Chorus. A chorus is a person or group who speaks directly to the audience to convey the author’s viewpoint or to introduce story details. In the tragedies of the classical Greek playwrights, the chorus was a group of persons who commented on moral or social issues within the play. In Renaissance drama, the chorus was often a single person who spoke the play’s prologue and epilogue and sometimes introduced individual acts. What viewpoint of Marlowe’s is presented in the chorus?
Soliloquy. A soliloquy is a speech delivered by a lone character that reveals the speaker’s thoughts and feelings.
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At the time Marlowe wrote The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, translations of German Faust stories had already appeared in London, and the story of a man who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for magical powers was well known. Marlowe set his play in the German university town of Wittenberg at the end of the sixteenth century. Dr. Faustus, a brilliant scholar, makes a deal with the devil: Faustus will receive the powers of black magic and the services of the devil’s servant, Mephastophilis, in exchange for his soul. Throughout the remainder of the play, Faustus agonizes over his decision, yearning for forgiveness but believing that ultimately he cannot be saved. This selection, which is the final scene of the play, begins as Faustus confesses his bargain to his fellow scholars.
The plot of the Faustus story derives originally from the story of Adam and Eve, who tasted the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge and so were cast out of Eden (see the selection from Milton’s Paradise Lost in Unit 6). The influence of the Faustus story on later literature has been enormous. This tale has given rise over the years to thousands of similar stories about people who make “devil’s bargains” in a quest for knowledge, power, beauty, fame, or fortune.
As you read Dr. Faustus, make a cluster chart listing the alternative fates Faustus imagines for himself in order to get out of his pact with Lucifer.
When have you chosen to do something and later regretted that choice?
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