A Complete Analysis Of Doctor Faustus

There are lots of quotes about repenting in Scene 3 which are listed below:

• P49 Faustus – ‘I will renounce this magic and repent’.
• Good Angel – ‘Faustus, repent yet, God will pity thee’.
• Faustus – ‘Be I a devil, yet God may pity me / Ay, God will pity me if I repent’.
• Evil Angel – ‘Ay, but Faustus never shall repent’.
• Faustus – ‘Scare can I name salvation, faith or heaven’.
• Faustus – ‘Faustus, thou art dammed!’.
• Faustus – ‘Had not sweet pleasure conquered deep despair’.
• Faustus – ‘I am resolved Faustus shall ne’er repent’.

• P49 Faustus is a clever man which is why he wants to have an intellectual dispute because he loves disputing, ‘let us dispute again / And argue of divine astrology’.
• P51 Faustus shows off his intellectual knowledge from lines 50-58.
• When Mephistopheles is asked, ‘who made the world’, by Faustus, he responds with, ‘I will not’. This blunt answer could suggest Mephistopheles is angered by such a question being asked to him (wrath). However, the contract Faustus signed would dismiss all acknowledgements of heaven and God. Now that Faustus has signed the contract, he should be completely devoted to Mephistopheles and hell.
• P53 After angering Mephistopheles, Faustus thinks about repenting again whether, ‘Is’t not too late?’.
• Faustus is extremely close to repenting when he says, ‘Ah, Christ, my Saviour, / Seek to save distresse’d Faustus’ soul!’ At this moment, we get a first glimpse at Lucifer who has come to try and stop Faustus repenting.
• P55 Lucifer introduces Faustus to the ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ where he states Faustus should ‘mark this show’. This makes clear that the appearance of the Seven Deadly Sins are meant to seem pleasurable and entertaining to Faustus so that it encourages him not to repent.

• P55 Pride – ‘I am like Ovid’s flea’. It could be seen that Pride was first in this performance because 1) it is what caused Lucifer to damnation and 2) it is Faustus’ greatest sin.
• Covetousness – ‘O my sweet gold!’.
• Wrath – ‘I leaped out of a lion’s mouth’.
• P56 Envy – ‘I cannot read, and therefore wish all books burnt’.
• Gluttony – ‘My parents are all dead’ – He has taken everything from them. ‘thirty meals a day’ – He eats a lot. ‘thou hast heard all my progeny, wilt thou bid me to supper?’. Since Gluttony has told Faustus his story, he now wants food as a payment.
• Sloth – ‘I’ll not speak another word for a king’s ransom’.
• Lechery – ‘I am one that loves an inch of raw mutton’. Faustus calls lechery, ‘Minstress Minx’. This makes clear that women are the depiction of lechery.

• P59 Good Quote ‘O, this feeds my soul!’. This show has been pleasurable enough for Faustus to not repent. This makes clear that the show was entertaining to him. As well as this, there is an echo from Act 1 Scene 1 of, ‘O, this cheers my soul!’.
• Act 2 Scene 3 makes clear that Faustus is a passion-drive wilful protagonist.

1. Faustus is close to repentance.
2. Faustus speaks a lot of God and heaven (which Lucifer sees as a big mistake).
3. Lucifer’s appearance. This illustrates that Faustus was, in fact, very close to repentance.
4. Seven Deadly Sins which showed Faustus how much fun you can have in hell (temptation).
5. Lucifer’s distraction to Faustus.
6. It’s a ‘rubbish’ deal that Faustus has signed.
7. Lucifer reaffirms Faustus’ religious aspect.

Act 3 Scene 1 starts with the Chorus (which only turns up at key turning points) giving the audience a bit of information about what Faustus has done over the years with his newly gained power. This does mean that time has gone by. The Chorus, in this case, has been used as Wagner which makes clear that the chorus, in this case, might be unreliable and biased.

• P63 The Chorus describes that Faustus has, ‘mount himself to scale Olympus’ top’. This is a mountain in Greece where God lived. Therefore, this makes clear that Faustus is heading for a fall like Prometheus.
• ‘Peter’s feast’ is based by the Catholic church.

