Thank you for your excellent summary and commentary on Marlowe's "Dr. Faustus." I feel I missed a great deal of magnificent English literature during my many years in higher education. Never too late to be taught by one of the best instructors!
I'm "glutted" with other reading and writing projects so I am reading your wonderful summaries and analyses and hoping to catch up on reading the play.
I'm thinking of Paradise Lost and what influence this play may have had on Milton. If Milton's object is to explain the ways of God to man, Faustus seems to be explaining the ways of men to men.
Okay, so I understood he was weighing different disciplines but did not understand why. Now I know it is because he studied them. The scripture totally went over my head. I feel like I should have made that connection, but I didn't—I blame it on the Latin surrounding it ;-). Now that you pointed it out, the line "That's hard" struck me as funny. It IS hard. Also, while reading the last few lines, I realized that he had already chosen sorcery as if it were a foregone conclusion. Was he trying to talk himself out of it initially, or was he just pontificating?
I think he had already made his decision and was justifying it to himself. He basically asks “what is the point” of all these fields of study in that they all have human limits. (Human limitations and what we do or don’t do about them is a central theme of the play.) But Marlowe is also skillfully and artistically inviting us as readers/audience members to bring to the surface our own “what’s the point?” questions through Faustus. And let’s face it: we all have such questions.
Last week I read that Stephen King‘s book, Carrie was published 50 years ago on April 6. I’ve only tried to read one other Stephen King novel and I couldn’t get very far (too scary!) but I thought I would pick up a copy of Carrie from the library and give it a read. I’ve read about a quarter of it and so far it’s not scaring me the way the other book of his that I read which I think was The Stand. It’s not very edifying literature (!) but it makes me wonder what it is in his writing that is attractive to people and reading this first scene with Faustus makes me think that this is what it is. What I’ve read so far in Carrie is about high school girls who are horrible to one particular girl who it turns out has these telekinetic powers and ultimately she uses them to exact revenge on these girls who have bullied her so. As you may know, this is the book that kicked off King’s successful career. Not sure I’ll finish Carrie but I think I understand a little better how people could “enjoy” his writing. Probably not a comment you were expecting but it was very helpful to me!
I love Stephen King. :) I read Carrie and all the rest as a teenager (growing up in Maine, no less!). I don’t see it as high literary art but it did really cultivate my love of reading. Now I enjoy listening to his newer works on Audible when I run. I read the original version of The Stand years ago then listened to the uncut version at the start of the pandemic. It was perfect. The Stand actually has powerful religious themes, as do many of his works. Some are just scary—which I love. He is a really good writer.
It is interesting that here in the 16th century Renaissance play version, Faustus sells his soul to gain forbidden knowledge, while in the 19th century Romantic opera version, Faust sells his soul to gain the love of a woman.
I think the difference kind of encapsulates the difference in focus of the two eras - for the Renaissance, it is the life of the mind or understanding, to the Romantics, it is the life of the affections or emotions. I was thinking the other day how I preferred the music of the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods to the music of the Romantic period. The earlier music is simpler in instrumentation and structure, yet it appeals to me more than the heavy orchestration and dramatic musical flourishes of the Romantic era. I have never read Goethe's play, but I suspect I wouldn't like it - the Romantic poets I have read don't appeal.
Thank you for your excellent summary and commentary on Marlowe's "Dr. Faustus." I feel I missed a great deal of magnificent English literature during my many years in higher education. Never too late to be taught by one of the best instructors!
Never too late! Thank you, Terri! 🩵
Hi Karen,
I'm "glutted" with other reading and writing projects so I am reading your wonderful summaries and analyses and hoping to catch up on reading the play.
I'm thinking of Paradise Lost and what influence this play may have had on Milton. If Milton's object is to explain the ways of God to man, Faustus seems to be explaining the ways of men to men.
I’m glad to have you read along as you can. The best part of this approach is there is no quiz before class! 😀
Okay, so I understood he was weighing different disciplines but did not understand why. Now I know it is because he studied them. The scripture totally went over my head. I feel like I should have made that connection, but I didn't—I blame it on the Latin surrounding it ;-). Now that you pointed it out, the line "That's hard" struck me as funny. It IS hard. Also, while reading the last few lines, I realized that he had already chosen sorcery as if it were a foregone conclusion. Was he trying to talk himself out of it initially, or was he just pontificating?
I think he had already made his decision and was justifying it to himself. He basically asks “what is the point” of all these fields of study in that they all have human limits. (Human limitations and what we do or don’t do about them is a central theme of the play.) But Marlowe is also skillfully and artistically inviting us as readers/audience members to bring to the surface our own “what’s the point?” questions through Faustus. And let’s face it: we all have such questions.
Yes we do. Thanks for pointing out that theme, I will pay attention to it.
Redid my original reply because of typos! 😅
I'm an excellent typo decipherer due to my own typo issues. :-)
✊
Last week I read that Stephen King‘s book, Carrie was published 50 years ago on April 6. I’ve only tried to read one other Stephen King novel and I couldn’t get very far (too scary!) but I thought I would pick up a copy of Carrie from the library and give it a read. I’ve read about a quarter of it and so far it’s not scaring me the way the other book of his that I read which I think was The Stand. It’s not very edifying literature (!) but it makes me wonder what it is in his writing that is attractive to people and reading this first scene with Faustus makes me think that this is what it is. What I’ve read so far in Carrie is about high school girls who are horrible to one particular girl who it turns out has these telekinetic powers and ultimately she uses them to exact revenge on these girls who have bullied her so. As you may know, this is the book that kicked off King’s successful career. Not sure I’ll finish Carrie but I think I understand a little better how people could “enjoy” his writing. Probably not a comment you were expecting but it was very helpful to me!
I love Stephen King. :) I read Carrie and all the rest as a teenager (growing up in Maine, no less!). I don’t see it as high literary art but it did really cultivate my love of reading. Now I enjoy listening to his newer works on Audible when I run. I read the original version of The Stand years ago then listened to the uncut version at the start of the pandemic. It was perfect. The Stand actually has powerful religious themes, as do many of his works. Some are just scary—which I love. He is a really good writer.
I can’t do the scary stuff! He is a good writer for sure but I think reading Carrie is it for me!!
I totally get that! He’s very scary!
It is interesting that here in the 16th century Renaissance play version, Faustus sells his soul to gain forbidden knowledge, while in the 19th century Romantic opera version, Faust sells his soul to gain the love of a woman.
I don’t like Goethe’s Faust as much.
I think the difference kind of encapsulates the difference in focus of the two eras - for the Renaissance, it is the life of the mind or understanding, to the Romantics, it is the life of the affections or emotions. I was thinking the other day how I preferred the music of the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods to the music of the Romantic period. The earlier music is simpler in instrumentation and structure, yet it appeals to me more than the heavy orchestration and dramatic musical flourishes of the Romantic era. I have never read Goethe's play, but I suspect I wouldn't like it - the Romantic poets I have read don't appeal.
Goethe’s version is closer drama so—in true Romatnic form—it is more like a long poem.