Faustus Critics

Question 1

W W. Greg on the reality of the ‘friendship’ of Valdes and Cornelius

Answer 1

their intention to use Faustus as a cat’s paw rather than run into danger themselves … and except for the passing mention by the students, we hear no more of them.

Question 2

T McAlindon on the diction of the play.

Answer 2

Characteristically embodies the duality of meaning

Question 3

David Bevington and Eric Ramussen on the ‘The miracles that magic will perform’

Answer 3

the word ‘perform’ ambivalently suggests both active accomplishment and illusory fabrication of dramatic spectacles.

Question 4

JP Brockbank on the nature of Mephistopheles

Answer 4

Meph. promptly displaces Faustus as intellectual centre of the play. His eloquence sticks to the facts … Yet, unlike Valdes and Cornelius, he is not a tempter.

Question 5

Roma Gill on Faustus and all the facts

Answer 5

this scenes significance lies in its demonstration that Faustus is in full possession of all the facts … He can now make no appeal on the grounds of ignorance.

Question 6

L C Knight on Faustus’ poor and selfish behaviour

Answer 6

the perverse and infantile desire desire for enormous power and immediate gratification

Question 7

Johnathan Dollimore on Faustus’ incarceration

Answer 7

Even before he abjures God, Faustus expresses a sense of being isolated and trapped.

Question 8

JP Brockbank on Faustus’ guardian angels

Answer 8

The Good offers the moral view of the prologue, and the Bad the heroic and hubristic one of the soliloquy.

Question 9

JP Brockbank on the Devil’s ‘reassuarances’

Answer 9

As before, none of the devil’s answers are reassuring. Faustus’ soul will merely “enlarge the kingdom” of Lucifer, and man is tempted only because misery loves company.

Question 10

John Dollimore on Faustus’ bloodletting in the eyes of Lucifer.

Answer 10

Faustus is not liberating himself, he is ending himself: “It is finished”.

Question 11

JP Brockbank on ‘Homo, fuge!’

Answer 11

The admonitory words … fade and return like a hallucination of conscience.

Question 12

Roger Sales on the incrementation of the ‘Great Chain of Being’

Answer 12

Wagner tries to imitate Faustus and the pattern repeats itself when Robin tries to imitate Wagnar.

Question 13

JP Brockbank on Faustus’ pschomachic soul struggle.

Answer 13

Faustus is beginning to lose his confidence in the heroic consolations of evil and his moral distress is becoming genuine.

Question 14

JP Brockbank on ‘O, this feeds my soul!’

Answer 14

He asks to visit hell and return safely, but hell has already visited him and left him contaminated.

Question 15

Lois Potter on Faustus’ pope pranks

Answer 15

Faustus was using farce to distract himself from his own approaching fate … his laughter became hysterical

Question 16

Steve Simkin on the portrayal of Catholics

Answer 16

The depiction of the pope and his bishops indulging themselves with rich foods and drink is fairly blatant, and predictable, anti-catholic propaganda.

Question 17

Roger Sales on catholicism

Answer 17

Faustus and Mephistopheles are therefore … allowed to speak for England when they ridicule the Pope’s curses.

Question 18

Roger Sales on the clown

Answer 18

The clown who created the part of Robin seems to have been an experienced juggler. Perhaps that is all Faustus becomes as a result of his contract with Lucifer.

Question 19

JP Brockbank on the clown and the magician

Answer 19

The scenes remind us that great magicians … are at best reputable court entertainers and not masters of empire’

Question 20

Stevie Simkin on the comic dismemberment of Faustus

Answer 20

Rooted in mediaeval dramatic tradition, the comical dismemberment serves to prefigure Faustus’ eventual fate.

Question 21

Roger Sales on the Duke and Duchess

Answer 21

They are on-stage spectators who are able to enjoy the Theatre of Hell without being made to suffer for it.

Question 22

William Tydeman on Faustus’ ‘mean streak’

Answer 22

All the incidents demonstrate a streak of spitefulness, an urge to humiliate and score off others, very much keeping with the cruelty displayed by the demonic fraternity towards him.

Question 23

JP Brockbank on the unrepentant Faustus

Answer 23

Is it that Faustus cannot repent because he is without grace, and cannot have grace because he will not repent?

Question 24

William Tydeman on Faustus’ sexual deviancy

Answer 24

Sexual desire and sycophancy combine to shut out the truth Faustus cannot face.

Question 25

Stevie Simkin on Helen of Troy

Answer 25

Even at the brink of damnation, Faustus looks to mortal love, or satisfaction of his lusts, for salvation.

Question 26

Roger Sales on the voice of the play.

Answer 26

One of the problems for spectators … is that Faustus has the most memorable lines.

Question 27

Stevie Simkin on ‘Ah, Mephistopheles’

Answer 27

perhaps a curse, perhaps a sudden and final vain hope his devilish companion may save him.

Question 28

William Tydeman on Helen of Troy

Answer 28

winning her love represents both Faustus’ finest hour and his most disastrous act.

Question 29

David Riggs on St Mary and young Jesus

Answer 29

Jesus Christ was a bastard, St Mary a whore…

Question 30

David Riggs on Marlowe and degeneracy

Answer 30

Marlowe’s life reeked of depravity its exemplary conclusion proved ireesistable.

Question 31

Richard Baines on the nature of Marlowe

Answer 31

atheist, a counterfeiter and a consumer of boys and tobacco.