Themes of play The School for Scandal

 

Honour seems to be in short supply in School for Scandal: Lady Teazle is considering abandoning the ideas of integrity that she learned growing up in the country, Joseph is ready to betray his brother to secure a wealthy wife, and Charles is hopelessly in debt to moneylenders. Even Sir Oliver, whose Honour should be above question, is ready to assume a disguise to test his nephews’ true nature. By the conclusion of the play, however, it is clear that only the gossips lack true Honour. Lady Teazle realizes that she values her husband and has proven her worth. Charles, though foolish and intemperate with gambling and money, is Honourable. He pays off his debts and is willing to help a poor relationship without being asked. Sir Oliver’s deception unmasks Joseph’s hypocrisy. 

Sheridan asks his audience to question the morality of society in this play. Slandering one’s neighbours, acquaintances, and friends is entertainment. There is no real interest in the truth, and even less consideration is given to the damage that such gossip causes. In the early acts of School for Scandal, the subjects of such gossip are not known to the audience, who cannot determine the truth of Lady Sneerwell and Mrs Candour’s observations. By the last act, it becomes clear that these gossips need absolutely no element of truth to fuel their stories. The falling of the screen in Joseph’s library and the confrontation that took place immediately after are fresh in the audience members’ minds. The earlier scene serves as a nice contrast to the speculation and innuendo that engages the gossip.

 Trying to determine the truth occupies much of Sheridan’s play. Lady Sneerwell and Snake are engaged in deception and falsehood, and Joseph is willing to bend the truth to get what he wants. When Sir Oliver, disguised as old Stanley, approaches Joseph to ask for money, Joseph easily claims that he has no money. Joseph even blames his brother, Charles, stating that Charles’s free-spending has left Joseph without funds. Of course, the gossips have no interest in the truth. Their goal is to entertain one another with wild speculation. When compared to such exciting exaggerations as gossip’, reality and truth are simply uneventful.

 This is certainly a play about wealth. The poor in London was much too busy trying to find shelter and food to engage in such idle distractions as gossip or gaming. Wealth really sets the characters in this play apart from the rest of society. For instance, Sir Peter complains that his wife spends too much on silk dresses and fresh out-of-season flowers. Charles spends his money gaming and drinking with his friends, and the moneylenders are on their way to being wealthy thanks to idle young men such as him. Maria is the object of Joseph’s plotting only because she is wealthy, and Sir Oliver is primarily interested in the morals of his nephews only because he plans to leave them his wealth.

The School: A Comedy of Manners

 

The School for Scandal is an excellent example of a Comedy of Manners. It is a blatant attack on the superficiality of the upper class, pointing up their lack of morals and misplaced attention. In a Comedy of Manners, the characters are very clear and we know exactly who they are the moment they appear, not just by their appearance and actions, but by their names. Lady Sneerwell, Sir Benjamin Backbite, and Snake all carry their negative qualities in their names. The Surface brothers are all about what's on the surface -- Joseph appears moral but really isn't while Charles presents the opposite.

The School for Scandal is a brilliant parody of modern metropolitan society. It is one of the most entertaining satires on the lives of ladies and gentlemen who live in so-called modern society. Sheridan, in fact, is a close observer of the upper-class milieu of his time. He lived in Bath for a while, which was a very fashionable city at the time. Bath was, in reality, a gathering place for stylish English upper-class ladies and gentlemen. They used to go there to have a good time. And it's possible that Sheridan was thinking about all of these things when he wrote this play.

In his play The School for Scandal, Sheridan passionately criticizes the technique of scandal-mongering.  Lady Sneerwell is a scandal-representative and her circle, which includes both men and women from the upper crust of society, offers us a clear picture of their slanderous gossiping habits. These people are morally bankrupt because they do not spare their acquaintances and spread scandalous news and rumours about them. As we progress through the play, we discover that Lady Sneerwell engages in scandal-mongering to exact revenge on those who have previously made her a victim of this wickedness. However, the other members of her group engage in this behaviour only for pleasure.

Sheridan has effectively mocked the people for their hypocrisy. Joseph Surface is a model of hypocrisy and self-righteousness. When Lady Sneerwell views Joseph as a greedy man in the very first scene, we get a clear image of his true character. She describes him as a wicked fellow. In fact, Joseph is a source of amusement for the audience. Throughout the play, we enjoy his hypocritical character. When he is discovered by Lady Teazle while pleading with Maria for her favour, we are ecstatic.

