Dr_Faustus

Discuss Marlowe’s use of language in this passage (Act 5, Scene 2, ll. 66-98) and how it contributes to the characterisation of Faustus. From the outset, the diction, such as Faustus’s initial address to himself in the second person, and the assonance of ‘now’ and thou’ establish the central character as proud and egotistical. The Ovid quotation reinforces the impression of a scholarly but arrogant show-off since the reference is not just ironic - the lover wanting to prevent the sun rising is very different to one on the brink of damnation – but knowingly so. The repetition of individual words (‘see’, ‘rise’) plus the repetition of concepts (‘ever’/‘never’ and ‘perpetual’/’perpetually’) hammer home the urgency of his plight and the inevitability of eternal damnation. The chiming of the clock is reflected in both active verbs (‘run’, ‘vomit’) and the emphasized futility of the alliterative command ‘stand still… spheres’. So, the diction and internal rhyme could support the severely moralising chorus’s Christian interpretation of a flawed man fully deserving his fate. The magnificently flexible metre encourages a more nuanced view, however. Thus the staccato (largely spondaic) opening lines make terror audible. Overall, any comfort from the regularity of iambic pentameters is totally lost, with both longer lines (line 80’s alexandrine ending ‘Ah, my Christ’) and short ones (‘No, no!’) encapsulating agony as well as desperation. Broken lines abound - remarkably, there are two caesuras in line 76 alone. This contrasts with frequent enjambment (‘but/A year’) so the rhythm is alternately slowing down (Faustus wants time to stop) and speeding up (the - unjust' - moral universe will not halt the rush to damnation). The metre’s bravura therefore enshrines the problem of understanding the extent of Faustus’s culpability. For example, the striking opposition of line 78’s two halves encapsulates the debates around predestination and God’s justice. Explaining ‘who pulls me down’ is crucial to any interpretation of the play. That an evaluation of Faustus has arguably divided critics as much as any dramatic character outside the Shakespearean canon demonstrates how hard objective judgement is. One therefore has to turn to the tone of the language and the use of powerful imagery to shed light on possible interpretation. The extraordinary metaphor made manifest of Christ’s streaming blood not only ironically contrasts with the earlier signing of the pact with Lucifer but humanises the previous metaphor of an uncaring sun. It leads on to the biblical, apocalyptic language of Isaiah where nature reflects the ‘wrath of God’ and refuses to vaporise Faustus into a cloud. This too is ironic since Faustus had earlier sought dominion over nature. Yet, significantly, nowhere does the language insinuate injustice. However, the passage’s heightened tone and oratorical grandeur does encourage our considerable sympathy, just as the intimacy of the soliloquy links character and audience. We share the futility of his desperate desire to ‘headlong run into the earth’ and respond to language that like Faustus’s soul aspires to ‘ascend to heaven’. While this might not be convincing evidence for ‘the renaissance man as romantic hero/martyr’ interpretation of earlier centuries (Santayana, 1910, in Jump, 1969, p. 40), it does recall the arguable nobility of his earlier rupturing of the unjust bounds to knowledge fixed by a Christian universe. Ultimately, Pacheco’s contention that Marlowe’s portrayal of Faustus is ambivalent (2008, p. 53) is borne out by the balance of the language’s exquisite nuances, alluded to above. Word Count: 542 Bibliography Candido, J. ‘Marking Time in Doctor Faustus 5.2’ in Early Theatre, 2009; Vol. 12, No. 1 pp. 137-140. Gallagher, L. ‘Faustus's Blood and the (Messianic) Question of Ethics’ in ELH (English Literary History), Spring 2006; Vol. 73 (1): pp. 1-29. Healy, T. (2004) ‘Doctor Faustus’ in Cheney, P. (ed) (2004) The Cambridge Companion to Christopher Marlowe, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Jump, J. (ed) (1969) Marlowe: Doctor Faustus, A Casebook, London/ Basingstoke, Macmillan. Mcdonald, R. (2004) ‘Marlowe and style’ in Cheney, P. (ed) (2004) The Cambridge Companion to Christopher Marlowe, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Marlowe, C. (2003 [1604]) Doctor Faustus: the A text (ed. J. O’Connor), London, Pearson Longman. Marlowe, C. Marlowe’s Plays and Poems, (ed. M.R. Ridley, M.R. (1955)), London, J.M. Dent. Mendel, J. (2008) Christopher Marlowe - redefining the self, USA, Lulu Publishing Nicholl, C. (2004) ‘Marlowe, Christopher (bap. 1564, d. 1593)’, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford, Oxford University Press, online edn., (http://www.oxforddnb.com.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/view/article/18079'docPos=1accessed 20 February 2012) Moffett, V.A. (1978) Notes on Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, London, Methuen. Pacheco, A. (2008) Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus in Moohan, E. (ed.) Reputations (AA 100 Book 1), Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp. 29 – 54 Sugar, G. ‘ “Falling to a diuelish exercise”: the Copernican Universe in Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus’ in Early Theatre, 2009; Vol. 12, No. 1 pp. 141-149. [NB This is the spelling as used in the journal] Audio-Visual: Doctor Faustus (1967) directed by R. Burton & N. Coghill, Columbia Pictures