Faustus starts Scene 1 off, like chorus, describing all the things he has done over the years. Faustus has been:

• On ‘airy mountain-tops’.
• To ‘Paris next, coasting the realm of France’.
• On the ‘river Maine fall into Rhine’.
• To ‘Naples, rich Campania’.
• To ‘learne’d Maro’s golden tomb’.
• ‘thence to Venic, Padua, and the rest’.
• ‘Conducted me within the walls of Rome’.

• P65 Lines 27-43 has Mephistopheles giving a grand introduction to Rome making the city sound opulent.
• Faustus talks about hell, ‘of infernal rule / Of Styx, Acheron, and the fiery lake / Of ever-burning Phlegethon’.
• Mephistopheles gives a stereotypical view of friars of being bald and fat and full of gluttony, ‘Where thou shalt see a troupe of bald-pate friars / Who summum bonum (greatest good) in in belly cheer’.
• ‘And by their folly makes us merriment’. Faustus thinks the friars are being foolish.
• P67 Faustus is invisible but present at Peter’s Feast which has the Pope talking. This part of the play has comedy and visual humour (especially from the fact the reformation of the audience would have meant they would have enjoyed the disruption of the Catholic church too).
• ‘Fall to, and the devil choke you an you spare’. Faustus is being blasphemous and thinks the Pope is sinning  and wants the Pope to have damnation. Faustus feels that there is corruption in the Catholic church as the the Pope and priests have loads of food while the poor don’t.
• Visual humour is created ‘I thank you sir. (Snatch it)’…'(Snatching the dish) You say true, I’ll ha’t’…'(Snatching the cup) I’ll pledge your Grace’.
• Faustus continues to sin because he hits the Pope, ‘The POPE crosses himself again and FAUSTUS hits him a box of the ear, and they all run away‘.
• P69 The sins Faustus commits are not too bad from what the Friar says on lines 89-100.
• Mephistopheles uses fireworks to scare the friars away. Fireworks are the representation of hell.

• Any doubt before of repent has gone: Faustus is with the devil.
• It is trivial. Faustus is not using his powers to their full potential – he is just having fun.
• The audience is told of the places he has visited and the powers he has used.
• The audience gains an idea of the sins of the Catholic church such as gluttony and greed.
• Faustus was invisible during Peter’s Feast. These are powers only God should have.
• There are lots of anti-catholic messages because the reformation was ‘on trend’ at the time this play was performed. It was OK to go against the Catholic church at this time because the audience was Protestant based.

Scene 2

The sub plot continues between Robin and Rafe. Here is a summary of Act 3 Scene 2:

• Mephistopheles turns Robin and Rafe into animals as a punishment for requesting his presence.
• Mephistopheles has to enter every time he is called which is comical.
• Robin and Rafe are gullible, naive, and given strong accents.
• There are lots of stage directions (such as when they give the goblet to each other).
• Vinter is a girl in the play and will be subject to jokes.
• Triviality – the curses are every trivial with there being lust and lechery from the characters.

The Chorus is a dramatic device for setting time and place (production point).

• P77 The Chorus makes clear that Faustus is well liked, ‘Faustus had with pleasure ta’en the view’. This creates a positive mood.
• ‘Which Faustus answered with such learne’d skill’. Faustus is passing his transgressed knowledge onwards to others.
• ‘As they admired and wondered at his wit’. Faustus now has a famous and well-know background.
• ‘Now is his fame spread forth in every land’. Faustus is also famous everywhere now too.
• ‘I leave untold, your eyes shall see performed’. The audience will see Faustus’ story acted out as the chorus cannot explain it.

This scene starts with , ‘Enter EMPEROR, FAUSTUS, MEPHISTOPHELES and a KNIGHT, with ATTENDANTS‘.

