Renaissance Elements in 'Doctor

Faustus'
The Renaissance man was fascinated by new learning and knowledge. He took all
knowledge to be his province. He regarded knowledge to be power. He developed an
insatiable thirst for further curiosity, knowledge, power, beauty, riches, worldly pleasures
and the like. The writer of this age represented their age in their work. Marlowe is the
greatest and truest representative of his age. So the Renaissance influence is seen in every
one of his plays. Dr. Faustus represents the Renaissance spirit in various ways.

Thirst For Knowledge/Intellectual Curiosity

The most important desire of the Renaissance man finds expression in Dr. Faustus.
He has an unequalled thirst for knowledge and power to be acquired with the help of that
knowledge. In the very beginning of the play Dr. Faustus is found considering the
importance of various subjects which he may study. He has already studied various subjects
at the universities and impressed scholars with his knowledge. After considering the relative
importance of various subjects as - Logic, Metaphysics, Medicine, Law and Theology - he
concludes that they can give knowledge but no power. He remarks, ‘Yet art thou still but
Faustus, and a man’. So he decided to study the "Metaphysics of Magician" and regarded
“necromantic books as heavenly". With the help of this knowledge he wants to acquire
power and become “as powerful as Jove in the sky”.

There was an intellectual curiosity during the Renaissance. The new discoveries in
science and developments in technology went beyond mere material advances. It was a
youthful age to which nothing seems impossible. Before the European, this period opened a
new world of imagination. All these things stirred men’s imagination and led them to believe
that the infinite was attainable. In Dr. Faustus, Marlowe has expressed such ideas, when
Faustus says:

O, what a world of profit and delight,

Of power, of honour, of omnipotence,
Is promised to the studious artisan!
All things that move between the quiet poles
Shall be at my command.

Wealth And Exploration

The Renaissance man desired wealth and worldly pleasures. After his agreement with
the Devil he would have spirits at his command to do whatever he liked. He would like them
to bring gold from India, pearls from oceans and delicacies from every part of the world. In
this way he would have a lot of power and wealth to enjoy worldly pleasures. Like the
Renaissance man Dr. Faustus wanted to travel across the world. So with the help of
Mephistopheles he traveled to distant countries. And

He views the clouds, the planets and the stars

The tropes, zones, and quarters of the sky
From east to west his dragons swiftly glide.

Love Of Beauty

Besides having love of knowledge, power, worldly pleasures Dr. Faustus has the
Renaissance love of beauty, so he wanted to have a wife the fairest maid that is in
Germany. As he wanted to see the most beautiful woman in the world, he conjured the
vision of Helen. He expressed his feeling of great delight in the following words

Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?

And burnt the topless tower of Ilium.

Disregard For The Authority Of The Pope

The Reformation was a companion movement of the Renaissance. The Protestants

challenged the authority of the Pope and disregarded him. Dr. Faustus not only disregarded
the Pope and the Bishops, when he stayed in Pope's place, but gave him a box on the ear.
He also made fun of bishops because he pointed that they were interested in only belly
cheer.

Critical Essays Faustus — Medieval

or Renaissance Hero
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Certain aspects of the drama can be used to support an interpretation of Faustus
as a Renaissance hero and other aspects suggest he is a medieval hero.
According to the medieval view of the universe, Man was placed in his position
by God and should remain content with his station in life. Any attempt or ambition
to go beyond his assigned place was considered a great sin of pride. For the
medieval person, pride was one of the greatest sins that one could commit. This
concept was based upon the fact that Lucifer's fall was the result of his pride
when he tried to revolt against God. Thus, for the medieval person, aspiring pride
became one of the cardinal sins.
According to the medieval view, Faustus has a desire for forbidden knowledge. In
order to gain more knowledge than he is entitled to, Faustus makes a contract
with Lucifer, which brings about his damnation. Faustus then learns at the end of
the play that supernatural powers are reserved for the gods and that the person
who attempts to handle or deal in magical powers must face eternal damnation.
When we examine the drama from this standpoint, Faustus deserves his
punishment; then the play is not so much a tragedy as it is a morality play. The
ending is an act of justice, when the man who has transgressed against the
natural laws of the universe is justifiably punished. The chorus at the end of the
drama re-emphasizes this position when it admonishes the audience to learn
from Faustus' damnation and not attempt to go beyond the restrictions placed on
humanity.

