Explore how Marlowe makes use of the comic scenes in Doctor Faustus.
1157 words!!!!!!!!!!! :D I don’t know if I’ve covered the right bits or not though? I tried to pick out
the important parts, but I haven’t managed to fit the Horse-Courser or Wagner in? :(
Though superficially provided as a comedic interlude; a humorous interjection in the otherwise dismal
unconventional Tragedy, the scenes of Low Comedy, interspersed within the main body of the play, serve
a significantly more didactic purpose. Acting to dramatically parallel the protagonist and antagonist’s
exchanges, the ridiculous stock characters emblematise the facile nature of falling to temptation. Beneath
the lighthearted, jovial dialogue is a repressed moral abandonment that Marlowe subtly alludes to in an
attempt to warn the Elizabethan audience. Inherently Protestant, the contemporary audience would
undoubtedly have been frightened by the portrayed universality of sin - if Robin and Rafe, two simple
men, can be lured into evil misdemeanours, what is to stop members of the audience being consigned to
a similar fate?
Marlowe’s comedic parodying of Faustus’ ill-judged predicament - in being at the mercy of Lucifer - seems
to invite the audience to ridicule the damned protagonist, rendering him a tragic hero. Imagining himself
turning into a flea “to tickle the pretty wenches’ plackets”, the robustly lecherous attitude of the Clown
Wagner encounters during this scene of low comedy (integral to Elizabethan theatre to provide comic
relief) seems to dramatically parallel Faustus. Capable of formulating an argument yet physically
destitute, the Clown ignorantly agrees to trade his “soul to the devil” for a “shoulder of mutton”, unaware
that his bargain will only reward him with insubstantial fripperies - parallel to Faustus’ deal with
Mephistopheles in the previous scene. Like the insolent Clown, the stock characters Robin and Rafe
serve an equally didactic comedic role. Hopelessly attempting to conjure Mephistopheles themselves,
Robin, Faustus’ supposed ‘mirror image’ warns Rafe to “Keep out, or else you are blown up, you are
dismembered”. The explicit sexual innuendos interwoven with the Grotesque imagery seem to parody
Faustus’ contamination of societal morality and hubristic desire to use magic to satiate his physical
cravings. However, the imagery of the active verb “dismembered” seems juxtapositional to the
lighthearted mischief of Robin, and seems to allude to one of the cantos in Dante’s Inferno, wherein
dismemberment evoked a corporeal semiosis against the sinner’s key utterance, initiating a counter-
suffering, which perhaps foreshadows Faustus’ despaired state towards the end. Through the scenes of
low comedy, Marlowe didactically invites the audience to acknowledge Faustus’ fatal flaws and
errors,characteristic of a tragic hero, prompting the audience to recognise the protagonist’s status as a
tragic hero, but also as something more - an emblem of the implications of blasphemy and sin.
Marlowe further utilises the scenes of Low Comedy to expose Faustus’ suppressed desire to repent and
seek salvation. Upon meeting the Duke and Duchess Vanderholt at their palace, Faustus regards the
Duchess as she “tastes the grapes” he and Mephistopheles conjured. Engaging in his conventional
niceties, Faustus is “glad they content you so, madam.” However, the contemporary audience are made
aware of the biblical allusion associated with Marlowe’s chosen fruit, the grape, which conspicuously
connotes to wine. There is little doubt the contemporary Protestant audience would have been familiar
with the fruit as a symbol of fear, echoing transubstantiation. Grapes traditionally signify the Christian’s
Communion, wherein wine was perceived to represent the blood of Christ that was shed for the remission
of sins. As Faustus struggles to gather a coherent sense of identity, the symbolic grapes seem only to
fuel the confusion, as they metaphorically allude to Faustus’ subdued desire to repent and be forgiven of
his sins. Although Faustus is “glad they content” the Duchess, or “madam”, the audience seem to be left
in shared vacuum of self-identity,unsure as to Faustus’ position on the spectrum of morality. His
oleaginous courtesy seems a superficial pretence to conceal narcissistic desires, and yet the symbolism
of the grapes seem to contradict this. The grapes also have a classical allusion to the Greek God of the
1157 words!!!!!!!!!!! :D I don’t know if I’ve covered the right bits or not though? I tried to pick out
the important parts, but I haven’t managed to fit the Horse-Courser or Wagner in? :(
Though superficially provided as a comedic interlude; a humorous interjection in the otherwise dismal
unconventional Tragedy, the scenes of Low Comedy, interspersed within the main body of the play, serve
a significantly more didactic purpose. Acting to dramatically parallel the protagonist and antagonist’s
exchanges, the ridiculous stock characters emblematise the facile nature of falling to temptation. Beneath
the lighthearted, jovial dialogue is a repressed moral abandonment that Marlowe subtly alludes to in an
attempt to warn the Elizabethan audience. Inherently Protestant, the contemporary audience would
undoubtedly have been frightened by the portrayed universality of sin - if Robin and Rafe, two simple
men, can be lured into evil misdemeanours, what is to stop members of the audience being consigned to
a similar fate?