• Faustus is now speaking in prose in this scene unlike before. This suggests that he is a lower class character compared to the likes of the Emperor.
• P79 ‘If, therefore, thou by cunning of thine art / Canst raise this man from hollow vaults below’. The Emperor wants one of this ancestors, Alexander the Great, to be summoned from the dead (necromancy) so the Emperor can learn from him. This makes clear that Faustus has not become great, he is summoning the great. This is not what Faustus initially wanted.
• There is nothing harmful in Faustus’ magic – he is still having fun.
• P83 ‘gives thee horns’. The horns could be a reference to the devil. However, it could also suggest the knight, from having horns on his head, is cuckhold. He is unable to control his wife.
• The Knight describes Faustus as a ‘damne’d wretch’. Faustus is going to hell anyway, so this insult is not too bad.
• There could be a deeper meaning when the Knight says, ‘Villain, I say, undo what thou hast done’. The Knight, in a deeper meaning, might be telling Faustus to repent. It makes the point that Faustus could be seen as a villain in the play.
• ‘That time doth run with calm and silent foot’. Time is personified here which makes it out that time is always there by Faustus.
• P85 ‘Short’ning my days and thread of vital life’. Faustus is in a hurry because time is running out. The thread is a metaphor for life where, for Faustus, the thread is running out.
• ‘Calls for payment for latest years’ Faustus’ payment is his soul.
• Faustus is not accepting that time is running out. The mood has changed to sombre (it’s sad but necessary).
• ‘To Wittenberg’. The play starts an finishes in Wittenberg providing a cyclical form to the play.
• When the Horse-Courser enters, the audience wants Faustus to cheat him as usually it is the other way around.
• P87 Good Quote ‘What art thou, Faustus, but a man condemned to die?’ This is Faustus’ punishment.
• ‘Christ did call the thief upon the cross’. Faustus wants there to be hope for forgiveness and redemption.
• ‘had some rare quality’. The Horse-Courser thinks that the horse Faustus sold him was special. Therefore, he was driven by greed.
• P89 Faustus uses trickery on the Horse-Courser, ‘O my leg, my leg! Help, Mephistopheles!’.

Act 4 Scene 2 starts by having Faustus, Mephistopheles, the Duke of Vanholt and the pregnant Duchess enter.

• P91 ‘Alas madam, that’s nothing (Aside to Mephistopheles) Mephistopheles, begone! It is clear Mephistopheles is doing the magic still as he is the one that goes away and returns with the grapes the pregnant Duchess requested.
• The magic Faustus is doing is nothing compared to what he initially wanted. He is now pleasing others where originally, he just wanted to please himself.
• All in all, the Emperor, Horse-Courser trickery and Duke rewards Faustus for his magic.

• Again, the character of Wagner is used as the Chorus. This makes it possible for him to set the scene for the start of Act 5 Scene 1.
• P97 ‘he hath given to me all his goods’. The audience will be preparing for Faustus’ death as Faustus has already giving his possession to Wagner.
• ‘if that death were near / He would not banquet and carouse and swill’. Faustus is drinking lots and trying to have a good time while it lasts.
• ‘Who are at supper with such belly-cheer’. As well as drinking lots, Faustus is eating lots (gluttony). A point to make about this is that ‘belly-cheer’ was used to describe the stereotypical friar from Mephistopheles. Therefore, can there be comparisons between the friar and Faustus?
• ‘the feast is ended’. As well as making clear Faustus is still sinning with gluttony, the feast can be a metaphor for Faustus. The feast has ended and so will Faustus’ life too soon.
• Act 5 Scene 1 is allegorical: every character represents something. An allegorical life is a journey (Christian journey).
• P99 The Old Man represents wisdom and possibly death as he does die, ‘Ah, Doctor Faustus, that I might prevail / To guide thy steps unto the way of life’.
• ‘thy Saviour sweet, Whose blood alone must wash away thy guilt’. The blood of Christ represents salvation.
• P101 There is lots of blood imagery from lines 67-78. Faustus tries to repent but is then threatened by Mephistopheles, ‘I’ll in piecemeal tear thy flesh’. This makes Faustus reconfirm his contract by signing the contract again with his own blood.
• The Old Man’s faith is strong which means Mephistopheles can only hurt him physically, ‘I cannot touch his soul / But what I may afflict to his body with / I will attempt’.
• P103 ‘Here will I swell, for heaven be in these lips’. Faustus knows exactly what he is doing when he goes to kiss Helen. He isn’t thinking about the consequences at all of kissing Helen. Instead, he is focusing on the moment and not eternal damnation. Faustus knows that Helen is the devil so he is consequently damming himself.
• P105 ‘Hence, hell! For hence I fly unto my God’. The Old Man goes to heaven after being tortured by Mephistopheles because he always keeps his faith with God.