The character of Faustus can also be interpreted from the Renaissance point of
view. At the time of this play, there was a conflict in many people's minds,
including Marlowe's, as to whether or not to accept the medieval or the
Renaissance view. The Renaissance had been disappointed in the effectiveness
of medieval knowledge because many scholastic disputations were merely verbal
nonsense. For example, arguments such as how many angels could stand on the
head of a pin dominated many medieval theses. The Renaissance scholars,
however, revived an interest in the classical knowledge of Greece and the
humanism of the past. They became absorbed in the great potential and
possibility of humanity.

According to the Renaissance view, Faustus rebels against the limitations of

medieval knowledge and the restriction put upon humankind decreeing that he
must accept his place in the universe without challenging it. Because of his
universal desire for enlightenment, Faustus makes a contract for knowledge and
power. His desire, according to the Renaissance, is to transcend the limitations
of humanity and rise to greater achievements and heights. In the purest sense,
Faustus wants to prove that he can become greater than he presently is.
Because of his desire to go beyond human limitations, Faustus is willing to
chance damnation in order to achieve his goals. The tragedy results when a
person is condemned to damnation for noble attempts to go beyond the petty
limitations of humanity.

Doctor Faustus: As a Renaissance Play

1. 1. Dr Faustus: As a renaissance play
2. 2. The Morality drama A Drama in 15th and 16th centuries
using allegorical characters to portray the souls struggle to
achieve salvation. Something viewed as exhibiting the struggle
 between Good and Evil and offering a moral lesson. The
Moralities developed from the Miracle and Mystery Plays
subsequently developing into the Interludes and he regular
Drama. Dr Faustus is a morality play but with Rennaissance
period undertones.
3. 3. The Legend of Dr Faustus  The Faust legend had its
inception during the medieval period in Europe and has since
become one of the world's most famous and oft-handled myths.
The story is thought to have its earliest roots in the New
Testament story of the magician Simon Magus (Acts 8:9-24). 
During the early part of the fifteenth century in Germany, the
story of a man who sold his soul to the devil to procure
supernatural powers captured the popular imagination and
spread rapidly. The original Faust has probably been lost
forever.  That same year it was translated into English as The
Historie of the damnable life and deserved death of Doctor
John Faustus’. In both these popular editions of the Faust-
Book. Marlowe took the story from this ‘Faust –Book’ while
writing his second play ‘The Tragical History of the life and
death of Dr.Faustus’ in the eighties of the 16th Century.(1588-
89)
4. 4. Dr Fautus: some facts  Dr. Faustus is a Renaissance
tragedy written by the Cambridge scholar Christopher Marlowe.
 The full title of the play is “The Tragical History of the Life and
Death of Doctor Faustus”.  It was adopted from a German
story ‘Faust’ translated in English as The English Faust Book. 
The name Faustus is a reference to the Latin word for
"favoured" or "auspicious“.  The play is in blank Verse and
prose in thirteen scenes (1604) or twenty scenes (1616). 
Blank verse is largely reserved for the main scenes while prose
is used in the comic scenes.
5. 5. Renaissance  Renaissance means Re-birth or re-
awakening.  Renaissance originated in Italy in the 13th
century. Constantinople, the capital of Byzantine empire fell to
the Turks on 1353. This is taken as the official date of the
beginning of Renaissance.  But, it required more than 100
years to cross the English Channel and make its presence
established in English soil.
6. 6. Dr Faustus of Marlowe is rather an embodiment of the spirit
of Renaissance with its dreams and desires, with its yearning
for limitless knowledge and power, with its craving for
sensuousness and mundane pleasures of life and not just a
