The Influence of the Morality Play on Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus" (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, University of Hannover, course: Christopher Marlowe "Doctor Faustus", language: English, abstract: Marlowe's Dr. Faustus was published in 1592 and appears to be an example of a Renaissance tragedy. However, many critics argue that Marlowe'sDr. Faustusowes a lot to the medieval dramatic tradition, to be precise, to the morality play tradition. Describing different types of the medieval plays, Philip Tilling claims that "themorality playas a kind of medieval religious play arose alongside the mystery play and was to continue, in modified form, throughout the Elizabethan period,culminating inMarlowe'sFaustus."1So, Tilling considersDr. Faustusto be "a morality play in a modified form". In my paper I seeDr. Faustusas a Renaissance tragedy which was to a certain degree influenced by the medieval dramatic tradition and has some characteristic features of the morality play. Proceeding on this assumption, I am going to concentrate on the play, pursuing three following issues:
- to describe the characteristic features of the morality play inDr. Faustus- to point out the features which lead me to interpret it as a Renaissance tragedy - to describe the purpose of the morality play structure inDr. Faustus.Pursuing these objectives, I am, first of all, going to summarise the main characteristics of the morality play in order to see, how to apply them to Marlowe's play. Then I will concentrate on the differences and similarities betweenDr. Faustusand the morality play on structural and thematic levels. In the last chapter of the paper I will focus on the issue of the function of the morality play structure inDr. Faustus.In conclusion I will summarize my arguments which support the thesis that the play should rather be seen as tragedy than as a morality play.