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elements?
Differences between the middle ages and the so-called Renaissance can easily be
exaggerated. Both, after all, were eras in which Christianity was taken extremely seriously,
although by the middle of the sixteenth century any hope of a reunified Christendom must
have seemed impossible to most thinking people. Nevertheless, Christopher Marlowes
play Doctor Faustus reveals aspects of both the middle ages and the Renaissance,
especially in its apparent purpose of teaching Christian lessons.
Consider, for example, the following points:
The mere fact that the play is a drama written for an established public theater is
itself important. Such permanent theaters did not exist in the middle ages in England.
Marlowe was one of the very first writers to contribute to a totally new kind of English
institution an institution characteristic of the Renaissance, not the middle ages.
Faustuss parents are described as base of stock. In other words, their social status
was not high. Nevertheless, their son has been able to attend and profit from a fine
university an indication of the kind of social mobility that was far more common in the
Renaissance than during the middle ages.