Talk:Doctor Faustus

Doctor Fustus

Born in canterbury in 1564, the same year as William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe was an actor, poet and playwright during the regin of Britain's Queen Elizabeth-I Doctor Faustus was probably written in 1592 although the exact date of its composition is uncertain, since it was not published until a decade later. The idea of an individual selling his or her soul to the devil for knowledge is an old motif in christian folklore, one that had become attached to the historical persona of Faustus, a disreputable astrologer who lived in Germany sometime in the early 1500's.

Source

The immediate source of Marlowe's play seems to be the anonymous German work Historia Von D. Iohan Fausten of 1587, which was translated into English in 1592, and from which Marlowe lifted the bulk of plot for his drama. Although there had been literary representations of Faust prior to Marlowe's play, Doctor Faustus is the first famous version of the story

Synopsis

The story is set in Germany, where Doctor Faustus feels that he has reached the limits of human understanding. Desiring greater knowledge and power, he contracts to sell his soul to Mephastophilis, in exchange of 24 years during which he will be given a luxurious life, magical powers and illicit knowledge of the secrets of the universe. 24 years pass without a strong sense of narrative development. Mephastophilis supplies Faustus with intellectual, physical and theatrical pleasures, including a parade of Seven Deadly Sins. The play ends where it began, in Wittenberg, where Faustus's last magic is to show his old friends a vision of Helen of Troy. An old man attmepts to bring Faustus to repentance, but he holds to his devilish contract. At last he is dragged screaming to hell.