Dr Faustus

Question 1

How does Marlowe establish Faustus at the start of the play?

Answer 1

Chorus presents Faustus as low-born but intellectually exceptional

Immediately frames tragedy through allusion to Icarus (rise and fall)

Emphasises intellect, not nobility, as the source of greatness

Question 2

Why does Faustus reject traditional disciplines?

Answer 2

Logic = trivial

Medicine = limited by death

Law = morally empty

Theology = misunderstood as fatalistic

Sets up his turn to necromancy

Question 3

What is the significance of the pact with Lucifer?

Answer 3

Formalises Faustus’s rejection of God

24 years symbolise limited, finite power

Contract shows obsession with legality over morality

Question 4

How does the middle of the play develop Faustus’s tragedy?

Answer 4

Power wasted on spectacle and mockery

Intellectual potential collapses into triviality

Comic scenes mirror and parody Faustus

Question 5

Why is the ending tragic rather than merely moralistic?

Answer 5

Faustus recognises his error

Language fragments under pressure

Audience feels pity as well as fear

Question 6

In what sense is Faustus a tragic hero?

Answer 6

Noble in intellect rather than birth

Central flaw: hubris / overreaching ambition

His fall evokes pity and fear

Question 7

What is Faustus’s hamartia?

Answer 7

Intellectual pride

Desire to transcend human limits

Belief he can outthink divine law

Question 8

Is Faustus a victim or agent of his own downfall?

Answer 8

Both: external temptations exist

Ultimately chooses knowledge over salvation

Tragedy lies in conscious choice

Question 9

How does Faustus define knowledge?

Answer 9

Instrumental and power-based

Knowledge = control

Rejects ethical responsibility

Question 10

How does Renaissance humanism influence Faustus?

Answer 10

Encourages intellectual ambition

Celebrates classical learning

Conflicts with Christian humility

Question 11

How does Marlowe present ambition ambiguously?

Answer 11

Language glorifies aspiration

Plot punishes excess

Audience left admiring yet condemning Faustus

Question 12

How does Faustus misuse theology?

Answer 12

Selective quotation of scripture

Treats Christianity as legalistic

Ignores mercy and grace

Question 13

Why does Faustus fail to repent?

Answer 13

Pride prevents submission

Fear of damnation leads to despair

Repentance delayed until too late

Question 14

Calvinism

Answer 14

Protestant theological system of John Calvin and his successors, which develops Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith alone into an emphasis on the grace of God and centres on the doctrine of predestination.

Question 15

How does Calvinism complicate Faustus’s fate?

Answer 15

Raises question of predestination

Suggests repentance may be impossible

Marlowe leaves issue unresolved

Question 16

Free will

Answer 16

Good/Evil Angels

Old Man represents spiritual resilience

Lucifer fears Faustus’s repentance

Question 17

Fate

Answer 17

Blood congeals

Final scene dominated by devils

Question 18

Good and evil angels: Funtcion

Answer 18

Externalise Faustus’s inner conflict

Reflect morality play tradition

Question 19

Good and evil angels: Dramatic purpose

Answer 19

Simplify abstract theology

Highlight Faustus’s procrastination

Medival morality play charactirstic

Question 20

MEPHISTOPHELES

Answer 20

Not merely a villain

Capable of suffering and warning

Mirror to Faustus

Both damned by knowledge

Both aware of loss

Question 21

Lucifer

Answer 21

Embodiment of absolute authority

Enforces obedience

Question 22

Hell

Answer 22

Psychological state

Separation from God

Question 23

Reality of magic

Answer 23

No genuine creation

Reliant on illusion

Question 24

Helen

Answer 24

Idealised, objectified beauty

Illusion, not redemption

Question 25

Helen; Interpretation

Answer 25

Final temptation Eroticism replaces spirituality

Question 26

Comdey and low scenes: Function

Answer 26

Comic relief Social satire

Question 27

Comdey and low scenes: Structural role

Answer 27

Emphasise Faustus’s decline Parody intellectual ambition

Question 28

Blank verse

Answer 28

Reflects intellect and ambition

Question 29

Imagery

Answer 29

Classical allusion Hyperbolic rhetoric

Question 30

Final soliloquy

Answer 30

Fragmented syntax Linguistic collapse mirrors spiritual collapse

Question 31

Chorus

Answer 31

Frames play as moral warning Classical tragedy influence

Question 32

Structure

Answer 32

Rise → misuse → fall

Question 33

KEY QUOTATIONS

Answer 33

“A sound magician is a mighty god.” “Why this is hell, nor am I out of it.” “Was this the face that launch’d a thousand ships?” “I’ll burn my books.”

Question 34

How does David Bevington interpret Faustus?

Answer 34

Renaissance overreacher Symbol of humanist ambition Warns against intellectual excess

Question 35

How does E.M.W. Tillyard read the play?

Answer 35

Morality play tradition Allegorical rather than psychological Faustus as universal sinner

Question 36

What is Jonathan Dollimore’s view?

Answer 36

Marlowe is subversive Challenges Christian orthodoxy Play exposes instability of moral absolutes

Question 37

KEY CONTEXT

Answer 37

Renaissance humanism Elizabethan religious anxiety Fear of magic and heresy

Question 38

Order of which Faustus rejects other displines?

Answer 38

Philosphsy Medicine Law Bible Magic

Question 39

Physical warnings

Answer 39

Hearing whispers 'Homo Fugue' written on his arm Congealed blood

Question 40

First thing faustus asks for?

Answer 40

A wife 'Let me have a wife, the fairest maid in Germany, for I am wanton and lascivious and cannot live without a wife'

Question 41

Conditions of the deed

Answer 41

1. 'Faustus may be a spirit in form and substance' 2. 'Mephistopheleses shall be his servant, and at his command' 3. 'Mephistopheleses shall do for him and bring him whatsoever' 4. 'That he shall be in his chamber or house invisible'