42 pages • 1 hour read
Christopher MarloweDoctor Faustus
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1589A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Prologue-Scene 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Prologue Summary
A chorus enters and explains to the audience that Doctor Faustus was born a commoner but attained a doctorate of philosophy at Wittenburg University, where he proved a stellar thinker but later thought himself smart enough to dabble in dangerous magical arts and flirt with evil.
Scene 1 Summary
Doctor Faustus sits in his study, reading scholarly books and studying Aristotle, logic, and “every art.” He believes that he has learned everything useful in such “analytics.” He yearns for more. Already his medical advice has saved many lives, yet he still feels ordinary. The study of Roman law, as codified by Emperor Justinian, makes sense but still feels paltry. The words of the Bible preach resignation; this, too, is not enough for him. Instead, he craves the capabilities of magic and sorcery, which would make him more powerful than an emperor.
Seeking counsel, Faustus tells his servant Wagner to invite magicians Valdes and Cornelius to visit him. Suddenly two angels, one good and one evil, enter. The Good Angel urges Faustus to set aside his magic book and instead consult the Bible. The Evil Angel tells him to continue his magical studies, saying, “Be thou on earth as Jove is in the sky” (5).
After the angels exit, Faustus considers what he might do with tremendous power. He’d summon servants to bring him gold and pearls, delicious fruits from the New World, and wisdom from faraway lands. With his new wealth he would improve Germany, free it from Spanish control, and rule over it with powerful new weapons.
Valdes and Cornelius arrive. Faustus announces that their advice has already convinced him to pursue magic; he asks them to aid him in his quest. The magicians agree that all corners of the world will bow to them if Faustus learns magical skills. Cornelius offers to teach him “the rudiments,” and Faustus promises to learn them: “This night I’ll conjure though I die therefore” (8).
Scene 2 Summary: “Before Faustus’ House”
Two scholars arrive at Faustus’s home, seeking him. Wagner appears, and the scholars ask for Faustus’s whereabouts; Wagner replies, “God in heaven knows!” (9). They ask if this means Wagner doesn’t know where Faustus is; he replies that of course he knows, “But that follows not” (9). Wagner teases them with rapid-fire, quasi-logical statements. Finally, he admits that Faustus is inside with Valdes and Cornelius, and bids the scholars adieu.
The scholars fear that Faustus has fallen under the influence of the magical arts; they decide to consult with the rector for advice on how to save Faustus.
Scene 3 Summary: “A Grove”
Faustus enters a grove at night, intending to practice magic. He has prepared by drawing a circle in which he has inscribed the names of God, the saints, and the major stars and planets. He prays to demons, including Belzebub, asking that Mephistophilis appear.
Mephistophilis appears in his true form, which is too hideous for Faustus, who commands the demon to leave and return as a Franciscan friar, for “That holy shape becomes a devil best” (12). The demon departs; Faustus is pleased with his newfound conjuring skills.
Mephistophilis returns as a friar and asks what Faustus wants. Faustus wants the demon to do whatever he commands; Mephistophilis replies that he can only do so to the degree permitted by his own master, Lucifer. Faustus says he conjured the demon and therefore ought to command him, but Mephistophilis replies that he arrived of his own accord because Faustus’s summons included curses against God, Jesus, and the scriptures, which means the devil might win Faustus’s soul.
Faustus says that heaven and hell are all the same to him. He asks Mephistophilis to explain how Lucifer, at one time an angel, came to be the regent of hell. Mephistophilis explains that Lucifer became prideful and insolent, and so God banished him and his minions to hell. Faustus asks how Mephistophilis can appear on Earth if he is trapped in hell, and the demon responds, “Why this is hell, nor am I out of it” (13). Mephistophilis is continuously tormented by being cast out of heaven; Faustus tells Mephistophilis to take “manly fortitude” from him, as he cares nothing for heaven.
Faustus offers his soul to the devil if he will grant him 24 years of opulent life, with Mephistophilis at his side to attend to his every need. He tells the demon to return to his study at midnight with the devil’s answer. Mephistophilis agrees and departs.
