Dr. Faustus

Christopher Marlowe

Dover, 1994 - Drama - 56 pages

One of the most durable myths in Western culture, the story of Faust tells of a learned German doctor who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power. Early enactments of Faust's damnation were often the raffish fare of clowns and low comedians. But the young Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) recognized in the story of Faust's temptation and fall the elements of tragedy.
In his epic treatment of the Faust legend, Marlowe retains much of the rich phantasmagoria of its origins. There are florid visions of an enraged Lucifer, dueling angels, the Seven Deadly Sins, Faustus tormenting the Pope, and his summoning of the spirit of Alexander the Great. But the playwright created equally powerful scenes that invest the work with tragic dignity, among them the doomed man's calling upon Christ to save him and his ultimate rejection of salvation for the embrace of Helen of Troy.
With immense poetic skill, and psychological insight that foreshadowed the later work of Shakespeare and the Jacobean playwrights, Marlowe created in Dr. Faustus one of the first true tragedies in English. Vividly dramatic, rich in poetic grandeur, this classic play remains a robust and lively exemplar of the glories of Elizabethan drama.

What people are saying

User Review -

Dr.Faustus written by Marlow is an interesting drama. It indirectly teaches us the greedy of human.

User Review -

If some one has read Dr.Faustus,he will put Marlowe much above his contemporary great writer of dramas.I read it atleast 30 years before,but the memory of Devil taking the soul away and the agony of Dr Faustus stillhunts me.Even Shakespeare's melodrama did not raise such thoughts in my mind.
I feel like writing a review since it appears that what Dr Faustus desired and the basic reason of it, is prevalent even now after so many years.Every one now requires some magic wand will change the whole scene.He desired and got.But the devil put condition that he would take the soul away after the period is over.
He enjoyed everything he wanted.I rememeber even his calling the Helen of Troy,the beauty of those days and did what ever came to his mind.He lacked the foresight as a common man that everything will end one day.The most poignent part I remember in the book was the request and prayer to the Devil to give him some more time.
The feelings of Dr faustus is captured in such a manner that once one reads the book,he can feel the pain and agony.
The basic thought is very much prevalent today also in 21st century.The lust still remains,and we do not hear to what our souls say.Devils ultimately takeover and we become his soft target.
A feeling about a book which I read long before ,but which hunts me now even.
I count Marlowe as a greater playwright than William Shakespeare.People are welcome to differ. 

About the author

Christopher Marlowe was born in Canterbury, England on February 6, 1564, the son of a shoemaker. He was educated at King's School, Canterbury and at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he received a B.A. in 1584 and an M.A. in 1587. His original plans for a religious career were put aside when he decided to become a writer. Marlowe's earliest work was translating Lucan and Ovid from Latin into English. He translated Vergil's Aeneid as a play; this innovation was not printed until after his death. Marlowe's "Tamburlaine the Great" was performed theatrically under primitive conditions. The sequel was presented more professionally in 1587 and "The Jew of Malta" followed soon after, to general acclaim, making him a dramatist of note. Marlowe's plays were produced by the Earl of Nottingham's Company. While Christopher Marlowe's literary life was flowering, his personal life was in an uproar. In 1589, he and a friend killed a man, but were acquitted on a plea of self-defense. Marlowe's political views were unorthodox, and he was thought to be a government secret agent. He was arrested in May of 1593 on a charge of atheism. Christopher Marlowe was killed in a brawl in a Deptford tavern on May 30, 1593 possibly by agents of statesman and Puritan sympathizer Sir Francis Walsingham. As with popular culture figures of today who die young, rumors persisted that Marlowe lived, some say, to write the plays that were attributed to William Shakespeare.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Dr. Faustus; Dover thrift editions
• Author: Christopher Marlowe
• Edition: unabridged, reprint
• Publisher: Dover, 1994
• ISBN: 0486282082, 9780486282084
• Length: 56 pages
• Subjects: Drama / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh