Post by shaxper on May 24, 2002 10:44:44 GMT -5
It seems to me that Faustus changes direction very quickly in the play, from bold, to scared and almost repentant, to bold, to scared and almost repentant, to bold, to terrified and sullen. Is this because he's crazed with an experience that's too overwhelming for a mortal? But then again, he jumps into the whole situation pretty quickly too. He decides he'd like to try the black arts, has his friends over to show him how to do it soon after, and makes a deal with the Devil that night.
Maybe it's because Faustus is such an unusually short play. Marlowe may have written a general outline of it quickly and never gotten the opportunity to completely fill it in.
Or...
Marlowe is putting an undercurrent of humor in another of his plays. Could Faustus be seen as funny? An overdone modern morality play, seeking to make fun of its own message? If Marlowe was, in fact, leaning towards athiesm (or at least a resentment of organized religions) can Faustus really be seen in any other way? But, as with Tamburlaine, it would seem that either Marlowe made it a secret joke for himself and, perhaps, an audience member or two that might sense it, or he explained it to his company and they ignored him or misunderstood him. Surely, Henslowe's commissioning a revision of the play by other playwrights in 1611 would suggest that Henslowe either didn't understand Marlowe's humor or chose to eliminate it, just as the editor of the 1590 edition of Tamburlaine believed it was prudent to remove the comical scenes from that essentially funny play.
Maybe it's because Faustus is such an unusually short play. Marlowe may have written a general outline of it quickly and never gotten the opportunity to completely fill it in.
Or...
Marlowe is putting an undercurrent of humor in another of his plays. Could Faustus be seen as funny? An overdone modern morality play, seeking to make fun of its own message? If Marlowe was, in fact, leaning towards athiesm (or at least a resentment of organized religions) can Faustus really be seen in any other way? But, as with Tamburlaine, it would seem that either Marlowe made it a secret joke for himself and, perhaps, an audience member or two that might sense it, or he explained it to his company and they ignored him or misunderstood him. Surely, Henslowe's commissioning a revision of the play by other playwrights in 1611 would suggest that Henslowe either didn't understand Marlowe's humor or chose to eliminate it, just as the editor of the 1590 edition of Tamburlaine believed it was prudent to remove the comical scenes from that essentially funny play.