A variety of love romances are depicted in the drama The School for Scandal. Lady Sneerwell falls in love with Charles, and she employs Joseph to help her realise her ambition. On the other hand, Maria adores Charles, but Joseph wants to marry Maria, so he works with Lady Sneerwell. But we all know Joseph isn't in love with Maria; he merely wants to usurp her vast fortune, and Maria is well aware of this. As a result, she despises Joseph and informs her guardian, bluntly, that she cannot marry him. As the play progresses, we watch Lady Sneerwell and Joseph go to great lengths to prevent Charles' marriage to Maria. Every attempt, however, proves to be a fruitless one. Furthermore, Joseph is involved with Lady Teazle because she wants to tame a lover for the purpose of fashion.

After a careful reading, we see that Sheridan created the character of Charles to paint a sarcastic portrait of the young men of the day, who are not only extravagant in their behaviour but also have little regard for their elders.

Sheridan doesn't spare even modern journalism in this drama. He mocks the news media. As the play begins several newspapers and periodicals contain gossip columns. "The Town and Country Magazine" is one of these publications. This publication features a particular section dedicated to malicious rumours. Mr Snake is portrayed by Sheridan as a poet and critic, and he is contemporary society's representative of journalists.

To summarize, Sheridan has satirized the lifestyle of his contemporary men and ladies hilariously in this play. This play is unquestionably Sheridan's masterpiece, with all of the hallmarks of a traditional comedy of manners.

Character Sketch of Oliver Twist

 

Oliver Twist is the central character of the novel. He is also a link among the three different worlds depicted in the novel—the workhouse, the crime world and the world of the genteel middle-class people. He is, as a matter of fact, more of a symbol than a fully individualized character. In the opening sentence of the Novel, Dickens describes him as an item of mortality. Till the end of the novel, nothing is specifically known about his parents. The name that he bears is given to him just by chance. All this suggests that Dickens wanted to make him an instrument of exposing the inhumanity and the cal1ousness of the workhouse and the underworld.

Oliver is symbolic of the principle of good. If we appreciate Oliver, it is for his propensity towards always being good, and if we sympathize with him, it is for his being a deprived and outcast child. In any case, we accept him less as a real child and more as a symbol.

It should be noted that Dickens has nowhere fully described Oliver’s appearance. In fact, except for Rose Maylie, Oliver is the only major character whose appearance is not well depicted. However, we come to understand that he is delicate and handsome. He always looks innocent and the chief expression on his face is that of melancholy. 

Oliver looks innocent because he is innocent. Unlike some other novels where external appearances are utterly deceptive, in Oliver’s case there is a remarkable correspondence between his inward nature and external appearance. Sikes is evil and he looks evil. The sinister nature of Fagin is adequately reflected on his face, and so is Oliver’s innocence. When he collapses outside Mrs Maylie’s house, he looks not only weak but also innocent. Rose is sure that a childlike Oliver could never commit a robbery. Mr Brownlow low also does not need a second thought to convince himself of Oliver’s innocence. Even the sceptical Mr Grimwig easily acknowledges his goodness.

Most of his life of Oliver is spent under the care of scoundrels like Mr Bumble, Mrs Mann, the inconsiderate Mrs Sowerberry, the rogue Noah Claypole, the devilish Fagin, and the odious Sikes. Anyone living under the shadow of the wicked characters would have either completely succumbed to or turned into a rogue himself, but Oliver survives. Despite all the efforts made by Monks to convert him into a thief, Oliver persists in his goodness. That is why it has been said that he represents goodness. Dickens has made him so good that on occasions he ceases to be a convincing character.

Oliver’s one positive characteristic is his courage. In chapter 2, we are told nature or inheritance had planted a good sturdy spirit in Oliver’s breast which enabled him to survive the cruel regime of Mrs Mann’s baby farm. In the same chapter, he approaches the board and makes his famous demand, “please, sir, I want some more”. He is indeed as much prompted by his own courage as by the fear of that domineering and bullying senior boy who had threatened that he would eat raw the boy sleeping next to him if he were not given an additional helping of gruel. Still, it must have taken tremendous courage to approach the members of the boards given their inevitable fury. Further evidence of his courage is seen in chapter 3 when he resists being apprenticed to Mr Gamfield, the Chimney sweep and in chapter 6 when he gives a sound thrashing to Noah Claypole. The charity boy is older than Oliver and enjoys the patronage and help of Mrs Sowerberry and Charlotte. But once when Oliver is provoked by the disparaging marks of Noah about his mother, nothing can suppress his wrath, not even Mr Bumble, who despite the properly waxed cane in his hand, is frightened by Oliver’s audacity. His flight from Mr Sowerberry in chapter 7 is another proof of his being courageous. But after he goes to London, he is almost swallowed by his circumstances and after “this everything seems done to him and for him, and almost nothing is done by him”.