While he waits, Faustus fantasizes about the powers he’ll soon have and resumes his study of magic.
Scene 4 Summary: “A Street”
On a local street, Wagner summons a clown, calling him “boy.” The clown testily replies that few boys have a beard such as his own. Wagner offers him money if he’ll be Wagner’s servant. The clown banters comically with Wagner, but Wagner persists, promising him silks and medicine for his fleas and handing him money. The clown, skeptical, returns the money.
Wagner summons two demons, who threaten the terrified clown. Wagner dismisses the demons and promises the clown that, if he agrees to seven years’ servitude, Wagner will give him the power to change himself into anything. The clown says he’ll choose to be a flea so he can land on any woman. The two walk off together.
Scene 5 Summary
Faustus goes to his study. He briefly struggles with second thoughts but talks himself back into his resolve. The Good and Evil Angels reappear. The Good Angel begs Faustus to give up his involvement with magic and return to God; the Evil Angel tells him contrition and penitence will get him nowhere, and instead he should think of wealth and glory. After the angels leave, Faustus thinks only of riches and power.
At midnight he summons Mephistophilis, who appears with news that the devil has accepted Faustus’s offer. There is one condition: Faustus must write a deed gifting his soul to Lucifer in his own blood.
Faustus asks why Lucifer is so anxious to have his soul; Mephistophilis replies that misery loves company. Faustus stabs his arm and uses his blood to write his promise. The blood congeals before he finishes the deed, and Faustus wonders if this is some sort of warning. Mephistophilis brings a flame that softens the blood, and then the demon addresses the audience, saying, “O what will not I do to obtain his soul” (21). Faustus completes the document.
He sees on his arm an inscription: “Homo, fuge!” (meaning, Man, fly!). It disappears, then reappears. Faustus decides he no longer has anywhere to run; he must go forward with his plan. To help distract him, Mephistophilis produces rich clothing for Faustus while dancing demons entertain him. Mephistophilis promises much more to come. Faustus reviews the agreement one more time, and Mephistophilis again promises to be his faithful servant. Faustus hands the deed to Mephistophilis; the deal is complete.
Faustus’s first act is to ask Mephistophilis to explain hell. The demon says that it’s located beneath heaven; that Mephistophilis, standing in Faustus’s study, is in hell; and that, at the end of time, “All places shall be hell that is not Heaven” (22). Faustus declares that hell is “a fable,” but Mephistophilis insists it’s real.
Faustus next demands a wife. Mephistophilis warns him against this; he produces a demon woman, but Faustus rejects her. Mephistophilis promises that Faustus can have his fill of beautiful women. He presents Faustus with a book of incantations and spells with which to conjure up anything he desires. Faustus asks for another book that explains all the planets and stars; Mephistophilis provides it. Faustus then requests a third book that contains all the knowledge of botany; it appears.
Prologue-Scene 5 Analysis
Queen Elizabeth I ruled England from 1558 to 1603; her 45-year reign oversaw the growth of English political and military power as well as the full flowering of the English Renaissance. Scholarship and the arts—especially theater—came to greatness. This was the time not only of the rediscovery of ancient Roman and Greek texts, but of Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare.
Religious and political conflicts also buffeted the age, though spiritual arguments subsided under Elizabeth’s governance. Christianity split apart during the early 1500s, causing wars that lasted well into the 1600s, but the overwhelming majority of Europeans remained Christian, and most agreed that salvation in the afterlife depended on accepting God’s love through his son Jesus. The worst thing a worshipper could do was to try to serve God’s enemy, the devil Lucifer.
Renaissance-era optimism and the growth of trade and prosperity did, however, make it seem possible that anyone could, with effort, enjoy at least some heavenly pleasures right here on Earth. Now, more than ever before, people might be tempted to walk away from their religious obligations. It was during this time of rising expectations that Doctor Faustus appeared on the English stage.