cunning magician of the medieval age indulging in his
miraculous feats. Marlowes Faustus has a revolutionary spirit
and that is why he challenges God, religion, conventional
morality and dogmas of medieval Christianity. How is Dr
Faustus a Rennaissance Play?
7. 7. Marlowe: The Man ahead of his times Marlowe himself was
the spirit of Renaissance incarnate. Marlowe and his fellows
who together are called the University wits were the most
prominent embodiment of the spirit of Renaissance. They were
pamphleteers, and often alleged as spies working for the
government. Marlowe is believed to be an atheist, an
embodiment of that is clearly found in Faustus who although
not an atheist but is a disbeliever. In the central characters of
his dramas like Tamburaline, Faustus and Jew of Malta, he is
impelled by the Renaissance spirit for unlimited power,
unlimited knowledge, unlimited wealth.
8. 8. The Quest for limitless knowledge The Church which was the
supreme authority in medieval times was strongly challenged
by free thinkers, artisans, dramatists and painters. Books
became a symbol of resistance nullifying the ideals of papal
authority. Faustus also craves for unlimited power and
knowledge and even disregards the Bible in favour of magic.
He says, “The wages of sin is death”, “divinity adieu.”
9. 9. The Practice of Necromancy (Black Arts) Performing Black
Magic has always been prohibited be it the modern, medieval
or the dark ages but Faustus nonetheless indulges in the
forbidden. Black Magic is used to invoke the devils whilst
having no fear of suppression. Faustus says, “A sound
magician is a mighty god”
10. 10. The Trinities of Christianity Faustus is ready to
renounce his faith in the Holy Scriptures and Christ. He says, “
Already done and holds this principle, There is no chief but only
Beelzebub. The Trinities of Christianity rests on the three
aspects of divinity, God, the son and the Holy Ghost. The
Infernal Trinity consists of Lucifer, Beelzebub and Demogorgon.
Faustus is aware of his fate yet he is ready to do the
 unthinkable ie barter his soul for some 24 years of voluptuous
ease. He is a Renaissance hero.
11. 11. Christian Concept of Sin, According to Christianity,
“All unrightteousness is sin”. Sin is a transgression (going
beyond) of diving law. They are different to crimes that
transgress man’s laws. The Catholic Church had two kinds of
sin, Venial and Mortal. Venial sins were smaller and could be
forgiven but mortal sims threaten to dettroy the life of grace and
condemn the sinner to eteranal damnation, unless they are
absolved through confession. Each sin was punished through
an appropriate form o suffering in hell. Fautus commits a venial
or mortal sin? Was he beoyond reclamation?
12. 12. - of Damnation Damnation is the concept of divine
punishment and torment in an afterlife for actions committed on
Earth. In some forms of Western Christian belief, damnation to
hell is what humanity deserves for its sins. Many Catholic and
Protestant denominations hold that human sin is the product of
the fall of man of Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis. Fautus
is subjected to eternal damnantion but he is not afraid. “The
word “damnation” terrifies not him, for he confounds hell in
Elysium”
13. 13. And hell. In Christian theology, Hell is the place or
state into which by God's definitive judgment unrepentant
sinners pass either immediately after death (particular
judgment) or in the general judgment. This concept of hell is
challenged in the play when Mephistopheles says, “Hell hath no
limits, nor is circumscribed in one self place; for where we are is
hell. And where hell is, there must we ever be… all places shall
be hell that are not heaven.
14. 14. Conclusion  Dr Faustus as a play and its author
Marlowe as a dramatist were both embodiments of the
Renaissance spirit.  The play was to Renaissance period what
many post- modern texts were in the 20th century.  It was, ‘A
tide against time’
15. 15. Thanks! Any questions? Let’s have a Q&A session.
16. Renaissance elements in Dr.
Faustus
17. Or
18. Dr. Faustus as a Renaissance
man
19.

