’ tragic downfall unfolds as a nuanced interplay between serious, tragic consequences and moments of buffoonery or carnivalesque revelry. The analysis positions Doctor Faustus as a distinctive work, departing from traditional interpretations and venturing into new theatrical aesthetics, emphasising the spectacular and the metatheatrical. The article is available online on the following links: https://journals.lapub.co.uk/index.php/brolly/article/view/2696 https://journals.lapub.co.uk/index.php/brolly/issue/view/117/123 https://journals.lapub.co.uk/index.php/brolly/issue/view/117
Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus: The Post-Renaissance English Tragedy
2013
This paper is foregrounded in the premise that Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, one of the towering tragic protagonists in English Drama over the ages, is a singular character who embodies in his being the spirit of inquiry and revolt with the purpose to transcend the limits imposed on human life and endeavor by traditional religion and morality. Faustus is viewed as an embryonic protagonist for the post-Renaissance English tragedy as the potential of his character is subverted by the preclusion of sin and damnation as necessary contingent conditions for any effort to assert individual will over the established order.
THE FEATURES OF ELIZABETHAN DRAMA IN DOCTOR FAUSTUS BY CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
THE FEATURES OF ELIZABETHAN DRAMA IN DOCTOR FAUSTUS BY CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE, 2023
The Elizabethan era is part of the English Renaissance. It refers to the period of the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1. The period started around 1558 and continued until 1603. This period signifies the rebirth of literature. Many historians considered this era to be the Golden Age in English Literary History. The Elizabethan era saw a great flourishing of literature, especially in the field of drama. This paper, therefore, attempts an exhaustive analysis of the Elizabethan Drama, the features of the drama as explicated in Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus. The analysis reveals the importance of the period and it also portrays the contribution of the era to the English Literary History. The conclusion is hinged on the fact that the Elizabethan Era is characterized by vigorous intellectual thinking, adventure, discovery, new ideas and new experiences. The period revolutionized many aspects of English life, most significantly literature. This is reflected in Christopher Marlow's Doctor Faustus.
Doctor Faustus: A Critical Guide
Continuum Press, 2010
Critical consensus identifies Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, probably written and performed around 1588, as the first great tragedy in the English language, a powerful drama that ushered in thirty years of unparalleled dramatic creativity on the English stage. For over 400 years, Marlowe's most often read and most frequently performed play has been surrounded by conjecture; indeed, few works of literature have evoked such violent critical controversy as Marlowe's Doctor Faustus. Almost every aspect of the play has been questioned: the text has been contested; the authorship has been challenged; the date has been disputed; and the meaning has been debated. This volume seeks to guide the teacher and student of Marlowe-and, of course, all successful teachers are also students-through the labyrinth of critical controversy associated with Marlowe's most popular play, and to aid all students of Marlowe in gaining a fuller appreciation of the originality and profundity of this work.
The Modernisation of the Medieval Staging of Soul in Marlowe's Doctor Faustus
For a play whose dramatic interest centers entirely on the fate of a man’s soul, Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus is curiously devoid of an attempt to reify its most central aspect, which is the soul itself. Unlike the medieval drama, which used a combination of linguistic, bodily and material devices to emblematize soul, in Doctor Faustus, the flow of meaning is reversed, and soul—having already been inculcated by centuries of religious teaching as the defining feature of humanity, to the point that no one in the play needs to ask, “what is the thing men call soul?”—is now used by Marlowe as the signature figure of poetical discourse on the seeming immutability of personal identity in the age of reformed theology. In Faustus, soul stands for one’s susceptibility to or potential for identity mutation, contrary to reigning systems of reward and punishment. The play foregrounds the way metaphorical language is used by a subject to articulate a dialectical relation between soul as a stage for the free play of the phenomenological events of an apperceptive mind, and soul as an anxiously situated, culturally conditioned identity.For a play whose dramatic interest centers entirely on the fate of a man’s soul, Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus is curiously devoid of an attempt to reify its most central aspect, which is the soul itself. Unlike the medieval drama, which used a combination of linguistic, bodily and material devices to emblematize soul, in Doctor Faustus, the flow of meaning is reversed, and soul—having already been inculcated by centuries of religious teaching as the defining feature of humanity, to the point that no one in the play needs to ask, “what is the thing men call soul?”—is now used by Marlowe as the signature figure of poetical discourse on the seeming immutability of personal identity in the age of reformed theology. In Faustus, soul stands for one’s susceptibility to or potential for identity mutation, contrary to reigning systems of reward and punishment. The play foregrounds the way metaphorical language is used by a subject to articulate a dialectical relation between soul as a stage for the free play of the phenomenological events of an apperceptive mind, and soul as an anxiously situated, culturally conditioned identity.
THE COMIC SCENES IN CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE'S DOCTOR FAUSTUS
This article is the result of a study which consists of the writer's description of the comic or farcical scenes in Christopher Marlowe's play "Doctor Faustus". The comic episodes in dramatic or serious plays perform some definite functions. They provide comic relief, throw additional light on the meaning of the tragic action and present a contrasting point of view. Marlow's introduction of crude buffoonery in "Doctor Faustus", which was the common stock-in-trade of the Elizabethan dramatist, and which became the demands of the groundlings, the most important section of the audience in that age, have become an adversely criticism of literary critics. Thus, this article is an attempt to find out the significance of the comic scenes in the play as to see if they perform their functions as expected so that instead of becoming dubious humours which have no relation to the theme, and becoming the defects of the play, they throw additional light on the meaning of the tragic action and are accepted as organic parts of the tragic play.
On Marlowe's The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus
Marlowe was born in the same year as the greatest dramatist, William Shakespeare; however, Marlowe made his mark on the English theatre scene before Shakespeare. When he died under suspicious circumstances, he was the most respected dramatist of his age.