This scene is when Faustus, for the first time, tells other people about the contract he has signed with the devil (being the scholars from his university).

• P105 ‘Comes he not?’ Faustus is worried now when that the devil is going to come and take him to hell. The devil is coming near.
• ‘God’s mercies are infinite’. This provides the view point whether Faustus can still repent or not. If this is the case, he can still save himself.
• Faustus, during this scene to the end, is not talking in structured iambic pentameter like he has been throughout the whole play. This could suggest that, because he is now talking in prose, he is losing his composure as he is about to die and go to hell. He is scared, terrified and panicking.
• P107 ‘I would lift up my hands, but see, they hold them, they hold them’. Faustus is now being physically tormented by the devil. He is trying to lift his hands up to repent to God but his arms are kept physically down my Lucifer and Mephistopheles.
• ‘Lucifer and Mephistopheles. Ah, gentlemen! I gave them my soul for my cunning’. Faustus has finally admitted to someone what he has done.
• ‘vain pleasure’. Faustus sold his soul for empty pleasure. This makes clear that how ‘frivolous’ his demands were that after living 24 years with extra power, he has gained nothing but ‘vain pleasure’.
• ‘The date is expired, the time will come, and he will fetch me’. Parallel construction is created from Faustus using a rule-of-three list.
• ‘the devil threatened to tear me in pieces if I named God’. It is difficult for Faustus to repent as he knows he would be tortured to death by Lucifer if he tries. However, maybe this is what needs to happen for him to become fully forgiven by God. For example, the Old Man was tortured to death by Mephistopheles and he went to heaven. Would the same happen to Faustus?
• Act 5 Scene 2 is full of apocryphal stories. These are stories that are not in the bible but are taken as true.
• Faustus is still close to the scholars after telling them what he has done. This makes clear that Faustus is still a likeable person.

• P109 ‘Ah, Faustus’. The fact that Faustus starts by saying his name echoes the first line of the play, ‘Settle thy studies, Faustus’. This potentially brings the point forward that Faustus still has a bit of pride and, in fact, hasn’t changed.
• The soliloquy is not in prose/verse any more but back to iambic pentameter (ten syllables per line). This could suggest Faustus has regained some composure.
• ‘thou must be damned perpetually’ and ‘Perpetual day’. This is an oxymoron because Faustus’ day is not going to be perpetual (never ending/changing).
• ‘you ever-moving spheres of heaven / That time may cease and midnight never come!’. Faustus is looking up to the stars here and sees that the movement of the stars is a metaphor for time. He wants them to stop moving so that time can stand still so he has longer to live. The exclamation marks shows his confusion and despair.
• Faustus speaks about a resurrection, ‘rise, rise again’.
• ‘O lente, lente currite noctis equi‘. The rhythm of this line is fast pace which contrasts against the slowness of the soliloquy in general (as he wants to prolong time). The Latin comes from ‘Amores’ by Ovid. He wants night to pass slowly with a lover providing a sexual/sensual desire from Faustus.
• ‘I’ll leap up to God! Who pulls me down?’. Faustus is still having a physical battle with Lucifer. It also makes clear that Faustus still feels some connection to God.
• ‘Christ’s blood streams in the firmament’. Christ’s blood is the emblematic symbol for eternal life.
• ‘One drop would save my soul, half a op. Ah, my Christ!’. Throughout the play, Faustus has called Mephistopheles ‘my Mephistopheles . He is now making it seem like Christ is his obsession too because that is now who he desires most.
• ‘Ah, rend not my heart for naming of my Christ’. Here, Faustus is talking to the devil asking him not to torture or hurt him for speaking about Christ.
• ‘Stretcheth out his arm and bends is ireful brows! / Mountains and hills, come, come and fall on me / And hide me from the heavy wrath of God!’. Faustus is using apocalyptic language where he has reference to an Earthquake during the resurrection. He is also stating God has wrath which cannot be true as wrath is a sin. Faustus is not thinking straight.
• P111 ‘You stars that reigned at my nativity’. Faustus is talking about the stars that were over Christ when he was born and how he wants them to ‘draw up Faustus like a foggy mist’ so that he can go to heaven’. He has a lot of negative language now.
• When, ‘The watch strikes‘, Faustus is panicked by the lack of time he has left. This causes him to go back into prose losing his composure.
• ‘Yet for Christ’s sake, whose blood hath ransomed me’. Here, there is reference to the crucifiction (where to save souls, there is a sacrifice) as well as the last supper where the blood is Jesus’ wine and the bread is Jesus’ body.
• ‘Let Faustus live in hell a thousand years, / A hundred thousand, and at last be saved’. Faustus is more scared that once he is in hell, he will be there for eternity.
• ‘This soul should fly from me and I be changed / Unto some brutish beast’. Pythagoras had the idea that when humans die, they reincarnate into animals. Faustus wants to be a beast where there are no debates and merely just instinctual behaviour.
• ‘mine must live still to be plagued in hell. / Curst be the parents that engendered me!’. Faustus is not cursing at the fact that he has a soul.
• Good Quote ‘No, Faustus, curse thyself. Curse Lucifer’. Is this a realisation that it was Faustus’ fault for damnation? It could suggest that Faustus has learnt from his mistakes (even if it is too late).
• ‘Thunder and lightning‘. This could link in with Frankenstein were lightning is used to create life. However, now, lightning is the symbol in Doctor Faustus for destroying life.
• ‘My God, my God, look not so fierce on me!’. This makes it sound like God is vengeful and therefore sinning with wrath. Of course, that is only interpretation whether God would actually sin or not.
• P113 ‘Adders and serpetnts, let me breathe a while!’. From the bible, it was a snake which lured Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge. Therefore, adders and serpents are looked upon as evil animals.
• Good Quote ‘Ugly hell, gape not’. This is one of the best descriptions of hell because it has come from a character who hasn’t been to hell yet. Faustus makes hell sound extremely physical and horrible.
• ‘Ah Mephistopheles!’. Faustus’ last cry for hope sees him shouting out Mephistopheles  name. This makes clear that Faustus and Mephistopheles, from spending 24 years together, have become quite close if that is who Faustus thinks can save him from hell.

