Marlowe's Faustus
An Examination of Christopher's Doctor Faustus
The Play in its Period
The Play
Personal Evaluation
The Play in its Period
Christopher Marlowe's play The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus is a frightening adaptation of the German narrative of Johann Faust who traded his soul for knowledge and power. With its emphasis on intellectual pursuits, this play illustrates Marlowe's contribution to the Elizabethan drama. While much of Marlowe's life is a mystery, we do know that unlike Shakespeare, Marlowe attended a Corpus Christi College on a scholarship. During this time, he began writing plays. Roma Gill points out that Marlowe's writing began with translating Ovid and Lucan. (Gill) She states:
Marlowe's translations of these elegies are not uniformly successful; but they nevertheless form an impressive achievement. For the Latin elegiac couplet, Marlowe substituted the rhymed pentameter couplet -- which John Donne later followed, imitating...
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