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The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

Christopher Marlowe

Summary

Doctor Faustus, written around 1592 and first printed in 1604, is Christopher Marlowe's tragedy of a scholar who sells his soul to the devil. This text follows the 1604 quarto, known as the A-text, edited by Alexander Dyce. Faustus, a learned doctor of Wittenberg, has mastered logic, medicine, law and divinity and finds them all unsatisfying. Reading the Bible selectively, he concludes that sin leads inevitably to death and turns instead to magic, which promises power, wealth and knowledge. A Good Angel urges him to repent, and an Evil Angel urges him on. With the help of the magicians Valdes and Cornelius, he conjures the devil Mephistophilis, who admits that hell is not a place apart: why, this is hell, nor am I out of it. Undeterred, Faustus signs a contract in his own blood, giving his soul to Lucifer in exchange for twenty-four years of service; as he signs, his blood congeals and the words Homo, fuge, 'Man, flee', appear on his arm. Faustus then uses his powers for trivial ends. He questions Mephistophilis about the heavens, watches a pageant of the Seven Deadly Sins, plays tricks on the Pope in Rome, conjures Alexander the Great for the Emperor, and fetches grapes out of season for a duchess, while comic scenes show his servant Wagner and the clowns Robin and Rafe misusing magic. Several times he considers repenting, but fear and pride hold him back. An Old Man begs him to turn to God's mercy. Near the end Faustus summons Helen of Troy and asks, 'Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships?' In the final scene, during his last hour, he pleads for time to stop, longs to hide from God's wrath, and offers to burn his books, but devils carry him off. The Chorus mourns: cut is the branch that might have grown full straight. The play is a powerful study of ambition, despair and the refusal of grace, and it suits high-school readers.

Top Lessons

Knowledge and power
Faustus wants knowledge chiefly as a means to wealth, pleasure and power.
Related across the library
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- United States v. Wong Kim Ark, Full Text
  at the time of his birth a citizen of the United States by virtue of the first clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside I In construing any act of legislation whether a statute enacted by the legislature or a constitution established by the people as the supreme law of the land regard is to be had not only to all parts of the act itself...
- United States v. Wong Kim Ark, Lesson: Reading new words in light of old law
  Reading new words in light of old law. The Constitution used the phrase natural-born citizen without defining it, and the Fourteenth Amendment spoke of persons born in the United States. Gray read both against the common law the framers knew, while Fuller argued that independence and the law of nations had displaced that inheritance.
- Helvering v. Davis, Lesson: Power, not wisdom
  Power, not wisdom. Cardozo stressed that the Court's task was to decide whether Congress had power, not whether the plan was wise. The distinction recurs throughout constitutional law and asks students to separate their judgment of a policy from their judgment of its legality.
- Lectures on Revivals of Religion, Lectures on anxious sinners
  The handling of conviction and distress illustrates the deliberate intensification of spiritual anxiety.
Despair and grace
Faustus is repeatedly urged to repent but refuses, sinking into despair.
Related across the library
- Henry IV, Part 1, Lesson: Redeeming the time
  Redeeming the time. Hal's soliloquy in Act 1, Scene 2 tells the audience that he will throw off his idle life when it will shine brightest. The play keeps asking whether this is wisdom, calculation or a young man's excuse, and it lets Hal prove himself only at Shrewsbury. Reformation is promised early and earned late.
- On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals (De Motu Cordis), Ch. VIII
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- The Practice of the Presence of God, Lesson: Prayer as conversation, not only set times
  Prayer as conversation, not only set times. Lawrence says set times of prayer should not differ from other times, because he talks with God all day in simple words. He recommends a little lifting up of the heart, even on a march with a sword in hand, and an oratory made in the heart. Prayer becomes a habit of friendship rather than a special performance.
- Chartism, Chapter V
  It is the feeling of injustice that is insupportable to all men The thesis of 'Rights and Mights': hunger and pain can be borne when the heart is right, but not the sense of being wronged.
- God's Grandeur, Lesson: The weariness of trodden ground
  The weariness of trodden ground. Lines 5-8 imitate the grind of labor with repeated words and heavy stresses. Hopkins does not reject work, but he shows how a life of trade and toil can numb the senses, so that the foot, being shod, can no longer feel the earth.
Tragic hero
Faustus is both a great aspiring mind and a fool who trades eternity for trifles.
Related across the library
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- The Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter VIII: Of the Wages of Labour
  nearly at bottom with that of Judge Hales Both suppose the weekly expense of such families to be about twenty-pence a-head Both the pecuniary income and expense of such families have increased considerably since that time through the greater part of the kingdom in some places more and in some less though perhaps scarce anywhere so much as some exaggerated accounts of the present wages of labour have lately represented them to the public The price of labour it must be observed cannot be ascertained very accuratel...
- The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus, Full Text
  prepared It sees so far as itself is concerned that it has deserved hell and that its punishment is bliss It undoes itself in the praises of God and I would gladly undo myself now Blessed be Thou O my Lord who out of a pool so filthy as I am bringest forth water so clean as to be meet for Thy table Praised be Thou O Joy of the Angels who hast been thus pleased to exalt so vile a worm The good effects of this prayer abide in the soul for some time Now that it clearly apprehends that the fruit is not its own the s...
- Veazie Bank v. Fenno, Lesson: A uniform national currency
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- The War of the Worlds, Lesson: Complacency before the unknown
  Complacency before the unknown. The first chapter describes men going about their little affairs, sure of their mastery of matter, while they are studied like creatures in a drop of water. Wells uses the invasion to puncture that assurance. The epilogue concludes that the earth can no longer be regarded as a fenced and secure dwelling place.

