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INTRODUCTION : Before discussing ‘Dr. Faustus’ as a morality play, let us know

exactly what a morality play is? According to Morner- “Morality play is a type of allegory

in dramatic form, popular in the later middle ages and early Renaissance, the hero who

represents all humankind, is surrounded by personifications of virtues, vices, angels, demons,

death- all the forces of good and evil, who battle for possession for the hero’s soul.”1 this

definition we can understand the main characteristics of this genre. In the beginning Liturgical

drama was divided into three forms mystery, miracle, and morality, during the middle ages.

It is a type of play, which is allegorical and popular in Europe, especially during the 15th

and 16th centuries. In a morality play a main character is met by personifications of different

types of moral attributes who try to direct him to choose a godly and pious life over one of

evil. The general theme of morality play is spiritual, and mainly the struggle between good

and evil power to dominate over the human soul. The seven deadly sin is connected in the

physical and verbal combat with basic virtues. In these plays we can notice the presence of

low comedy or buffoonery. This type of play basically ends with the note of moral or ethical

values and lessons.‘Dr. Faustus’ is one of the immaculate and outstanding creations of

morality plays by the most famous of ‘University wits’, Christopher Marlowe. ‘Dr. Faustus’

has truly been regarded as the connection between the miracle and morality plays, one of the

most glorious tragicomedy of Elizabethan period, because much of the first portion of the

play with the elements of dark comedy but ultimately this play is a tragedy. Dr. Faustus has

many dramatic traditions of medieval period. By the descriptions of various types of medieval

plays Phillip Tilling claims- “the morality play as a kind of medieval religious play arose

alongside the mystery play and was to continue, in modified form throughout the Elizabethan

period, culminating in Marlowe’s Faustus.”2 So, Tilling considers Dr. Faustus as “a morality

play in a modified form.” By studying about ‘Dr. Faustus’ I can see that it is a

Renaissance tragedy which have some characteristics motivated by medieval dramatic tradition

and various important traits of morality play. In this paper I am going to analyse about the

features of morality play which can be seen in ‘Dr. Faustus’.

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 The general theme of a morality play is the spiritual or theological matter about the

struggle between good and evil power of capturing human soul, from this perspective ‘Dr.

Faustus’ is definitely a morality play. In this play, we can see the protagonist, Faustus

completely abandoned the holy book of ‘Bible’, the Trinity and Christ. He sells his soul to

the devil for fulfilling his ambition of gaining-

“----- a world of profit and delight’

Of power, of honour, of omnipotence,”(1.1.51)

1. Morner. K., Rausch, R,. NTS’s Dictionary of Literary Terms. Lincolnwood : Textbook company, 1991, p. 139

2. Tilling, Philip. The Literature of The Pre-Renaissance England, in: Introducing Literary Studies, ed. By Richard Brandford,

Wheatseaf : Prentice Hall/Harvester, 1991, p. 75

He also wants to gain knowledge of the art of black magic, and by reading the book of

unholy magic he says-

“These metaphysics of magicians,

And necromantic books are heavenly.”(1.1.48)

After selling his soul to the devil, Faustus will lead a irreligious life full of sensual

and mundane pleasures and gain superhuman power just for twenty four years. Faustus

accepts this disastrous deal for achieving the supreme power and all the earthly pleasure by

disobeying the path of God. But after twenty four when the time of his damnation came and

his soul was being taken to the devil, he cries with intense sorrow and says-

“My God, My God, look not so fierce to me”(5.2.118)

So, through this story, Marlowe wants to give the moral lesson, that extreme greed

will bring disaster to people, and also give the note that the man who wants to gain the

position of supreme god, completely descends to destruction.

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 The conflict between the good power and evil power was a significant theme in

medieval morality plays. Marlowe uses this trick in ‘Dr. Faustus’ and provides many moral

massages to audience. Marlowe’s mention of Good Angel and Bad Angel in this play is an

important characteristic of morality play. Good Angel is the personification of virtue and the

Bad Angel is the personification of sin and damnation; one of conscience, morality, and

consciousness; another for greed, over ambition and desires. Good Angel actually the massage

of God and also stands for Faustus’s conscience; Bad Angel is the agent of Lucifer, who

provokes Faustus to continue his studies of back art. Faustus chooses the evil mind and

studies magic in order to achieve supremacy, extreme power and dignity. Faustus is the man

of arrogance and wants to taste the bulging sense of his own ability and knowledge. For, his

self importance and greed for power he becomes ready to sell his soul to the devil, which is

the cause of his destruction.

The most important aim of morality play is theological. It is dramatised direction

and massage of Christian religious belief. The main massage of Dr. Faustus is that, the man

who leaves the path of God and virtue is indulged into the ultimate damnation and

destruction. It can be found in the ending lines of the play-

“Whose deepness doth entice such forward wits,

To practice more than heavenly power permits” (5.2.128)

An aspect of Christian theology is that free will and free choice. Faustus has freedom to

choose one between the path of God and Devil. He chooses devil and says that his soul is

his own. After signing the agreement with the Devil he says- ‘Conssumatum est” which

means ‘this is finished’, according to the Gospel of St. John these were the last words of

Christ on earth. With much excellence Marlowe uses these irreligious words which is said by

Faustus. A life without bad, sin and with blessing of the God is ended, and the door of

heaven is closed for him now. Faustus willingly goes against to the God’s will. Even after

the warning of Mephistopheles he did not deviate from his disastrous wish. Mephistopheles

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then calls some devils, who offers crowns, rich garments, also offers him sexual satisfaction

in order to distract his mind from religious and God’s route.