Marlowe’s comedic parodying of Faustus’ ill-judged predicament - in being at the mercy of Lucifer - seems
to invite the audience to ridicule the damned protagonist, rendering him a tragic hero. Imagining himself
turning into a flea “to tickle the pretty wenches’ plackets”, the robustly lecherous attitude of the Clown
Wagner encounters during this scene of low comedy (integral to Elizabethan theatre to provide comic
relief) seems to dramatically parallel Faustus. Capable of formulating an argument yet physically
destitute, the Clown ignorantly agrees to trade his “soul to the devil” for a “shoulder of mutton”, unaware
that his bargain will only reward him with insubstantial fripperies - parallel to Faustus’ deal with
Mephistopheles in the previous scene. Like the insolent Clown, the stock characters Robin and Rafe
serve an equally didactic comedic role. Hopelessly attempting to conjure Mephistopheles themselves,
Robin, Faustus’ supposed ‘mirror image’ warns Rafe to “Keep out, or else you are blown up, you are
dismembered”. The explicit sexual innuendos interwoven with the Grotesque imagery seem to parody
Faustus’ contamination of societal morality and hubristic desire to use magic to satiate his physical
cravings. However, the imagery of the active verb “dismembered” seems juxtapositional to the
lighthearted mischief of Robin, and seems to allude to one of the cantos in Dante’s Inferno, wherein
dismemberment evoked a corporeal semiosis against the sinner’s key utterance, initiating a counter-
suffering, which perhaps foreshadows Faustus’ despaired state towards the end. Through the scenes of
low comedy, Marlowe didactically invites the audience to acknowledge Faustus’ fatal flaws and
errors,characteristic of a tragic hero, prompting the audience to recognise the protagonist’s status as a
tragic hero, but also as something more - an emblem of the implications of blasphemy and sin.
Marlowe further utilises the scenes of Low Comedy to expose Faustus’ suppressed desire to repent and
seek salvation. Upon meeting the Duke and Duchess Vanderholt at their palace, Faustus regards the
Duchess as she “tastes the grapes” he and Mephistopheles conjured. Engaging in his conventional
niceties, Faustus is “glad they content you so, madam.” However, the contemporary audience are made
aware of the biblical allusion associated with Marlowe’s chosen fruit, the grape, which conspicuously
connotes to wine. There is little doubt the contemporary Protestant audience would have been familiar
with the fruit as a symbol of fear, echoing transubstantiation. Grapes traditionally signify the Christian’s
Communion, wherein wine was perceived to represent the blood of Christ that was shed for the remission
of sins. As Faustus struggles to gather a coherent sense of identity, the symbolic grapes seem only to
fuel the confusion, as they metaphorically allude to Faustus’ subdued desire to repent and be forgiven of
his sins. Although Faustus is “glad they content” the Duchess, or “madam”, the audience seem to be left
in shared vacuum of self-identity,unsure as to Faustus’ position on the spectrum of morality. His
oleaginous courtesy seems a superficial pretence to conceal narcissistic desires, and yet the symbolism
of the grapes seem to contradict this. The grapes also have a classical allusion to the Greek God of the