Oliver Twist as a social satire

              Dickens primarily used his creative genius as a weapon to attack and express his fury on the corrupt social institutions. Oliver Twist is a satire on the inhumanity, cruelty and corruption pervading the workhouses. Through this novel, Dickens also scolded the system of law and other social institutions.

            The first eleven chapters of the novel 'Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834' is satirized by Dickens. The act was made to reform but the situation had become worsened. This act had, on the one hand, abolished the generous Speenhamland system whereby Labourer's wages were supplemented to the subsistence level driving them to pauperism and finally to the workhouse. On the other hand, it made the living conditions in the workhouse very hard because it kept away capable men from them. The hardship was affected by the meagre food given at the workhouses, the separation of families on entering it, the want of exercise and the disgusting nature of the work done in the workhouse. Dickens also attacked on the inadequate medical facilities and other common services offered at the workhouses.

            The most callous 'economy' measures of the new Act was the sparse diet provided to the inhabitants of any workhouse. Dickens says that for the board, the workhouses had become a regular place for public amusement, thus they set few things rightly. They contracted with the waterworks to lay on supply of water without any limit and with the corn factory to provide periodically small quantities of oatmeal and gave three meals of thin gruel a day with an onion twice a week and half a roll on Sundays. In chapter two, when we go through the popular scene of Oliver's asking for more food, it is informed that the bowls in which food was served were never washed.

            In Baby farms, children were kept from the most delicate age to the age of fifteen but the arrangements to look after them were very poor and insufficient. In the baby farm whose in-charge was Mrs Mann and where Oliver had lived for nine years, she received seven pence half a penny per head and per week. Mrs Mami is remarked as a very great practical philosopher'. She is a lady of 'wisdom and experience'. The children suffer from starvation and 'she appropriated the great part of the weekly stipend to her own use'.

            Dickens has also satirized the want of healthy exercise in the open air for the farm boys and the inexperienced doctors. There were several works in those baby farms like stone-breaking, bone-crushing or oakum picking. Dickens says that parish doctors were usually inexperienced and low-rated. Such doctors had attended to Oliver's mother Agnes during her labour pain.

              Another social institution which is attacked by Dickens' satirical weapon is the court. Here satire is not pungent or sharp but blended in farce. In chapter 3 the magistrate was least concerned with the boy and was about to sign the indenture but fortunately, his eyes catch the glimpse of Oliver's pale and terrified face. But in later scenes, Mr Fang, the magistrate, serves the real purpose of Dickens. He was utterly heartless and cruel. Oliver got fainted in front of him but Mr Fang took it as his pretension. He says that the boy is too cunning and wants to make them fools. He is not of belief to treat any convict leniently. Besides, Mr Bumble is announcing 'the law is an ass-a idiot'.              

             In Oliver Twist, there is an indirect satire on the incompetence and inefficiency of policemen also because Fagin and Sikes like criminals are functioning easily under their eyes but they (police) fail to catch them (criminals).

            Dickens satire reveals how conscious he was of the happenings in his society. His novels created an atmosphere of public awareness. He made an appeal to the human heart and surely influenced the emotional attitudes of thousands of people towards the contemporary problems of society.

'Tintern Abbey'

             ‘Tintern Abbey’ is an expression of Wordsworth’s philosophy of Nature. Accordingly, in this poem, he sets out to seek beauty in the meadow, woodland and the mountain-top, and to interpret this beauty in spiritual terms. The poem is a noble expression of the influence of Nature in the life of man in all its three stages: childhood, early youth and mature age. 

                Wordsworth, with his sister Dorothy, revisits the Wye River in 1798 after a gap of five years. The poet is spellbound by the beautiful landscape and objects of Nature such as ‘mountain springs’, ‘lofty cliffs’ etc. the long gap of five years could not erase the impression of the beautiful sight from his mind. The memories of the beautiful landscape which faded revived again. The poet, however, confesses that in the initial years of his life, he was only attached to the physical and superficial beauty of Nature.

