Dr.Faustus, an incarnation of Renaissance

Dr.Faustus, an incarnation of Renaissance

Like Chaucer, Marlowe reflects his age and its ethos. Marlowe’s dramatic creation has indelible stamp of the current times. The age in which Marlowe conceived his plays was the age which saw the full flowering of the Renaissance in England. Before discussing the impact of Renaissance spirit on Dr. Faustus we should refresh our sense about Renaissance, its nature and features. Literally Renaissance means rebirth or revival of learning. It was a complex and many sided movement. As a whole, Renaissance can be defined in a number of different ways.

Firstly it can be defined as a revolt against the stable but restrictive world of late middle ages.

Secondly in words of Walter Patter it was a general excitement and enlightening of the human mind. 

Thirdly it was the movement which filled men with curiosity and enlightenment both about them and the Universe around them.

Fourthly it was the movement which promoted humanism and individualism in conduct, philosophy, religion and art. In short this movement had three leading characteristics; an impulse towards emancipation, a spirit of inquiry and assertion of individualism. 

If we take up Marlowe’s Dr.Faustus, we find it to be an intricate blend of religious and secular elements. In its mould and message, subject and structure, the play has frequent and flagrant affinities with Morality plays. Yet no one can deny Marlowe’s sympathy and support for all that was inspired and ingrained by Renaissance. Both in his thought and actions Dr.Faustus reflects Renaissance. He appears before us as a typical Renaissance figure with his love and desire for emancipation from the old order, the free play of the human mind, the assertion of one’s individuality. We rather find him as an incarnation of the spirit of Renaissance in his unbridled yearning for limitless knowledge, power and wealth, his insatiable spirit of inquiry, his intemperate lust for voluptuous joys, his sense of self importance, his insolent and defiant stance towards religion and God, and his love for adventure and journey. The spirit of Renaissance in Dr.Faustus can be detailed with textual evidence as follows.

If we read the play carefully, we shall find it lavishly tinged with spirit of Renaissance.

First of all Marlowe’s Faustus is introduced to us as an Icarus, as an aspiring figure and an over-reacher.

                                          “His waxen wings did mount above his reach”

The very prologue presents Faustus as an over-reacher, a scholar who acquires learning and his pride causes him to over-reach and destroy himself. Only a man of Renaissance could have aspired so sublime. In the words of another hero of Marlow; 

                                        “Nature doth teach all to have aspiring minds”

Secondly his review and rejection of the traditional subjects of study and eager preference for magic which promises; “World of profit and delight, of power, of honor, of omnipotence.” also prove him a man of Renaissance. His discussion with Cornelius and Veldese further exposes him as a man of Renaissance with his ardent curiosity, his desire for luxury and wealth, his nationalism, and his awareness of extended horizons of that age of discovery.

 In fact Faustus’ dreams of power and pelf, knowledge and beauty are those of people of Renaissance age.

               “All things that move between the quit poles shall be at my command”.

Thirdly the appearance of Good and Bad Angels symbolize the genral fix in which the man of Renaissance was stuck. On one side he was attracted by the liberating and aspiring spirit of Renaissance. On the other side he was by the fear of facing eternal damnation.

                                      “And gaze not on it , lest it temp thy soul,

                                         Be thou on earth as Jove is in the Sky”

Fourthly the spirit of revolt against the old and enslaving order of the day was breed by Renaissance.  Religion had to face the brunt of this spirit. As a result of this assault, Renaissance man became skeptic even insolent toward religion and God.

                                       “Divinity is the basest of the three”

                                  This word “damnation” terrifies not him”

                                          I think hell is a fable.

Fifthly Faustus possesses the spirit of inquiry. It is the spirit which chiefly causes the surrender of soul by Faustus.

                                   “To tell me whatever I demand”

After writing the deed of gift, the first service Faustus asks from Mephistopheles is to rid this Renaissance scholar of the queries about hell and its whereabouts. In order to gratify his spirit of knowing, he demands different books of magic which might enlighten him about heavenly bodies and earthly vegetation.

“Wherein I might see all plants ,herbs and trees that grow upon the earth.”

Sixthly Faustus sense and appetite for beauty with all its voluptuousness is another trait of a Renaissance man.

                        “Let me have a wife, the fairest maid in Germany”

This craving for beauty in Faustus reaches its apex when he confronts the spirit of Helen.

                          “Sweet Helen make me immortal with kiss”

Seventhly Faustus embodies the Renaissance love for adventure and travel. He spends most of the allotted time in visiting distant lands and mysterious heavenly bodies.

                      “ He views the clouds, the planets and the Stars”

Finally, a number of allusions to Greek and Roman mythologies and cultures are made in the play. These allusions bear indelible stamp of Renaissance. Only a man from Renaissance age could have such interest and awareness about those cultures.

In order to sum up the discussion, we conclude that Marlowe’s Faustus is a martyr to everything that the Renaissance valued-power, knowledge, curiosity, enterprise, wealth and beauty. Like his creator Faustus epitomizes the restless curiosity, the riotous imagination, and the audacious desires of a man responding fully to the new trends in his age. Faustus, “The insatiable speculator” surrenders his soul just to quench his intellectual and mental thirst; another gift by Renaissance for the men of that age.