– Christopher Marlowe

“In these times I don’t, in a manner of speaking, know what I want; perhaps I don’t want what I know and want what I don’t know.”
Marsilio Ficino, The Letters of Marsilio

We, humans, are ambivalent. Duality in disposition interprets our true selves. Neither we have outstanding good characters nor the prominent evil ones. We keep wavering between them as long as we breathe. We sin,  we bemoan, we ask for redemption. But when given chance, we sin again. There is this endless loop of going back to where it all began. But what changes, are the elements we confront in this loop. These elements are powerful enough to either make us hop into another loop for salvation or keep on running the same into our damnation. Do you know what’s crazy? We get to choose what spice we add to our curries. At every step of our life, we get options to choose that determines our fate.

Then why “Qué Será Será”?

Why it is said that what has to transpire will transpire?

If that is the case then why we need to do the right things at the right time? Why not live our lives with pride, ambitions, and arrogance? Are we deemed to have free will in our paths or is it all on fate? If you are confused then, mate, you are not alone in this, Doctor Faustus was equally disturbed.

Read Doctor Faustus, a play by Christopher Marlowe for the#spookitupanotch readathon conducted by our book club, The Biblioraptor BookClub. And guess what! I was amazed at how perfectly Marlowe understood the dual nature of humanity.

( No, this is not a review. This is completely my perception based on the play and the movie. If you disagree, kindly be polite about that and we can discuss it.)

*Connotation of Pride.

Many say that Doctor Faustus is the perfect portrayal of the inner struggle of the human mind. But I say, it’s so much more than that. The unmistakable point to notice was the portrayal of Pride and Ambition, not only of Faustus but also of one of the least interactive character, Lucifer. Who doesn’t know the biblical justification for the banishment of Lucifer? The pride that threw Lucifer out of heaven was the reason that took everything away from Faustus.

*The Duality resides in us.

There was a point when I screamed at Faustus.

A man who is in constant motion, mentally! 

He fights between good and evil, between knowledge and greed, and even between God and the Renaissance. Being someone from the Medieval period but well-read, he is constantly wavering between Putting God as his central focus and longing for magic and necromancy.
His primary interest in the deal was to gain proficiency in the other world as he had completely gained all sorts of Earthly Knowledge. But it didn’t take much time to hop into the shoes of greed and lust.

And then he had so many characters around him to detract him. The good and evil angels popping up, ” tween tween” and dragging him both ways. Then there are his worthless opportunistic friends who are just waiting to bathe in the light of his fame. And of course our beloved Mephistopheles.

Leave him alone, guys!

(I would suggest people read Dawkins Theory after this. It’s bizarre but will blow your mind and you can find similarities between this play and the book.)

*The mythical junctions.

The story of this Doctor of Divinity has all the connections with the Greek Tragedy (it’s that obvious), structurally and thematically. The preliminary speeches, the protagonist falling into the hands of circumstances, the choral narratives, and the heart-wrenching mishaps.
I was amazed at the fact that this play had no particular narrator, either the characters are blabbering or the chorus just popping up out of nowhere to provide the background information about Faustus’ life, swelling pride, and how it led to his downfall. There was also this prominent indication of the popular tale of Icarus, the son of Daedalus.
The biblical reference was clear too with the Sin-redemption-damnation concept. And “Deal with the devil” part taken from European folklore.

(Honestly, though the genre was a tragedy, I couldn’t stop laughing at a few places. Like the prank in Pope’s assembly was funny. Even Robin clown ignoring Mephis’ threatenings.)

*Faustus wanted to be a Demi-God.

Within a few intervals, the craving for knowledge was flushed into the gutter and all that left was the desire to become a demi-god with immense supremacy that paved the way to greed, lust, arrogance, and blind heeding into the evilness.
He claimed to use the gained knowledge for greater researches but ends up using it for cheap tricks and dirty pranks.
Faustus not only accepts evilness into him but also influences his surroundings, like Wagner using magic to control Robin or Robin summoning Mephistopheles for his naughty tricks.