                    However, a change appears in his attitude towards Nature. This is the second stage of his life i.e. early youth or the period of the sense. He has learnt to look at Nature, not as a thoughtless youth; he asserts that the memories of these beautiful objects of Nature have given him great joy and peace in noisy towns and cities.

                    Wordsworth has started listening to the ‘music of humanity’ in the ‘sounding cataract’ which used to haunt him like a passion when he has immature. He is now conscious of the sorrow of humanity and he sees in Nature the revelation of the divine law. Towards the poem's concluding lines, the third stage of the poet’s development is revealed. Wordsworth begins to find a soul and living spirit in the objects of Nature. His physical and sensuous appreciation of nature disappears. He now starts looking into the objects of Nature a soul which is closely linked to the soul of a human being:

A spirit, that impels….

And rolls through all things.

            Noting that his sister Dorothy is glad to see the beauty of Nature, the poet exhorts her to unite with Nature. Her love for nature would help her a great deal in her life future life. He asserts that when she would have troubles in her life, the memory of this landscape would provide her solace. In the last couple of lines, Wordsworth tells her sister that the objects of nature seem beautiful to him not because they are nice-looking but also because he is in her sweet company.
            'Tintern Abbey' is a great poem. It expresses clearly and powerfully what nature meant to Wordsworth. It shows him not as a lover of nature, but as “a high priest of Nature”. In this way, the poem is marked by an autobiographical note and personal feelings. It is a poem of sublime thought. The poet has expressed his honest and natural feelings about Nature’s Superiority. The language is so simple and lucid that one is not tired of reading it again and again. The sweetness of style touches the heart of the reader. The medium of this poem is neither ballad nor a lyric but an elevated blank verse. The blank verse that is used in it is low-toned, familiar, and moves with sureness, sereneness and inevitable ease. It has a quiet pulse, suggestive of 'central peace', which is felt in all his great poetry.

Wordsworth as a poet of Nature

As a poet of Nature, Wordsworth stands supreme. He is a worshiper of Nature. His love of Nature is probably truer, and tenderer, than that of any other English poet, before or since. Nature occupies in his poem a separate or independent status and is not treated in a casual or passing manner as by poets before him.

Wordsworth has a full–fledged philosophy, a new and original view of Nature. At least, three things can be noted in his treatment of Nature:

(i)  That it has a living personality,

(ii) That it exercises a healing influence on the aggrieved souls,

(iii) That it is a great moral teacher.

Wordsworth believes that we can learn more about man and morals, evil and good from Nature than all the philosophies. In his eyes, “Nature is a teacher whose wisdom we can learn, and without which any human life is vain and incomplete”.  He conceives of Nature as a living personality. He believes that there is a divine spirit pervading all the objects of Nature. This belief in Nature may be termed mystical Pantheism and is fully expressed in Tintern Abbey. He believes that the company of Nature gives joy to the human heart and he looks upon Nature as exercising a healing influence on sorrow-stricken hearts.

In the poem, ‘Daffodils’ William Wordsworth reveals his relationship with Nature. His choices of words throughout the poem make it clear that his relationship with Nature is a good one. The whole poem is about Nature. It talks about clouds, valleys, hills, trees, the breeze, stars, the Milky Way, a bay, waves, and most of all daffodils. Nature brings a state of imagination. It brings people into a different state of mind, an ambience to encompass the world and make it a better place.  In this poem, a host of daffodils stops the speaker while travelling through Nature. The word “host” makes it transform into a vision, which is imagination.

In the poem ‘Ode on Intimations of Immorality,’ Wordsworth uses nature to explain his perception of the beauty of nature. He uses meadows, groves, streams, the earth, rainbows, roses, birds, lambs, seasons, mountains, seas, valleys, the sun, flowers, and stars.

