This was a beautiful ending to the series. Thank you for your work.
I learned most about satire through this series. I don’t think I fully understood it. I read up on the different elements of satire and went back to read those sections in the play I repeatedly said I had trouble with, and they made more sense to me. Thanks for pointing out those moments in the play that should be funny, and thanks for your engagement in the comments section.
I just picked up a John Donne book out of curiosity and soon you will be writing about one of his poems, that’s timely. I’m looking forward to it.
Thank you for the kind and encouraging words, Mel! We will actually cover satire even more deeply and properly in upcoming works! Yay! It’s my favorite!
How providential that you picked up a Donne text! Amazing! Can’t wait to read him together.
Probably a lot! 😂 Seriously, there is a long tradition of works with these themes. Modern versions that are done well (like Rosemary’s Baby) draw from this tradition.
Oh wow. I never thought about that aspect of it. That would be very scary! Growing up in Maine and reading Stephen King as a youngster was quite an experience too— back when his early novels were set in Maine!
As a Catholic, I read Faustus's mournful cry for half a drop of Christ's blood a little differently. In the sacrament of the Eucharist, that's just what the wine in the chalice become--Christ's blood. Is Faustus longing for the sacrament? If so, he can only have it if he repents his mortal sins in another sacrament, that of confession--to a priest "in persona Christi." If he has committed the unforgivable sin against the Holy Spirit, this may still be a problem (but I too am uncertain how to interpret the exact nature of that sin.)
There is another Catholic hint in what Faustus goes on to say:
"Let Faustus live in hell a thousand years,
A hundred thousand, and at last be saved!"
This is a final gambit for purgatory, that place between hell and heaven of which Dante writes in the second part of the Divine Comedy. There sins are "purged" and after some time the forgiven souls admitted to heaven. Hell is permanent, purgatory is not. But Faustus must go to hell because his sins are too weighty--and, as the old expression goes, unshriven.
Matt, I think you are exactly right. This is the period of the slow transition to more Protestant theology in England. It’s not like more Catholic ideas disappeared overnight. This is a very insightful offering, and I’m very glad you made it. I think it’s the right reading. Thank you!
My family believes in the possibility of deathbed conversions. It has happened in our extended family. When we discuss it, there are always two Bible passages cited. The first is the thief on the cross in Luke 23:40-43. The second is the parable of the vineyard workers in Matthew 20:1-16. Since salvation comes not by our good works, but by the death of Jesus Christ the Son of God, one could well be saved on one's deathbed.
As for Faustus' fate, Marlowe isn't just writing a classic tragedy, he is also writing a tragedy as a morality play. The morality play has tropes that are intended to provoke a reaction in the audience, but are not accurate to Christian theology. A few of these tropes in Faustus:
Selling one's soul to the devil - nowhere in the Bible is this treated as a possibility. Romans 3:23 rather says every human's sin is what separates them from God.
Lucifer as the ruler of Hell - the book of Revelation (20:10) says the dragon, who is Satan/Lucifer, will be thrown into the lake of fire for eternal punishment. Hell is his doom, not his realm. There is always a slight element of dualism in morality tropes, as if Lucifer is God's opposite and rival, which he isn't.
Demons dragging off the sinner at the end of the play into hell - the other fallen angels are, like Lucifer, created beings doomed to Hell. Jesus, when telling the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31, doesn't use demons to drag the rich man into Hades.
A final note, while Marlowe's work has some early Protestant jokes regarding the friars and the Pope, Faustus' cry at the end seems to be hearkening back to the practice of the Catholic last rites.
As I said to Matt below, I think you are exactly right on the Catholic understandings in the play. I don’t think Marlowe’s ideas were biblical as much as cultural (same for us moderns many times, too!). I *think* but may be wrong that in one of my earlier installments on the play I mentioned and linked to some of the original sources that “reported” “factual” “eyewitness” accounts of the real-life Faust’s violent demise. Some believed it really happened. Marlowe made a harrowing tale from it.
Coincidentally, this post talks in a personal way about that crippling fear of not being able to grasp salvation from a totally different angle: https://open.substack.com/pub/hollyaj/p/the-unseen-wound?r=90e4e&utm_medium=ios
This was a beautiful ending to the series. Thank you for your work.
