Doctor Faustus as Apollonian Hero :: Doctor Faustus

Doctor Faustus as Apollonian HeroHow long will a man lie i th country ere he rot? - Hamlet, V, i, 168 The Tragic History of Doctor Faustus is Marlowes misreading of the fun of the morality tradition, the Faust legend, and, ironically, his own Tamburlaine plays. In the development of the character of Doctor Faustus, we break one of the supreme tasty achievements of English dramatic literature, a milestone of artistic creativity and originality. The force of Marlowes dramatic poetry resonates with lyrical bulk in its dialectic between world and will. Not only is Faustus the premiere true dramatic character of any psychological, moral, and philosophical depth in English literature of the modern period, but in his creation of this queer character we see Marlowe on the verge of Shakespearean characterization, that supreme artistic achievement that Harold Bloom calls the invention of the human personality. The play itself is a ascertain of the development of the inner self of a ch aracter, the evolution from a pillowcase who unfolds into a soul who develops. Bloom calls Marlowe Shakespeares prime precursor and rival Ovidian (xx). either of Marlowes major characters are of one type each strives single-mindedly and obsessively towards one ever-evasive end. Faustus is the most philosophically oriented of this motley band, the one who shape ups encompassing(prenominal) to embodying the incredible vastness of human personality. Bloom notes that Marlowe never developed, and never would have, stock-still had he seen thirty (xxi-xxii). While this judgment may be argued true, we essential not regard his want of artistic maturity against Marlowe for the characterization he does achieve remains unprecedented in English literary history. The Faustus that we come to know, to loathe, and, at times, to idealize is both a human figure in all of his flaws and a natural force, not so much news as energy (Steane 131). Marlowes tragedy stands in a uniquely transformative kind to the tradition of Englands morality plays more than simply an evolution, the play assimilates, incorporates, and creates new uses for the pompous elements of the morality play. The morality play, the most popular examples of which include Everyman and Mankind, was rooted in the didacticism of medieval Christian theology and developed as a center for the conveyance of Biblical truth to the masses. Its basis, as a literary work, was an prototypal human perception the fall out of innocence into experience (Potter 9).