Nature has played an important role in ‘Solitary Reaper’. This poem is about a harvester girl. She is alone in the field, she cuts and binds, she bends over a sickle and she sings a melancholic song. The song that the poet has heard is sung by ‘solitary Highland Lass’. Her voice overflows the vale with her music, a melancholy strain’ that she sings while working in the field. So, we can say that the lonely girl is very nearly merged with nature. The girl is singing the song in dialect. The poet is trying to guess the theme of the song because he cannot understand the dialect. That is why, 

William Wordsworth discovers in nature an uncommon power which can transform this earth into a homeland for fairies and other supernatural agents. It is proved in his other poem, ‘To the Cuckoo’. The title itself is about a bird and it is also a part of nature. The bird is wandering in the valley. The poet heard the sweet voice of the Cuckoo. He felt delighted. The valley was full of beautiful flowers. Clear sunshine made the atmosphere in the valley enjoyable. So, it is a part of Nature. The poet in his extreme gladness addresses the Cuckoo as a ‘Blithe New-Comer’.

Wordsworth’s attitude to Nature can be clearly differentiated from that of the other great poets of Nature. He does not prefer the wild and stormy aspects of Nature like Byron, or the shifting and changeful aspects of Nature and the scenery of the sea and sky like Shelley, or the purely sensuous in Nature like Keats, or takes interest mainly in human nature rather than its pure form like Shakespeare. It is his special characteristic to concern himself, not with the strange and remote aspects of the earth, and sky, but with Nature in her ordinary, familiar, everyday moods. He does not recognize the ugly side of Nature ‘red in tooth and claw’ as Tennyson does. Wordsworth stresses the moral influence of Nature and the need for man’s spiritual discourse with her.

'The Immortality Ode’

 

‘The Immortality Ode’ is one of the most famous poems in English literature. It is the greatest poem in the whole series of Wordsworth’s poems. Wordsworth reached one of the highest peaks of the English poetry of the Romantic period with this ode. In fact, it is a landmark in the history of English poetry.

The theme of the poem is very simple but the thoughts conveyed are great. It deals with the theme of the immortal nature of the human spirit which is intuitively known by the child and partly forgotten by the growing man. But this spirit is to be known once more in maturity through the intense experience of heart and mind. Wordsworth’s philosophy of nature is beautifully expressed in this poem. According to the title, the poem deals with the knowledge of the immortality of the soul, or the recollection of childhood.

Wordsworth believes in the divine origin of the soul. The child is aware of this divine origin and had a direct touch with divinity. His soul is in direct communion with the divine spirit. As he grows up, he loses touch with spirit because of his attachment to the material world. In fact, this is beautifully explained in his sonnet ‘The World Is Too Much with Us’. The loss of childhood glory is the recurrent theme of Wordsworth’s poetry. ‘The Immortality Ode’

The Ode is built on a simple but majestic plan. The first four stanzas tell of a spiritual crisis, of a glory that has passed away from the earth and end by asking why and where the glory has fled. The middle stanzas examine the nature of this glory and seek to explain it through the philosophical doctrines of pre-existence and recollections from its childhood. Then the last three stanzas show that though the vision of celestial radiance is lost there remains much in life to compensate for this loss that can motivate him and bring his creative mind out of sadness.

‘The Immortality Ode’ can also be called an autobiographical poem. In this poem, the poet unlocks his heart and describes a crisis in his intellectual development. The ode deals with his childhood glory and the poet’s loss of ‘vision’ in his advancing years. ‘The Ode’ deals with two childhoods, the childhood everyone experiences after birth and the childhood we carry within us like memory. These two childhoods may be called ‘visible childhood’ and ‘invisible childhood’. The poet describes the experience of both these childhoods and contrasts it with the material world.

The descriptions of nature are also beautiful. The poem reveals the difference between his love for nature as a child and his love for nature as a man. As a child, he had a passion and appetite for nature, but he has a love for nature as a man. He was meditative and reflective towards nature. Even the most ordinary objects of nature gave rise to profound thoughts in him.

The poem is characterized by a strange sense of duality. Even though the world around the speaker is beautiful, peaceful, and serene, he is sad and angry because of what he (and humanity) has lost. Because nature is a kind of religion to Wordsworth, he knows that it is wrong to be depressed in nature's midst and pulls himself out of his depression for as long as he can.

‘The Immortality Ode’ is one of the greatest of Wordsworth’s odes. It is a poetic account of the immortal nature of the human spirit. So we can say that ‘Immortality Ode’ is the immortal ode in English literature.