I have a theory here, Faustus summons Mephistopheles and razes all links with God. But when Mephis arrives, he gets scared of his appearance and orders him to change his face and come back. And Mephis returns disguised as a saint. It clearly shows the hypocrisy that lies within us. We mask our evil traits with brighter and calmer faces and expect the other person to do the same. We believe that anyone wearing a mask of a saint is trustable, even if we realize that the person is disguised.
Isn’t it what happening around us with all those self-proclaimed Gurus?
Another point is, we humans cannot bear the burden of ugly truth, hence, we always prefer fabricated lies.
This point is cleverly portrayed in the part where Faustus orders Mephistopheles to bring him an illusional spirit of Helen Of Troy (*steamy *steamy) in Act 5, twice. Even in his last moments, he yearns for the physical love of Helena but not the forgiveness of God.

*Homo Fuge.

The good and the evil angels very well represent the two states of mind but at various points, the emotions get intermingled. There is a lot of confusion between what is wrong and what is right in Faustus’ mind. Though it’s quite clear for the audience. (As expected)

The second appearance of the angels shows that humans always get second chances to rectify their deeds. It’s then the choices they make that changes their fate forever.

Even the blood getting clot indicates that as if the blood didn’t want him to sign the pact. It shows how at every step your mind and soul question your actions.

“Homo Fuge”, which means “Fly, man!”,  shows that instead of flying into righteousness, Faustus chose to sell his soul to the Devil. A warning from God to fly away from this path for it will bring him no peace. Evil ways will always lure you to embrace them, but it’s you who decides the way your term ends.

*Mephistopheles, the star of the story.

The way Marlowe has given dialogues to Mephis is impeccable. Even for a moment, I wanted to sign that pact. It’s so seductive and persuasive that it feels so right at that moment. I can’t blame Faustus at that moment.

I loved the part where he explained that hell has no limits since it is not just any particular physical space. Any place away from your conscience is hell.

” Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed In one self place, for where we are is hell, And where hell is there must we ever be.  -Mephistopheles”

“Hell is just a frame of mind“

The cunning creature, that he had to be, told Faustus the stories of Lucifer’s banishment, of heaven and hell but cleverly ignores the most crucial question, “who created the universe?” Wickedness avoids confrontation with eternal verities.

To distract Faustus from his quest for truth, Lucifer shows him a pageant of seven deadly sins.

How easy it is to manipulate us!

The path to damnation is always full of glory and grandiose. But the path to redemption tests you at every notch.  Faustus cheats everyone, plays dirty pranks, and tortures people that came his way digging up his own grave.

A peculiar point that struck me was the point where Faustus ordered Mephis to torture the old man for warning him. According to the then applied theory, Mephis could only have tortured his body and not the soul, for his soul belongs to God. (He has not sold it to the devil) (correct me if I am wrong).

Even Robin’s part confused me. Was he turned into an animal? Let me know in the comments below.

*Ciao, Faustus.

All these for nothing? Noone helped Faustus in those last moments. His friends found his body brutally tortured and left alone.
I remember reading these kinds of stories where the once glorious life ends with loneliness and murder. Why does it remind me of The Great Gatsby?
Now to answer my question, it was never fate that dragged Faustus into his damnation. No one ever pressured him. (Although seduced) But he chose his own path. At every step, he was given the option to choose between the good and the bad. But he was so in lust for supremacy, that he couldn’t choose to struggle in the path of righteousness.

For Faustus, everything was out of the free will. Even summoning Mephistopheles.

“Fools that will laugh on earth, most weep in hell.“

I can go on writing about this marvelous piece of art. And you may even get another post about it. So don’t blame me.

Wanna know why am I so obsessed with this? Try reading Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe. And if all these confused you, that’s because I tried to jink it up and not to spill the specific facts.

💕💕Utkirtana