Verified Quotes

“Why, this is hell, nor am I out of it:”

— Christopher Marlowe, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, Faustus's first conjuring of Mephistophilis (Project Gutenberg #779).Quote card

The Brothers Karamazov, Book VI, Chapter 3, Of Hell and Hell Fire
What is hell?” I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love Zosima defines hell in moral and relational terms during his spiritual reflections.
Selected Sermons, Sermons on affliction and providence
Calvin frames suffering as a field for trust, correction, endurance, and communal support.
No Treason, No. VI, § I
The Constitution has no inherent authority or obligation. The opening sentence of The Constitution of No Authority.
The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, Closing reflections
Affliction I wanted, and affliction I had, full measure (I thought), pressed down and running over. She recalls that in prosperity she had sometimes wished for trials, fearing she had her portion in this life.
Henry VI, Part 1, Full Text
beauty s princely majesty is such Confounds the tongue and makes the senses rough MARGARET Say Earl of Suffolk if thy name be so What ransom must I pay before I pass For I perceive I am thy prisoner SUFFOLK How canst thou tell she will deny thy suit Before thou make a trial of her love MARGARET Why speak st thou not What ransom must I pay SUFFOLK She s beautiful and therefore to be woo d She is a woman therefore to be won MARGARET Wilt thou accept of ransom yea or no SUFFOLK Fond man remember that thou hast a wi...

“Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight,”

— Christopher Marlowe, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, Epilogue (Project Gutenberg #779).Quote card

Life on the Mississippi, Chapter 20
His hour had struck; we bore him to the death-room, poor boy The last line of the chapter on Henry Clemens's death after the Pennsylvania explosion, in the Memphis hall used as a hospital.
SEC v. Edwards, Full Text
held that respondent's scheme was not an investment contract on two grounds First it read this Court's opinions to require that an investment contract offer either capital appreciation or a participation in the earnings of the enterprise and thus to exclude schemes such as respondent's offering a fixed rate of return Id at Second it held that our opinions' requirement that the return on the investment be derived solely from the efforts of others was not satisfied when the purchasers had a contractual entitlement...
The Last Days of Socrates, Phaedo 118a
Such was the end, Echecrates, of our friend; concerning whom I may truly say, that of all the men of his time whom I have known, he was the wisest and justest and best The final sentence of the dialogue.
The Art of War, The Oldest Military Treatise In The World
English was published in in Tokyo by Capt E F Calthrop R F A However this translation is in the words of Dr Giles excessively bad He goes further in this criticism It is not merely a question of downright blunders from which none can hope to be wholly exempt Omissions were frequent hard passages were willfully distorted or slurred over Such offenses are less pardonable They would not be tolerated in any edition of a Latin or Greek classic and a similar standard of honesty ought to be insisted upon in translation...
Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Full Text
already gained from the seed sown by our lord Gregory may grow strong and be further extended that so the promises spoken by our Lord may hereafter be brought to pass in you and that these words may summon you to everlasting happiness Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will refresh you And again Well done good and faithful servant thou hast been faithful over a few things I will make thee ruler over many things enter thou into the joy of thy Lord And we most beloved brothers sending you fi...

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

Summary

Top Lessons

Knowledge and power

Despair and grace

Tragic hero

Verified Quotes