 

Doctor Faustus as a Renaissance Play

         The Renaissance was one of the most important periods in English literary history. The word Renaissance means “rebirth.” It marked a revival of learning, art, science, classical literature, and confidence in humanity. In England, the Renaissance created a new spirit of curiosity and inquiry. People began to question old beliefs and traditions and developed a great interest in knowledge, discovery, adventure, beauty, and worldly life. The Renaissance also encouraged individualism. People began to believe that human beings had the ability to shape their own lives and discover the secrets of nature. They wanted to achieve great things and go beyond the limits imposed by traditional beliefs. Christopher Marlowe was one of the greatest writers who expressed this spirit in his works. His famous tragedy Doctor Faustus is a powerful representation of the Renaissance spirit. The central character, Doctor Faustus, is a typical Renaissance man. He is highly educated, ambitious, courageous, curious, and dissatisfied with the ordinary limits of human knowledge. At the same time, his tragic life shows the dangers of excessive ambition.

            The greatest characteristic of the Renaissance was the thirst for knowledge. Medieval people were often expected to accept traditional religious beliefs, but Renaissance thinkers wanted to investigate the world for themselves. Faustus represents this intellectual curiosity. He is a highly educated scholar who has studied theology, philosophy, medicine, law, logic, and other subjects. He has become a famous scholar, but he is not satisfied with what he has learned. His hunger for knowledge is endless. At the beginning of the play, Faustus examines different branches of learning. He finds that they cannot satisfy his ambitions. He therefore turns towards magic and necromancy. He believes that magic can give him knowledge and power beyond the ordinary limits of human beings. His famous statement, “A sound magician is a mighty god,” clearly expresses his ambition. He does not simply want knowledge for its own sake; he wants knowledge that will give him control over the world.

            Another important feature of the Renaissance was confidence in human power and ability. Renaissance individuals wanted to achieve greatness and believed that human beings could accomplish extraordinary things. Faustus takes this desire to an extreme. He dreams of controlling spirits, nature, wealth, kingdoms, and even the forces of the universe. He wants to become almost god-like in his power. For this purpose, he makes a contract with Lucifer and agrees to surrender his soul in return for twenty-four years of magical service. This decision shows how strongly he desires power. For Faustus, knowledge is valuable because it can give him control over the world. Thus, his character represents the Renaissance man's desire to rise above ordinary human limitations.

            The Renaissance was also an age of deep learning. There was a revival of interest in books, classical authors, philosophy, science, and education. Faustus loves learning. He has spent years reading and studying. He is familiar with the major areas of knowledge available in his time. His study of Aristotle and other subjects shows his intellectual background. However, Marlowe presents an important problem through Faustus. Mere accumulation of knowledge does not bring him satisfaction. Instead, his desire for more knowledge becomes an obsession. He wants to know what is hidden from ordinary human beings. This makes his intellectual curiosity both admirable and dangerous.

            The Renaissance encouraged a spirit of questioning and inquiry. People wanted to examine the world instead of accepting everything blindly. Faustus has exactly this spirit. He constantly asks questions and seeks answers. He is not satisfied with traditional explanations of life, nature, and the universe. He wants to discover the unknown personally. His repeated questions to Mephistopheles reflect this restless curiosity. He wants to know about astronomy, geography, the universe, and supernatural matters. Therefore, Faustus represents the questioning mind of the Renaissance.

            The Renaissance brought a growing interest in science, astronomy, geography, and the natural world. People became curious about the structure of the universe and the laws of nature. This spirit is clearly present in Doctor Faustus. Faustus takes an interest in the heavens, the earth, the movement of the planets, and the structure of the universe. He tries to understand matters that had traditionally been explained mainly through religion. His desire to discover the secrets of nature shows the scientific curiosity of the Renaissance. At the same time, the play belongs to a period when magic and supernatural beliefs were still powerful. Thus, Marlowe combines the new scientific spirit with older beliefs in magic and the supernatural.

            The Renaissance was also the age of geographical discovery and adventure. European explorers were travelling across seas and discovering new lands. Trade and commerce were expanding, and people were becoming interested in distant countries. Faustus shares this adventurous spirit. Through his magical powers, he wants to explore the world and obtain its wealth. He wishes that the spirits would travel to distant lands and bring him precious materials. His desire to reach beyond familiar boundaries reflects the Renaissance fascination with the unknown world.

