DR FAUSTUS: DRAMATURGY

The sense of incompleteness the play impresses is due to its weakness in structure being conspicuosly episodic. Not only do the supposedly comic scenes conspire to mar the overall effect, however contributory in reinforcing skepticism and cynicism in the quest of faith, but so do the scenes that provide Faustus's actions once he has Mephistophilis as his djinn (I propose a correlation there). Broadly, they are of a trickster at best which is more evident when compared with the promises Faustus makes contemplating his future fortunes.

The play has its primary appeal in its poetry, whether it be the protagonist's last soliloquy or the pompous dreaming elsewhere. The Senecan elements of the supernatural--resurrected spirits, the devils etc.--the horror at the catastrophe, the long speeches and comparatively less action (1), represent the dramaturgical conventions of Marlowe's time.

A comparison with The Spanish Tragedy and the Hamlet brings out glaringly Dr. Faustus as an experiment in the dramatic technique, given all its poetic achievement. THe former play holds water for its dramatic structure while Hamlet combines the best of both worlds--of Kyd's and of Marlowe's. Absense of substantial characterization is apparent (when Hamlet is considered) the play while Kyd's rhetoric and structure are again missing. Yet, Marlowe's work forms substantial fabric of what the subsequent Elizabethan works are made of: his establishment of the romantic drama or Elizabethan tragedy and of blank verse are examples.

Unlike Shakespeare, and like Kyd, outward conflict characterizes the man's vissicitudes.

Then, we havfe the play as a Morality (Mystery). Typical features are: Faustus at last praying for salvation, the characters of Good Angel and Evil Angel, contrasting parallels of Good and Evil etc. It is ironic again that these threads are significant even when morality has been put at stake (WRONG)? (haashiye par rakhna).

The play is rich in irony: Faustus' dealing with Mephistophilis is the most conspicuos instance. [ADD MORE] The metonym of Hell looms throughout: "Where we are, hell is" etc. The metaphors of night and time add to both the atmosphere and the dramatic effects of the play: "O lente, lente curritte, noctis equi!" and the clock-punctuated last soliloquy, for example. Rhetoric interacts across structures larger than the line: echos and reflections, parallels and contrast between different scenes are traceable, e.g. the use of logic to make a point or to refute it has been used extensively. The diction lends the effects of reinforcements of ideas and figures; extensive use of Latin lends it a truly solemn tone and reminds too of the liturgical elements. Similarly the demonizing of various ideas, say,...