20.
21. The word ‘Renaissance’ itself means ‘rebirth’.
“The idea of rebirth originated in the belief that
Europeans had discovered the superiority of
Greek and Roman culture after many centuries of
what they considered intellectual and culture
decline.” Thus the question what was the
renaissance about is answered as the widespread
cultural revival marking the division between the
so called ‘dark ages’ and the modern world. The
Renaissance was a period of fundamental change
in human outlook once dominated by religious
dogma and Christian theology. The age was
marked by a great yearning for unlimited
knowledge; by love for worldliness – supreme
power, sensual pleasures of life; by love for
 beauty; respect for classicism; by skepticism,
individualism and Machiavellian influence.
22.
23.Christopher Marlowe was a product of the
Renaissance. Therefore it was usual for him that
his play Doctor Faustus would contain
Renaissance spirit. We see in Dr. Faustus a
wonderful expression of renaissance elements
and the character Dr. Faustus as a renaissance
man.
24.
25. The most important thing in the Renaissance
is craving for ‘knowledge infinite’. This
characteristic has been injected in Faustus
properly. He has achieved knowledge of all
branches. Yet he feels unfulfilled. So he wants to
practice black art and with this he would be able
to know all things –
26. “I will have them read me strange
philosophy.”
27. After selling his soul, he, at the very first,
questions Mephistopheles to know the mystery of
the universe, about the position of hell.
28. “First, will I question with thee about hell,
29. Tell me where is the place that men call
hell?”
30.
31. Faustus’s longing for material prosperity,
for money and wealth, which is also a
Renaissance element, has been expressed in the
following lines where he desires to gain the
lordship of Embden a great commercial city-
32.“Of wealth!
33.Why, the signiority of Embden shall be mine.”
34. He further wants to enjoy a splendid life full
of worldly pleasures. He says,
35. “I will have them fly to India for gold,
36. Ransack the ocean for orient pearl,
37. ….
38. And search all the corners of the new found
world.
39. For pleasant fruits and princely delicates.”
40. Here we see another inherent thing
characterized by Renaissance in Faustus i.e. love
for adventure.
41.
42. Faustus’s eagerness to get the most beautiful
German maid to be his wife and Helen to be his
paramour and to find heaven in her lips proves
his love of beauty along with love for sensual
pleasure which is also a Renaissance element.
He says to Mephistophilis,
43. “For I am wanton and lascivious
44. And cannot live without a wife.”
45.
46. Dominance of classical literature, art
and culture is a prominent feature of the
Renaissance. And it is frequently expressed by
Faustus in his allusions, examples, references.
One of such examples can be noticed in the
following couple of lines where Faustus says,
47. “Have I not made blind Homer sing to me
48. Of Alexander’s love and Oenon’s death?”
49.
50. “The Renaissance was marked by an
intense interest in the visible world and in
the knowledge derived from concrete sensory
experience.” “It turned away from the abstract
speculations and interest in life after death that
characterized the middle Ages.” Faustus raises
question and gives answer to that question in the
following lines-
51. “That, after this life, there is any pain?
52. Thus, these are trifles and mere old wives tales.”
53. Thus Renaissance allows Scepticism and
secularism.
54.
55. Inthe Renaissance, “the unique talents and
potential of the individual became
significant. The concept of personal fame was
much more highly developed than during Middle
Ages.” Actually Faustus is an individualistic
tragic hero. His tragedy is his own creation. He
does not think like traditional heroes or men. He
crosses his limit while common people do not
generally cross that.
56.
57. Renaissance movement is greatly influenced by
Niccolo Machiavelli, his The Prince and his
ideal “ends justify the means.” Similarly
Faustus also wants to reach his goal by any
means, even by selling his soul to Devil –“Faustus
gives to thee his soul.” Furthermore, Faustus
earns money by selling a false horse to a Horse-
course deceitfully.
58.
59.The Renaissance has made Faustus fascinated by
supreme power. Faustus says-
60. “A sound magician is a mighty God
61. Here, Faustus, tire thy brains to gain a deity.”
62.
63. Finally we must say that Faustus is a faithful
embodiment of the Renaissance. He bears all the
characteristics of the age. Actually Marlowe has
pictured Faustus with great care and interest of
the age. George Satayana justly says in this regard
–