            Individualism is another important quality of the Renaissance. Renaissance men wanted to develop their own personality and make their own choices rather than simply follow social and religious traditions. Faustus is strongly individualistic. He does not want to live an ordinary life or remain within the limits set by society. He wants to create his own destiny. His decision to make a pact with Lucifer is an extreme example of his individualism. He chooses his own path even though he knows that it is dangerous. His tragic story therefore presents both the strength and weakness of Renaissance individualism.

            The Renaissance was deeply influenced by the beauty and culture of classical Greece and Rome. There was a renewed interest in beauty, art, music, literature, and the human body. Faustus's attraction to Helen of Troy reflects this love of classical beauty. Helen is presented as an ideal of physical perfection and becomes one of the most memorable images in the play. Faustus says: “Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships?” His fascination with Helen shows his attraction to beauty and sensual experience.

            The Renaissance was not concerned only with knowledge and intellectual development. It also encouraged an appreciation of worldly pleasures, music, entertainment, beauty, and enjoyment of life. Faustus uses his magical powers to enjoy the pleasures of the world. He travels, attends royal courts, performs magical tricks, and enjoys wealth and entertainment. However, Marlowe also suggests that pleasure alone cannot provide lasting happiness. Despite having supernatural powers, Faustus remains deeply dissatisfied. His pleasures are temporary, while the consequences of his choices are permanent.

            An important feature of Doctor Faustus is the conflict between the Renaissance spirit and the medieval Christian moral order. Faustus represents the new Renaissance spirit. He trusts his own intelligence and wants to discover the world through his own efforts. On the other hand, the play contains strong medieval elements such as the Good Angel, the Evil Angel, Lucifer, Hell, sin, repentance, and divine punishment. The entire play can therefore be understood as a conflict between two forces. One is the Renaissance desire for knowledge, freedom, power, and self-development. The other is the traditional Christian belief that human beings must remain within moral and divine limits. Marlowe does not present this conflict in a simple manner. Faustus's desire for knowledge is attractive, but his misuse of knowledge becomes destructive. His death suggests that knowledge and ambition are valuable, but they become dangerous when they are separated from wisdom, responsibility, and moral judgment.

            Thus, Doctor Faustus is one of the finest expressions of the Renaissance spirit in English literature. Faustus represents the Renaissance desire for knowledge, power, individual freedom, exploration, scientific curiosity, beauty, and worldly experience. At the same time, Marlowe does not present the Renaissance spirit as completely positive. Through the tragic fate of Faustus, he shows the dangers of excessive ambition and the misuse of knowledge. In the end, we can say that Doctor Faustus is one of the most powerful Renaissance tragedies in English literature.

Character Sketch of Doctor Faustus

 

Faustus is the central figure of Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. Faustus is a character ideal to be the hero of a tragedy where man alone is the maker of his fate, good or bad. He falls, not by the fickleness of fortune or the decree of fate, or because he has been corrupted by Mephistophilis, the agent of Lucifer, the Devil, but because of his own will.

Faustus is an ordinary German born in a humble family who goes to Wittenberg for higher studies, mainly supported by his kinsmen. But in course of time, he graces the golden field of learning and before long obtains a Doctor’s in Divinity for his unsurpassed skill in dispute on heavenly problems. He has attained mastery over various branches of study. Thus Faustus is a break from the traditional concept of the tragic hero to the extent that he is not of royalty or any noble parentage. But he is great all the same, because of his scholarship.

He possesses rich imaginative faculty. He cherishes the idea that as a magician he will be greater than emperors and kings, and his dominion will stretch “as far as doth the mind of man.” He will become a mighty God. Endowed with exceptional imaginative power, he visualizes as a magician the bright dreams of his future.

Faustus is not satisfied with his vast knowledge in various subjects of the university, for still, he is an ordinary man. Faustus wants to be a superman; he wants to be a “mighty God.” He is “swollen with cunning and of a self-conceit”—to such an extent that he becomes the “Icarus” of classical mythology. And he aspires on the artificial wings of his knowledge to soar above human limits, to reach the status of a “Jove in the sky.” Pride is the sin for which the angels fell.

Faustus stands not for a character, not for a man, but for Man, for Everyman. The grim tragedy that befalls him is not a personal tragedy, but a tragedy that overtakes all those who dare “practice more than heavenly power permits.” The terrible conflict that goes on in his mind is not particular to him alone, but common to all who waver between opposites.

