Dr. Faustus Morality Play and How Its Different

Jacinto Evangelista

May 14, 2008

There are many ways in which Dr. Faustus resembles medieval morality plays. Morality plays use allegorical characters to teach the audience moral lessons, typically of a Christian nature. In the story of Dr.Faustus we see how his trend with his sin of excessive pride, which led him to become a greedy person, obsess with knowing everything about life. In this story we also see how a good angel, a bad angel and an old man try to tell Dr.Faustus what type of decision to make.

In the play Dr. Faustus we see how he came from a respected and admired person by society to a corrupted person. He embarked on this path due to his temptations. At the beginning of the story scene 1(80-84) “Shall I make spirits fetch me what I please, perform what desperate enterprise I will? Have them fly to India for gold, Ransack the ocean for orient pearl.” In this part we have both angels telling DR. Faustus what to do. But he only seems to listen to the bad angel because he not thinking about God but only of the benefits that performing black magic would bring to him. Dr. Faustus did a conjured as a result Mephastophilis appeared to him. All he could think about was possibilities. All he would think about was all the things he was going to be able to accomplish with mephastophilis assistance. Another example of how Dr. Faustus resembles a morality play can be seen on scene 5(15-21) here on this scene with have the good and evil angel trying to convince Dr. Faustus to do what is right. Both sides tell their point of view. Good angel tells him to leave dark magic and evil angel tells him to think of honor and wealth. But once again Dr. Faustus only thinks about the benefits that giving up his soul would bring to him without thinking of the consequences. Another scene in which we see how this story resembles a morality play is 5 (250-255). “ Good Angel Never Too late, if Faustus will repent.” And the “Evil Angel if thou repent, devils shall tear thee in pieces.” Here we have the good and evil angels once again telling Dr. Faustus what to do. In this scene we have the good angel tell him that is not too late to repent and turn to God to save him. And here once again Dr. Faustus reject the idea that he can be saved. Instead he tells Lucifer that he would not talk of heaven and mention Gods name again. This can be read on scene 5 (267-280). He end up giving up to Lucifer rules instead of following the good angel advice to repent and he will be saved. Faustus also does not repent because he does not really believe that God would save him after he sold his soul to Lucifer. Even thought the good angel as already mentioned told him it was not too late to repent and save his soul. He says in scene V "If unto God, he'll throw me down to hell" He also has a lot of pressure coming from the demons not to repent. Dr. Faustus simply did not repent because he did not realize the magnitude of what he did by signing the contract until the very end of the story. But by then it was too late. At the end he pays the price he set out to pay by selling his soul. As a result now he was taking to hell. Dr. Faustus may have been a representation of the dangers brought by the renaissance, and that turning from God to look for answer in a higher purpose such as science, or black magic as presented in the story of DR. Faustus could result in wrath from God and an eternity in hell and the opportunity to never be saved by God.

In a way in which the story of Dr. Faustus diverges from the traditional morality play is that it uses knowledge. In this particular story knowledge serves as Dr. Faustus desire to know everything. In this story we see how greedy he is for knowledge. Dr. Faustus does not want just any knowledge