Morality play is truly a fusion of medieval allegory. Marlowe use the typical style

of allegory in this play. Many of the characters in this play are personified allegorical

figures. For example, Good and Bad angels are presented as allegorical figures. One clearly

highlights the power of good and try to make Faustus to choose the way of the God and the

other one is the force of Devil which encourages him to choose the path of evil.. But we

can see that these two allegorical characters appear in this for a short period of time, it

represents that they are not an important character from other world but allegorical and

personified figures of Faustus’s inner mind and thoughts.

The mentioning of seven deadly sins is also in a grand view in this play which to

vitalise Faustus’s despairing soul. The seven deadly sins such as- pride, envy, greed, wrath,

gluttony, lust, sloth are connected in physical and verbal battle in this play. Marlowe uses

these in this play to give us moral lessons, and this another characteristic of morality play.

Another important trait of a morality play is the presence of the comic elements.

“By the 16th century some of the morality plays had admitted so much realistic and

farcical material and they began to establish a tradition of English comedy”3 . So in

‘Dr. Faustus’, Marlowe uses some comic scenes. These are not in the entire part of the play,

but are shown for entertaining the people and for some comic relief. We can see the

presence of comic scenes in this play, like- the pranks on the Pope, the cheating of the

greedy horse dealer and planting of a pair of horns on the head of the knight and many

more. Comic scenes foreshadows the underlying truth about the nature of the main character

in this play. These shows that Faustus has fallen to such a low level that he becomes a

foully fun-loving magician. The function of comic scenes in this play to represent the idea

that serious, religious, moral matters can be take in something differently.

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 The tradition of using Chorus in the beginning of the play can also be seen here.

Chorus introducing the story of whole drama in front of the audiences and to the readers

before the beginning of the play. Chorus is also used here at the end of the play to deliver

the note of morality.

Another important trait of morality play is it’s hero, he is the only main central

figure of the play. All the incidents, actions in ‘Dr. Faustus’ centre round only one character,

who is Faustus. The another characters of the play are constructed for portraying the

psychological problems of the hero from different point of view. Repentance of the hero is a

very important trait of the morality play. The moment when it is shown that Faustus is very

much sorry for his deeds, and wants mercy from the god is an significant part of the play.

Another characteristic is the looseness of construction of the plot. The in-depth study

of the play ‘Dr. Faustus’ reveals that it does not have conventional regular plot specially in

the middle part of the play. It is only stringing together of just fourteen original important

scenes. In this matter this play is very much linked with the old morality drama.

3. Harmor, W., Holman, A Handbook of Literature, 9th ed 2003, 1st ed, 1936

Dissimilarities of a Morality Play And ‘Dr. Faustus’

Though we can see many traits of morality play in ‘Dr. Faustus’, but there are

the presence of some other characteristics which differentiate it from a typical morality play.

In a morality play characters are abstractions, not concrete, but in ‘Dr. Faustus’, Faustus is

not a abstract character he is a lively human being of flesh and blood with high ambition

and desires. In this play we can see internal conflict in the mind of Dr. Faustus. This internal

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conflict is shown between the good mind which is the path of God and the evil mind which

is the encouragement of devil. This inner conflict of the main character is not the trait of

morality play but it is the element of tragedy, but finally Faustus chooses his devil mind

leave the path of God, which causes his ultimate destruction.

In a morality play, we can see, that good is always victorious over evil, truth

over lie, virtue over vice, virtue is always rewarded. But in this play we can see that evil

power has spread his fierce hand over the good power and finishes it. In a morality play a

hero is finally forgiven by the God after repentance, but in this play we can see that Faustus

did not get any forgiveness, he is indulged into ultimate ruin. Devil succeeds in taking his

soul. This moral is negative which is not the part of a morality play.

Dr. Faustus is considered more as tragic hero than as a hero of morality play. He

is portrayed as a character who has brought his own downfall for his own fault. His fall is

not the cause of his misfortune but he is captured by Mephistopheles, the agent of Lucifer,

the devil because of his own fault. Such type of qualities of a hero cannot be seen in a

hero of morality play. It is more a characteristic of a tragedy.

CONCLUSION

Through the above discussion, we can say one thing that this play cannot be

considered totally as a morality play, though it has many elements of morality play. It is

more a heroic tragedy before Shakespeare with Elizabethan spirit in it. We can call it the

finishing of the morality play and the beginning of the tragedy created by Shakespeare.

Marlowe uses many tricks of morality play in it, but it’s painful emotional conflict, its

authentic poetry and the higher ambition of the main character for gaining all the knowledge

and power of the world, and the ultimate downfall and destruction makes his Faustus more a

tragic hero than a mere morality play hero. It can be considered as a morality play from

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some point of view, but more specifically we can explain it in this quote that Dr. Faustus is-

“Both the consummation of the English morality tradition and tragedy”4.

----END-----

4. Samroo. A. R . Dr. Faustus as a Morality Play. 3rd dec, 2010

WORK CITED

1. www.m.grin.com

2. www.scribd.com

3. www.englishstudyhub.com

4. www.englishliterature24.com

5. www.pratikshasolanki261315.blogspot.com

6. www.enotes.com

7. www.britannica.com

8. Dr. Faustus by Dr. S. Sen

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