Faustus’ choice of necromancy is made after inner conflict. The appearance of the Good Angel and the Bad Angel side by side are the personifications of his good and evil impulses. His conventional heart is opposed to his self-damnation and this is clearly hinted when his blood congeals as he proceeds to write: “Faustus delivers his soul to the Devil.”

The doubts and fears which rock the mind of Faustus are not of one character alone: these doubts and fears about hell, heaven, God, salvation and damnation have been experienced by all inquisitive men of all ages. Faustus wavers between his Good and Evil angels, between God and Devil, so we may see Marlowe hesitating between the submissive acceptance of a dogmatic system and a pagan simplicity of outlook to which instinct and temperament prompted him. It will be hard to condemn Marlowe as an atheist. His skeptical and rebellious temperament was not simply his personal tendency; rather he was impressed by the prevailing tendency for free thinking on religious matters. In the same sense, Faustus, with all their doubts and fears about hell and damnation, believes in Christ and God. Faustus in the beginning is a bold, defiant and adventurous spirit of the Renaissance but at the approach of his doom, he reaffirms his faith in Christ.

Doctor Faustus as a Morality Play

 

The play may largely be called a morality play. By selling his soul to the devil, Faustus lives a blasphemous life full of sterile and sensual pleasures for only twenty-four years. He criticizes Christianity by insulting the Pope with the Holy Fathers of Rome. There is a sharp conflict in his soul between his ambition and conscience, between the good angel and the evil angel who breaks out of this internal struggle. Yet, at the end Faustus yields to the temptations of Evil angel, thus paving the way for an eternal curse. When Faustus has barely an hour to live, he realizes with the utmost pain and horror that his sins neither can be ignored nor be purified and nothing can save him from an eternal curse. He realizes that his soul burn permanently into hell and he with the most effective expression scourges the very tormented soul in his last soliloquy: "My God, my God, look not so fierce on me!...”

The main goal of the morality play was to present educational ethics. It was a dramatic guide to Christian life and Christian death. Those who ignore the path of virtue and renounce faith in God and Christ and follow the path of the Devil and Satan is destined to despair and an eternal curse. This is Marlowe's message to his play Doctor Faustus. The sad choir's most palpable expression is in the final line: “I’ll burn my books!—Ah, Mephistophilis !”

In the depiction of moral plays, abstract figures of vices or virtues were embodied. Here in this drama Doctor Faustus, we also find the good angel and the evil angel, the first symbolizing the path of virtue and the last of sin and curse. The old man strongly symbolizes the forces of righteousness and morality. He suggests Doctor Faustus abjure magic and come to the path of light. This also bears witness to morality.

Doctor Faustus is hungry for knowledge and as result, he always is on a quest for that. He studies almost all branches of knowledge as well as religion, yet he still is hungry for more knowledge which is the reason behind adopting the prohibited knowledge of "black magic". Here his incomparable wisdom fails him.

The comic scenes of Doctor Faustus also represent the tradition of miraculous plays and ancient morals. We found Faustus playing despicable tricks on the Pope, who represents the corrupt religion. We also capture Doctor Faustus to make the trick with that of the horse courser who plainly believes Doctor Faustus. When he was overwhelmed by the magical horse, he, at last, realized the deceit of Doctor Faustus. The struggle between Faustus’s uncontrolled appetites and the powers of heaven continues. Faustus has free will, free choice, and the ability to affirm or deny God. He cannot blame anybody but himself for his actions and their consequences. After signing the document, Faustus says: ’Consummatumest’ which was the last words of Christ on earth according to the Gospel of St. John.

Marlowe shows great insight into the twisted mind of the magician by putting these blasphemous words in Faustus’s mouth. We see Faustus, his emotional and intellectual instability is fully revealed. He dwindles and waves between God and the devil. At first, he is conscience-stricken: “Now Faustus, must thou needs be damned, and canst thou not be saved”.

The issue of good and evil is very significant in Doctor Faustus. The struggle between good and evil turns the man to be hesitant and remain puzzled and Doctor Faustus is no exception to that. It is the selection of the man that he must have to choose either good or evil and which way is good and which way is bad for him.

We can conclude that Doctor Faustus is both the fulfillment of the English moral traditions and the finest and final of Marlow's heroic plays. As a morality play, it bears all the relevance and proves humility, belief, and compliance with God's law. As a heroic play, it rejoices in power, beauty, wealth, and knowledge as well as it is Marlowe’s masterpiece.