64. “Marlowe is a martyr to everything, power,

curious knowledge, enterprise, wealth and
beauty.

influence of renaissance
elements on dr Faustus
65.
66. ntroduction: The Renaissance
67. The word ‘Renaissance’ itself means in
general any rebirth or reawakening. The term is
specifically applied to the widespread cultural
revival which marks the division between the so-
called ‘Dark Ages’ and the modern world. In fact
it began in the fourteenth century in Italy. And
we find the new wave gradually spreading over
 western Europe and England in the following two
centuries.
68. The revival of learning, new geographical
discoveries and more significantly the rebellion
against the medieval pattern of living and
thinking dominated by religious dogmas and
Christian theology were the main sources of
stimulation. Another great contributory factor for
the growth of this movement was the revival of
interest in the classical antiquity or the Greco-
Roman culture. The main ingredients of this new
spirit were individualism and worldliness; and
these two traits found manifestation in many
forms such as its great yearning for knowledge
and learning without fetters, its love of beauty
and hankering after sensual pleasures of life, its
brave spirit of adventure and its sky-high
ambition and supreme lust for power and pelf in
this world. Then the epoch making work, The
Prince by Machiavelli, the famous social and
political writer of Italy, profoundly influenced the
spirit of the Renaissance. It was Machiavelli’s
forceful writings that encouraged the men of that
age to disregard all ethical and conventional
moral principles to achieve the end by any means,
fair or foul.
69. Marlowe and the Renaissance
70. In fact Christopher Marlowe himself was the
product of the Renaissance. He was saturated
with the spirit of the Renaissance with its great
yearning for limitless knowledge, with its
 hankering after sensual pleasures of life, with its
intemperate ambition and supreme lust for
power and pelf and finally with its spirit of revolt
against the medieval pattern of living, its
orthodox religion and conventional morality and
ethical principles. We may unhesitatingly call
Marlowe the first champion of the Renaissance,
as he was more than any-body else greatly
influenced by Italian Renaissance. Hence it was
but natural that his great works should reveal the
main characteristics of the Renaissance. And
then, unlike Shakespeare, Marlowe could not but
project his personality into the great and mighty
characters of his plays, specially in his four great
tragedies: Tamburlaine, Doctor Faustus, The Jew
of Malta and Edward II.
71. Marlowe’s Tragic Heroes
72. Thus we find that not only Doctor Faustus
but all the titanic heroes of Marlowe’s great
tragedies reveal some of the most important
characteristics of the Renaissance and
Machiavellian doctrine of complete freedom to
gain one’s end by any means, fair or foul. With
their spirit of individualism they all are
dominated by some uncontrollable passion for
gaining some ideal or finding the fulfilment of
some intemperate ambition. They all seem to be
inspired by Machiavellian ideals of human
conduct and human desires, and hence the
common moral conventions and the established
religious sanctions can never thwart them from
 striving to gain their end. His Tamburlaine, the
most cruel despot, with his craze for limitless
power defies all authorities on earth as well as
heaven. In his Jew of Malta, the stone-hearted
Barabas dominated by a senseless lust for gold
throws to the wind all common moral
conventions and does not shirk from committing
the most cruel type of crimes to achieve his
heinous end. And his Edward II and Mortimer
pay the most terrible price, the former for his
passion for his base minions and the latter for his
intemperate lust for power.
73. Doctor Faustus: Spirit of Revolt
74. Of all Marlowe’s heroes, Doctor Faustus
seems to be the veritable incarnation of the
genius and spirit of the Renaissance, as his
character reveals a great yearning for limitless
