38/40 To what extent do you agree with the view that ‘Dr Faustus’ is more a play of spectacle than one which creates fear and apprehension?

To what extent do you agree with the view that ‘Dr Faustus’ is more a play of spectacle than one which creates fear and apprehension? 

In ‘Dr Faustus’, there are many instances where a visually striking display presents itself to the audience, an especially important aspect in a play to engage the audience, ‘Dr Faustus’’ spectacles actually seem to create fear and apprehension more effectively together, shown by the genuine belief and panic following the seemingly real appearance of the conjured devils.

One such spectacle in Marlowe’s play is the seven deadly sins pageant for Faustus’ entertainment. Initially, the entertainment focus of the scene leans more towards a spectacle. However, its use as Faustus’ entertainment creates fear, as the audience know that Lucifer is using the spectacle to bring Faustus’ wavering resolve back onto the path to hell. This behaviour is also shown by Mephistopheles in Act Two Scene One when he “fetches him somewhat to delight his mind” with the stage direction- “Aside”. By speaking exclusively to the audience, the sense of deception towards Faustus is forged. In this way, the spectacle of the seven deadly sins creates fear and apprehension, as the audience are aware that it is used as deceit. The very procession is led by a ‘piper’, complete with connotations of deceit and transgression itself. The Pied Piper of Hamelin was a prominent Medieval German legend, appearing in Goethe’s work- the later reproducer of ‘Faust’- who led children to a questionable destination with a magical pipe. This could be a reference to Mephistopheles’ commanding nature and devious intentions on Dr Faustus. But it is more likely that Marlowe has employed a piper for the leader of this transgressive spectacle to comment on a wider scale about the delusive enticement of papal supremacy (in the 16^th century) and the sins it itself encourages in its wake.

This spectacle also creates fear and apprehension within the audience by showing Faustus’ flagrant disregard for the typically medieval allegorical warning. After Lucifer and Beelzebub show him “some pastime”, Faustus replies “how this sight doth delight his soul”. Faustus’ reference to a “soul” could be taken to be ironical, in which case displaying his laughable relationship with sin. This creates apprehension within the audience, as the mention of the soul in such disregarding and entertaining terms puts Faustus in even more peril; the audience’s “Christian heart lamenting” at the inevitable end of Faustus. Especially in a Medieval morality play, this relationship between sin and man would have demonstrated a punishment at a later time. Differently, the intimidation shown by Lucifer may lead to the lines being read in a pacifying tone, though still ironic. Depending on how the scene was played, the fear and apprehension may have traversed into Faustus, making his downfall more sympathetically accessible after being bullied into sin by the devils. His weak and cowardly behaviour is further indicated to by his eager complacency to “burn his books”- either for Lucifer’s sake at his first threat, or God’s. Through the spectacle of the seven deadly sins, Marlowe allows the fear created to be adapted in different performances to different degrees and subverts the 16^th century audience’s expectations of a morality play by developing a character immune to its warnings- or a Renaissance tragic hero.

Another spectacle which reoccurs in ‘Dr Faustus’ is the conflicting angel and devil which seem to be Faustus’ conscience. It is likely that the 16^th century play would have employed actors to play the parts of both angel and devil, turning the warning of Faustus’ conscience into a striking, oppositional exhibition for the whole audience. The Globe performance even presented the two as warriors and engaged them in dramatic combat, inducing apprehension within the audience. It was predictably most unusual for an audience to see an outward externalisation of conscience in a morality play and Marlowe has likely done so to defy the robotic stock characters who seemed to lack human free will to act as a warning. Marlowe’s depiction of both good and bad in one character doomed to be condemned as an example, creates fear within the audience; Faustus becoming more accessible to the audience’s sympathy and frighteningly- their empathy. In this way, the battle between good and evil typical in a Gothic text becomes an arena in which the audience are fated to acknowledge their similarity to an uncanny, transgressive character- a frightening prospect.

Faustus’ dramatic spectacle of the good and bad angel demonstrates a fear of redemption. The bad angel says at Faustus’ moment of weakness (or strength) “repent and devils shall tear thee in pieces”. This violent and aggressive threat is then directly opposed in the next line with the good angel responding “repent and they shall never raze thy skin”. Structurally, Marlowe is particularly effective in showing direct conflict between Faustus’ rejection of God and his thirst for knowledge and his obedience to God and social values. This could perhaps reflect the changing period of the time and the conflict between the bad angel’s Renaissance idealism- to “go forward” (repeated often throughout the play)- and the good angel’s pious and somewhat oppressive state. Typically at times of social conflict the Gothic arises, and Dr Faustus is a very early example of this. The structural positioning adversely shows Faustus’ constant ignorance of his obvious chance of redemption due to fear, and his feeling of hopelessness despite the audience’s awareness of his choices reflects a Calvinistic hopelessness. Marlowe has used the good and bad angel in ‘Dr Faustus’ to demonstrate that moral dilemmas are in fact just a spectacle to Calvinism and the disastrous consequences this has on people who in turn believe that redemption is “an illusion, fruits of lunacy that make men foolish”.

Marlowe uses spectacles in ‘Dr Faustus’ to comment on social fears during the 16^th century and provide a space on stage to subvert and question authority; a Carnivalesque-ish notion. Through spectacular imagery, the play not only serves for “pastime” but fear and apprehension are a natural result, effective in turning the audience’s world upside down as a Gothic text should.