I learned most about satire through this series. I don’t think I fully understood it. I read up on the different elements of satire and went back to read those sections in the play I repeatedly said I had trouble with, and they made more sense to me. Thanks for pointing out those moments in the play that should be funny, and thanks for your engagement in the comments section.
I just picked up a John Donne book out of curiosity and soon you will be writing about one of his poems, that’s timely. I’m looking forward to it.
Thank you for the kind and encouraging words, Mel! We will actually cover satire even more deeply and properly in upcoming works! Yay! It’s my favorite!
How providential that you picked up a Donne text! Amazing! Can’t wait to read him together.
I wonder what the movie Rosemary's Baby owes to Faustus.
Probably a lot! 😂 Seriously, there is a long tradition of works with these themes. Modern versions that are done well (like Rosemary’s Baby) draw from this tradition.
Probably the scariest movie I’ve ever seen. As a lifelong new Yorker, the Dakota and all the NYC settings and characters are so familiar.
Oh wow. I never thought about that aspect of it. That would be very scary! Growing up in Maine and reading Stephen King as a youngster was quite an experience too— back when his early novels were set in Maine!
As a Catholic, I read Faustus's mournful cry for half a drop of Christ's blood a little differently. In the sacrament of the Eucharist, that's just what the wine in the chalice become--Christ's blood. Is Faustus longing for the sacrament? If so, he can only have it if he repents his mortal sins in another sacrament, that of confession--to a priest "in persona Christi." If he has committed the unforgivable sin against the Holy Spirit, this may still be a problem (but I too am uncertain how to interpret the exact nature of that sin.)
There is another Catholic hint in what Faustus goes on to say:
"Let Faustus live in hell a thousand years,
A hundred thousand, and at last be saved!"
This is a final gambit for purgatory, that place between hell and heaven of which Dante writes in the second part of the Divine Comedy. There sins are "purged" and after some time the forgiven souls admitted to heaven. Hell is permanent, purgatory is not. But Faustus must go to hell because his sins are too weighty--and, as the old expression goes, unshriven.
Matt, I think you are exactly right. This is the period of the slow transition to more Protestant theology in England. It’s not like more Catholic ideas disappeared overnight. This is a very insightful offering, and I’m very glad you made it. I think it’s the right reading. Thank you!
My family believes in the possibility of deathbed conversions. It has happened in our extended family. When we discuss it, there are always two Bible passages cited. The first is the thief on the cross in Luke 23:40-43. The second is the parable of the vineyard workers in Matthew 20:1-16. Since salvation comes not by our good works, but by the death of Jesus Christ the Son of God, one could well be saved on one's deathbed.
As for Faustus' fate, Marlowe isn't just writing a classic tragedy, he is also writing a tragedy as a morality play. The morality play has tropes that are intended to provoke a reaction in the audience, but are not accurate to Christian theology. A few of these tropes in Faustus:
Selling one's soul to the devil - nowhere in the Bible is this treated as a possibility. Romans 3:23 rather says every human's sin is what separates them from God.
Lucifer as the ruler of Hell - the book of Revelation (20:10) says the dragon, who is Satan/Lucifer, will be thrown into the lake of fire for eternal punishment. Hell is his doom, not his realm. There is always a slight element of dualism in morality tropes, as if Lucifer is God's opposite and rival, which he isn't.
Demons dragging off the sinner at the end of the play into hell - the other fallen angels are, like Lucifer, created beings doomed to Hell. Jesus, when telling the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31, doesn't use demons to drag the rich man into Hades.
A final note, while Marlowe's work has some early Protestant jokes regarding the friars and the Pope, Faustus' cry at the end seems to be hearkening back to the practice of the Catholic last rites.
As I said to Matt below, I think you are exactly right on the Catholic understandings in the play. I don’t think Marlowe’s ideas were biblical as much as cultural (same for us moderns many times, too!). I *think* but may be wrong that in one of my earlier installments on the play I mentioned and linked to some of the original sources that “reported” “factual” “eyewitness” accounts of the real-life Faust’s violent demise. Some believed it really happened. Marlowe made a harrowing tale from it.