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    A Study Guide for Christopher Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus (see also "Tragedy of ...")"
    A Study Guide for Christopher Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus (see also "Tragedy of ...")"
    A Study Guide for Christopher Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus (see also "Tragedy of ...")"
    Ebook52 pages59 minutes

    A Study Guide for Christopher Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus (see also "Tragedy of ...")"

    By Gale and Cengage

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    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Christopher Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus (see also "Tragedy of ...")," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateJul 27, 2016
    ISBN9781535821995
    A Study Guide for Christopher Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus (see also "Tragedy of ...")"

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      A Study Guide for Christopher Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus (see also "Tragedy of ...")" - Gale

      3

      Doctor Faustus

      Christopher Marlowe

      1594

      Introduction

      Christopher Marlowe based his play Doctor Faustus on stories about a scholar and magician, Johann Faust, who allegedly sold his soul to the devil to gain magical powers. Born in 1488, the original Faust wandered through his German homeland until his death in 1541. In 1587, the first story about his life appeared in Germany, translated into English in 1592 as The History of the Damnable Life and Deserved Death of Doctor John Faustus.

      Exactly dating Renaissance texts can be difficult, but Doctor Faustus poses particular challenges. Scholars believe Marlowe heard or read the story of Johann Faust and composed Doctor Faustus sometime between 1588 and 1592. London’s Stationer’s Register entered the play into the official records in 1601, but in 1602, at least two other writers were paid for additions to the text. (Most critics believe that Marlowe wrote the play’s tragic beginning and end, while his collaborators wrote much of the comical middle sections.) A theatrical company named the Earl of Nottingham’s Men (commonly known as the Admiral’s Men) performed the play twenty-four times between its opening in 1594 and 1597. Thomas Busshell published the play in 1604, though John Wright published a different version in 1609. Editors generally combine parts of these and other versions of the text to create the play as it is widely read today.

      Contemporary theatre records indicate that in early performances, Faustus may have worn the cloak of a scholar, decorated with a cross, while the devil Mephistopheles appeared in the costume of a dragon. It has been said that performances of the play were so terrifying that during the 17th century audiences believed that the devil actually appeared among them.

      In spite of a literary career prematurely shortened by his violent life, Marlowe profoundly influenced English literature. In particular, scholars credit his play Tamburlaine with successfully introducing blank verse into English drama and with developing the Elizabethan concept of tragedy as a way of exploring key moral issues of the Renaissance. Although not a favorite with early audiences, today critics and theatre-goers alike consider Doctor Faustus Marlowe’s masterpiece.

      Author Biography

      Born in 1564, the same year as fellow playwright William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe’s great dramatic achievements appeared on London’s stage a few years before Stratford’s favorite son (Shakespeare wrote and worked in Stratford) came to dominate the English stage. In their day, Marlowe’s plays marked a highpoint in English drama, particularly because he first successfully introduced blank verse into tragedy. Blank verse is written in poetic stanzas marked by Iambic Pentameter (each line has ten syllables with accents on every second beat); the verse is composed without rhyme. In addition, Marlowe’s characterization helped develop the Elizabethan concept of tragedy as a way of exploring key moral issues of the Renaissance.

      A native of Canterbury, England, and the son of a successful shoemaker, Marlowe received a scholarship enabling him to attend Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and prepare for a church career. He resided at Cambridge from 1581 to 1587, receiving his B.A. in 1584 and his M.A. in 1587. Throughout

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