knowledge, power and pelf, a craving for sensual
pleasures of life, a defying spirit of atheism or
scepticism and also a spirit of revolt against
conventional religious doctrines, and Christian
theology. One of the most significant
characteristics of the Renaissance was
individualism that led to the spirit of revolt to
free the human mind from the shackles and
dogmas of the Church and feudalism. And
Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus with all his erudition
and scholarship, with his abnormal pride and
presumption discusses in his very first
monologue, in the first scene, the merits and
demerits of all the important branches of study
 and has the great audacity to take his own
decision, right or wrong, and to declare without
the least hesitation:
75. “Philosophy is odious and obscure,
Both law and physic are for petty wits;
Divinity is basest of the three,
Unpleasant, harsh, contemptible and vile;
‘Tis magic, magic, that hath ravished me.
76. Thus Faustus boldly asserts his
individualism and raises the standard of revolt
against the medieval restrictions on the mind of
man.
77. Craving For Knowledge and Power
78. Faustus’s craving for ‘knowledge infinite’, his
insatiable curiosity and supreme lust for power
and pelf very clearly reflect the spirit of the
Renaissance. And the black art of magic
fascinates him only because he will be able to
gain limitless knowledge and through knowledge
superhuman powers that are beyond the scope of
other subjects of study that have been mastered
by him till then. The necromantic books thus
become heavenly to him. Hence he turns a deaf
ear to the earnest appeals of the Good Angel ‘to
lay that damned book aside’ and does not make
any delay to make up his mind when the Evil
Angel whispers to him:
79. “Be thou on earth as Jove in the sky,
Lord and commander of these elements
80. And then Doctor Faustus as the true
embodiment of Renaissance spirit starts
 dreaming of gaining super-human powers and of
performing miraculous deeds with the help of
spirits raised by him:
81. “I’ll have them read me strange philosophy,
And tell the secrets of all foreign kings;
……………………..
I’ll levy soldiers with the coin they bring,
And chase the prince of Parma from our land,
And reign sole king of all the provinces:”
82. All these proud assertions clearly reveal
Faustus’s Renaissance spirit of adventure and
supreme craze for knowledge and power without
any limits. And finally as a true follower of
Machiavelli, we find Faustus discarding God and
defying all religious and moral principles, when
he sells his soul to the Devil to master all
knowledge and to gain super-human powers.
83. Sensual Pleasures and Love of Beauty
84. To Faustus knowledge means power and it is
power that will enable him to gratify the sensual
pleasures of life. Faustus’s request to
Mephistophilis to get the most beautiful German
maid as his wife gives us a chance to understand
the working in his mind. And then Faustus’s keen
longing to have Helen, ‘that peerless dame
of Greece’ to be his paramour and to find heaven
in her lips reveal his supreme love of beauty and
yearning for sensuous pleasures. The magnificent
apostrophe to Helen in the most inspired and
lyrical passage of the play wonderfully illustrates
the Renaissance spirit of love and adoration for
 classical beauty as well as urge for romance and
mighty adventures.
85. Conclusion
86. All the towering heroes of Marlowe’s great
tragedies, Tamburlaine, Doctor Faustus, Barabas
and Edward II are really the embodiments of the
spirit of the Renaissance. Marlowe himself was a
child of the Renaissance and he invariably
projected his personality into the mighty
characters of his towering heroes. And of all his
heroes, it is Doctor Faustus who may be taken as
the very ‘incarnation of the genius of
Renaissance’ with his great yearning for
‘knowledge infinite’, with his craving for limitless
power and pelf, with his hankering after sensual
pleasure of life and finally with his deliberate
revolt against the conventional moral ideas and
religious ideals and superstitions.