Ans—Understanding of Christopher Marlowe’s Elizabethan calamity. Dr. Faustus. can be framed in footings of the Renaissance doctrine and the Elizabethan calamity. which takes a different bend on some points from the Aristotelean calamity. for case such as the Elizabethan tragedy’s needed decease of the tragic hero. Dr. Faustus demonstrates the Renaissance doctrine that pits the duality of good. beatific humanity against immorality. depraved humanity. Marlowe’s drama besides is a theoretical account of the Elizabethan calamity.
Marlowe constructed the character of Dr. Faustus to stand for within himself both features of the Renaissance position of humanity as divinely good and hellishly immorality. First. Dr. Faustus is presented as a bookman of all things including deity. the highest Renaissance scholarly subject. Then. Faustus is shown as disgruntled with the restrictions of humanity and hold oning for limitless cognition. which is a Biblical allusion to Adam and Eve who ate of the Tree of Knowledge. Throughout the drama. Faustus descends to take down and lower planes of cognition in his chase for the “power” and “omnipotence” that comes from cognition. At the beginning. Mephistopheles answers all Faustus’ inquiries but draws the line on talk of the existence. which can be seen to stand for astronomical and cosmogonic studies–the really surveies that scientific discipline is profoundly involved in today:
CERN ; Hubble ; SoHo ; etc ) . Faustus must be content with simply mapping the universe alternatively of understanding it. Marlowe finally shows in Dr. Faustus the futility of the quest for ultimate cognition and the inevitable terminal consequence of abandoning moral unity for omnipotent cognition.
Dr. Faustus besides represents a Authoritative Elizabethan calamity. First. the tragic hero has a defect or makes an mistake in judgement that leads to his ain day of reckoning. It’s difficult to state whether Faustus had a fatal defect in his character or whether he was doomed by a faulty apprehension that lead to a fatally black mistake in judgement. All along the manner. Faustus has uncertainties and vacillations which speak for an unity of his moral character. If he has a fatal defect. it might be that he did non think the power of evil extremely plenty. that he thought that with almighty cognition. he could liberate himself from the ironss of immorality he wrapped so happily around himself. Adam and Eve besides fell to the penalty from the enticement of cognition.
Of class. rather frequently Faustus’ fatal defect is said to be greed and irreverent neglect for goodness. One hint to organizing a literary stance on the inquiry lies in analyzing his vacillations and 2nd ideas. In add-on to this. the inquiries addressed in Marlowe’s drama are nobel cosmopolitan inquiries refering to the highest order of considerations: the significance of life and decease. the quest for cognition. the several power of of good and evil. In farther agreement with Elizabethan calamity. the drama Dr. Faustus employs comedic alleviation through the presence of buffoons that besides acts as a agency of giving information about the characters and the action of the drama. The buffoons in Dr. Faustus are Rafe and Robin. In Elizabethan calamity. the buffoons ( rural. state simpletons who misuse linguistic communication by chance ) and saps ( urban inhabitants who play with linguistic communication and “misuse” it deliberately for humor ) by and large replace the Greek Chorus that carried the undertaking of traveling the narrative along with information non performed on phase. but in Dr. Faustus. Marlowe employs both the Greek-style Chorus and Elizabethan buffoons.
Finally. in maintaining with Elizabethan tragic signifier. Faustus gets himself in so deep. his tragic defect or mistake in opinion is so aggregious that it leads finally and needfully to his decease. therefore carry throughing the destiny of an Elizabethan tragic hero. Since Faustus has overestimated what he can achieve from an agreement with Lucifer and since he underestimated the power of Lucifer’s immorality. his ultimate terminal must be and is decease even though he recognizes his errors and pleads for forgiveness.