The play finishes with the Chorus talking.

• P115 ‘Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight’. This is violent language. Faustus could have grown to become a great intellectual Doctor. However, his intelligent nature cut him short.
• ‘grew within this learne’d man’. Faustus was a mature man and should have understood his potential.
• ‘Regard his hellish fall’. This quote invites the audience to learn from Faustus’ example: the dangers of transgression.
• ‘To practice more than heavenly powers permits’. This last line of the play makes clear that transgression for ‘heavenly powers’ will have consequences as Faustus has found out. It is a warning to the audience.

Doctor Faustus, out of three texts I am studying (The Bloody Chamber and Frankenstein) gripped me the most with what the dangers of transgression are. Faustus was an intelligent but stupid man. It burns me to think that the idea of transgression should occur to those less fortunate than Faustus. Faustus is intellectually clever enough to achieve or what he wanted (on P9) without having to transgress.

The ending of the play is utterly shocking to the audience. An audience of the modern day would be shocked by the ending. An audience at the time of the play being written (who would have been far more religious  would have been scared witless by the events of Faustus. The ending makes clear that there is nothing that is worth eternal damnation. Nothing. However, I do believe there were many key moments when Faustus could repent. It seems at the end that even if he wanted to repent, he physically wasn’t allowed to by Lucifer. However, the moments when he wants to repent but is distracted (such as the Seven Deadly Sins and the kissing of Helen), he was thinking more about the moment than anything. That is one of Faustus’ greatest weakness. He thinks a moment in time is more important than the future.

What I think will make the audience so upset after seeing Faustus becoming damned to hell is the fact that we still liked him at the end. Faustus entertained us at the holy Peter’s Feast. He did tricks to people such as the Horse-Courser who no-one really likes. He was also nice to people with the powers such as the Emperor and the pregnant Duchess. He did not do any significant evil deeds with his power. At the same time, he did not do anything amazing with his powers which is what he originally wanted to do with them.