“Faust” means favored, and the Faustbuch (“Faust book”) tradition that sprang up at the end of the 1500s favored him with much attention: Faust’s story captivated writers for centuries, with Goethe and Thomas Mann penning famous works about the scholarly reprobate. (Crain, Tess. “Making Faust Great Again.” Epiphany, epiphanyzine.com/features/2019/11/21/making-faust-great-again. Accessed 28 Feb. 2021.) Many composers, including Beethoven, Schumann, Liszt, and Berlioz, wrote music based on the Faust legend.
The play contains a chorus, styled after ancient Greek choruses and serving essentially the same function, which is to narrate the broad outlines of the play and to serve as a moral compass for the audience. In the Prologue the chorus summarizes Faustus’s life to date: Born a commoner or “base of stock” (2), Faustus raises himself up to become a brilliant doctor of philosophy, but then he’s tempted to stray from the straight and narrow to pursue dark magic.
The first five scenes deal mainly with Faustus’s decision to seek power and glory through an alliance with the devil. He is a man of independent mind and action; such a personality contradicts the society around him, for which obedience to church and monarch are paramount. He thus serves as a warning to those who would permit their own beliefs and personal preferences to supersede the directives of local authorities and, especially, the will of God.
Faustus questions the wisdom of the religious doctrine “che sera sera” (4), or “what will be will be.” He thinks this too paltry a belief for robust souls such as himself. The phrase recurs famously as the song “Que sera sera” in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1956 film The Man Who Knew Too Much. Performed by Doris Day to distract a group of evildoers while Jimmy Stewart’s character rescues a kidnapped boy, the song also suggests the uncertainties and dangers of their futures despite their efforts to resist evil. Faustus, on the other hand, resolves his own insecurities by cavorting with demons.
The professor enters a grove to practice magic: “Now that the gloomy shadow of the earth / Longing to view Orion’s drizzling look, / Leaps from th’ antarctic world unto the sky” (11). These lines establish that it’s nighttime and that Orion, a dazzling winter constellation, is well up in the southern sky. In this way Marlowe adds descriptive zest to his tale, which supplements the limited scenery and technical effects available in the late 1500s.
Valdes and Cornelius agree to show the rudiments of magic to Faustus on the understanding that he will join them in using this power to gain fame and riches. Instead, Faustus uses the magic to contact the devil directly and acquire from him what he needs to attain wealth and glory for himself. Thereafter, Valdes and Cornelius disappear from the story. Faustus thus cheats God and the world by first cheating his friends.
Faustus conjures Mephistophilis, whose real shape is so frightening that Faustus demands he re-form himself into a Franciscan friar, which he considers a more fitting appearance. This is a direct poke at Catholicism, the first of several anti-Catholic jibes to come, which were sure to get a laugh from Marlowe’s mostly Protestant audience.
Faustus asks Mephistophilis how, eternally damned to hell, the demon can visit Earth; Mephistophilis answers that he hasn’t left hell at all. This implies that Earth is, in some way, a part of hell. Faustus asks why the angel Lucifer was thrown out of heaven to become the devil, and Mephistophilis says it was due to Lucifer’s “pride and insolence” (13). These are precisely the two bad traits that dominate Faustus’s soul.
Scene 4 brings comic relief to a story heavy with weighty ideas and dramatic tension. The scene takes place on a local street where Wagner, Faustus’s servant, tries to hire a street busker dressed as a clown to be his assistant. The clown is skeptical, even of the coins pressed into his hand, so Wagner summons demons to intimidate him. This works, but the audience is left to wonder how Wagner, a mere household aide, knows enough magic to perform feats Faustus has only just learned himself. Either Wagner was taught elsewhere and kept the knowledge to himself, or he has already dipped into one of Faustus’s books on magic.
By Scene 5 the deed is done, and Faustus acquires the immense power to call forth whatever his fancy dictates. Ever the intellectual, Faustus’s first demands are for knowledge. He asks about the nature of hell, and Mephistophilis answers. Then he asks for books on magic, astronomy, and botany, and Mephistophilis provides them as well. The rogue professor still believes that knowledge is power; he has yet to test the full range of demonic ability.
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By Christopher Marlowe