Y

I think it is also important to make clear that I believe Faustus never really had power at any moment in the play. He relied on Mephistopheles’ power to get him and do him the things he wants. Faustus thought he had power when in actual fact, he was simply using Mephistopheles for his power. For example, when Faustus wanted to conjure up some grapes for the pregnant Duchess, Mephistopheles goes off-stage  retrieves the grapes, and then hands them over to Faustus.

Ultimately, Doctor Faustus is a great play. Not many Gothic texts can create such a vivid message at the end to not transgress as Doctor Faustus does.

• Faustus illustrates a strong passion for the dark arts without being provoked by anyone, ‘O, this cheers my soul’.
• It can be seen that Mephistopheles tries to warn Faustus to ‘leave these frivolous demands’. He is saying that the demands Faustus wants are not worth eternal damnation. Faustus ignores this making him the sole architect of his own demise.
• ‘God’s mercies are infinite’. Faustus had several good opportunities to repent but choose not to even if he could have been forgiven by God.
• Faustus, in his last soliloquy, makes clear that it is his own fault for his damnation, ‘curse thyself’.

• Mephistopheles gives a very vague description of hell which, to Faustus, makes it sound not too bad, ‘Why, this is hell, nor am I out of it. When Faustus sees hell for the first time he makes clear how horrible it actually is, ‘Ugly hell, gape not’. Therefore, Mephistopheles lured Faustus into signing the contract as he made the consequences of the contract sound not too bad.
• The Evil Angel continuously affects Faustus’ decision-making, ‘Faustus shall ne’er repent’.
• Lucifer physically threatens Faustus if he repents, ‘the devil threatened to tear me in pieces if I named God’.

Faustus can be compared to a traditional morality play. Therefore, I will take the traditional elements from a morality play, apply it to Doctor Faustus and back it up with quotes.

• Mankind figure ‘tempted’ / Tempted by knowledge (transgression) / P7 ‘necromantic books are heavenly’ and ‘those that Faustus most desires’.
• Mankind degenerates and lives a debauched (full of sin) life / Sin is not seriously bad but Faustus is blasphemous to the Pope and God / P37 ‘Faustus hath bequeathed his soul to Lucifer’.
• Mankind is reminded of duties by a virtuous character / Good Angel and Old Man are the virtuous characters that want Faustus to repent / P33 ‘Sweet Faustus, leave that exercrable art’ and P53 ‘Never too late, if Faustus can repent’.
• Falls back into his old ways lead by vice (immoral and wicked behaviour) / Tempted again by Helen and the Seven Deadly Sins / P103 ‘Come Helen, come, give me my soul again’ and P53 ‘O, this feeds my soul!’
• Despair and offered suicide / Faustus offered dagger to stab himself / P99 ‘MEPHISTOPHELES gives him a dagger…FAUSTUS prepares to stab himself’.
• Nick of time, mercy / Only tries to fully repents in last soliloquy / ‘P113 ‘I’ll burn my books’ and P101 ‘call for mercy and avoid despair’.
• Mankind returns to God / This never happens to Faustus as he goes to hell. Mephistopheles drip feeds Faustus with what hell is like making it sound okay. After signing the pack, the description of hell worsens.

1. Mephistopheles appearing in Act 1 Scene 3 for the first time.
2. The show of the Seven Deadly Sins during Act 2 Scene 3.
3. Lucifer’s appearance in Act 2 Scene 3.
4. Summoning of Alexander The Great for the Emperor during Act 4 Scene 1.
5. The ending where Faustus is getting dragged into eternal damnation in Act 5 Scene 2.

• Some of the Elizabethan audience would have been sceptical towards the supernatural powers in Doctor Faustus.
• The magic in the play would have been viewed by the Elizabethan audience as evil (with attempts of magic also being evil). This made clear that Faustus is turning to the dark side and transgressing.
• The Elizabethan’s beliefs towards magic and the supernatural would have believe it to be completely true. Therefore, this play would have been much more terrifying to an Elizabethan audience than to the modern day audience.
• Lots of people were accused of witchcraft during the Elizabethan time period. Therefore, the audience would have been cautious of Faustus.
• The play Doctor Faustus was written at the time of a reformation: Catholicism was dying out with the majority of the audience being Protestant.
• Faustus uses Latin, which is the language of the Catholic Church, to conjure up Mephistopheles.
• The scene where Faustus mocks the Pope is Marlowe criticizing the Catholic Church which the audience (being Protestant) will enjoy watching.
• The setting of where Faustus lives in the town of Wittenberg  This is the same place and university Martin Luther, the monk who led the reformation, was studied and taught.
• Catholicism was banned so it was okay to laugh at it.

• He is a victim to Lucifer an Mephistopheles.
• He was tricked by Mephistopheles to how horrible hell actually is.
• He is a victim of himself from the last soliloquy, ‘curse thyself’.

Mephistopheles

• He is a victim to Lucifer.
• Act 1 Scene 3 P21 has the quote that Mephistopheles is, ‘deprived of everlasting bliss’. The audience will, therefore, feel sorry for him.

Pope

• He is tricked by Faustus.
• The Elizabethan audience would have not seen him as a victim due to the reformation.

Old Man

• He is killed by Mephistopheles for trying to make Faustus repent.
• He suffers harm/death for the good of mankind and God.

Robin and Rafe

• Robin and Rafe are transformed into animals in Act 3 Scene 2, ‘transform thee into an ape and thee into a dog’.

Knight

• Knight becomes a comical victim for Faustus making horns grow onto his head.

Horse-Courser

• Victim because his horse turns to hay and he loses money to Faustus.
• Audience will not see him as a victim as enjoy seeing the Horse-Courser getting tricked.

• Victim to Lucifer and Mephistopheles – damnation is his fate.
• Suffers at the very end, ‘Ah, Mephistopheles!’.

Martyr

• Faustus dies in what he originally believed in. He believes in the quest for further knowledge and dies requiring it.
• He tells the scholars, at the end, to save themselves, P109 ‘come not unto me, for nothing can rescue me’.

• Works as an agent to dam Faustus.
• Intent on getting Faustus’ soul.
• Provides distractions when Faustus wants to repent (such as Helen and the Seven Deadly Sins).
• Offers a dagger to Faustus (P99) – suicide will send him straight to hell as it is a sin.
• Servant to Lucifer.
• Writes the contract with Faustus and brings him the candle to melt Faustus’ blood.

Victim

• Dammed by Lucifer already.
• Will never experience heaven.
• Tries to warn Faustus P21 ‘leave these frivolous demands’.
• Honest (but vague) about hell.
• ‘Ah, Mephistopheles!’. He is a follower to Lucifer. But, there is more to the relationship between Faustus and Mephistopheles: Faustus calls him ‘Sweet Mephistopheles’. They had been together for 24 years.
• Mephistopheles and Faustus are actually quite similar characters. They are both dammed, both proud spirits, both intellectually intelligent and are both victims to Lucifer.

• Has a fatal flaw: a desire for power and knowledge that leads him to damnation.
• He experiences a reversal of fortunes which the audience can see will happen except Faustus who forgets that he will be dammed until the very end.
• The audience will feel pity for him at the end because, ultimately, Faustus is good deep down.

• He is on a quest for knowledge (Romantic heroes are often on some sort of quest).
• Intuitive (Romantic heroes are often intuitive).
• Becomes alienated from society (Romantic heroes are somehow rejected by society or are non-conventional in their ideas and way of life).

I would recommend reading The Key Gothic Themes & Elements From Frankenstein, Doctor Faustus and The Bloody Chamber to understand better what makes a text Gothic,

• The study is the dark setting used throughout Doctor Faustus as is dimly lit by candles.
• Source of light fails such as when the stars disappear.
• There are omens and ancestral curses such as when Faustus sells his soul to the devil and kisses Helen, cursing himself to hell.
• There is magic and supernatural behaviour.
• There is death, decay and darkness which is represented as the devil.
• There are evil deeds which lead to the downfall of the character (Faustus signs the contract).
• There are horrifying events such as when Faustus’ leg comes off or the ending when being dragged into hell.

• In the play, the deadly sin ‘Lechery’ is seen a a women, in the Greenwich Theatre Production 2010 (directed by Elizabeth Freestone), Lechery is a man in women clothing. This could provide the point that both men and women are capable of lechery.
• In the play, the devils (on P37) should have given Faustus, ‘crowns and rich apparel) when they didn’t in the production.
• The production has much more humour with Mephistopheles making the audience like him more.