WEEK SIX - Pageantry and Theatrical Context
In Act 2 Scene 2, Marlowe calls on two important (but very different) literary influences. The two contrary genres of the Medieval Morality Play and the Court Masque reflect the different aspects of the play, the moral and religious elements alongside the more pantomime, theatrical moments.
Before you read the scene, you need to understand these genre and the different aspects of them.
Watch these two videos and make notes on the different genre. You may want to make your notes in the form of a mind map and then post a photograph of it below.
Medieval Morality Plays - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BILq545a2WE
Court Masques - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a1swNGhWeU
Read Act 2 Scene 2.
In the comments below, post your responses to this question:
ReplyDeleteAct 2 Scene 2 exists for comic relief. It comes immediately after a rather subdued scene in which Mephistopheles refuses to answer some of Faustus’ questions – showing the audience that he does not have all existing knowledge. Faustus begins to question whether selling his soul was the right thing for him to do. However, at the end of the scene he is distracted by Mephistopheles, Lucifer and Beelzebub as they parade as the Seven Deadly Sins. After this scene we are presented with bawdy jokes and good natured humour. This switches the pace and the mood very quickly – Marlowe is trying to distract for the seriousness of the previous scene.
While Faustus can be seen as a morality play as there are some symbolic meanings, it is more of a hybrid between medieval morality plays and early modern plays. Morality plays tended to focus on categories of people and feature allegorical characters – Faustus involves individual, literal people (excluding the good and bad angels). Morality plays tended to be of a religious nature, and while Faustus has elements of this, it can be likened to more of a commentary on human nature. Faustus can be seen as fitting snugly into the genre of tragedy (especially with the title "The Tragical History..."), Faustus suffers the reversal of fortune, but it can be seen as his own fault – his free will rather than his hamartia. However, it could also be viewed as not Faustus' fault, and that he was manipulated by the Devil and this fits more with the theme of morality. I think that Marlowe uses the idea of the morality play as a way to provoke the audience to question Faustus' actions: is it his own fault, or is manipulation that was out of his control? Furthermore, it puts a more personal approach on the play. Although in morality plays main characters don’t have names but are called symbolic names such as 'Everyman', these characters are highly relatable because they show fundamental traits of all human beings. While the characters in this play have names, it is the same thinking behind it, a lot of their traits are highly relatable: such as the thirst for knowledge or jealousy. The idea of morality makes the play more approachable to the audience.
Marlowe also uses elements of Court Masques in Faustus. A lighter, more comical side to theatre, these were introduced in the 17th century. Females could perform in Court Masques and these were seen as a way for all classes to enjoy entertainment – these plays were often used to praise monarchs. Act 2 Scene 2 is a moment of light relief, so this style of play is much more suited to this section of the play when compared to the grittier morality play. I therefore think that Marlowe chooses this style of theatre for the light relief moments of the play, to make it more fantastical and lifts a weight off of the audience's chest. This type of acting is lighter and seemingly more mischievous which is why it is perfect for moments of comic relief.
Act 2 Scene 2 is full of humour. One way that this is shown is how right after Faustus signs the contact he still doesn’t get all the answers he wants. This leads to him questing if he did the right thing by sealing his soul. However, after this we are hit with many jokes, by doing this Marlowe is changing how we feel about the situation right now by lightening the mood.
ReplyDeleteFaustus may not be seen as your typical morality play there are some symbols and hits of some in there still. For example, the Good and Bad angels, Lucifer and God, and Faustus decisions through all of this. By choosing the wrong side (evil) this ultimately leads to Faustus’ Death, making it a tragedy. We can also tell this by the title “The Tragically History”, this shows us that it is a Medieval Morality play. Faustus suffers from Perpeteia (reversal of fortunes), or many people may see it as the manipulation of the devil. Marlowe is trying to show the audience how morality takes us on different paths, for example Faustus could have gone down the road of spirituality which would have took him to God and Heaven; However, he decided to take the road to Lucifer and Hell as it was the easier way out. For someone to take this road they would have had a terrible moral compass, as they would know how wrong this is and how much pain it would late cost him. Some may argue that this would have been out of Faustus’ hands as it was already planned for him. This adds to the play as many people could relate to this. In some cases, the symbols are more broaden so that everyone can clearly relate to this such as the “Everyman”. In tragedy I believe that all the trades are relatable as not everyone has a happy ending, such as Jealousy, Hamartia, Hubris, Peripeteia, Anagnorisis etc.
Marlowe also uses Court Masques in this play as well. It is a more humours side of theatre. This is one of the first type of plays in the 17th century to allow women in the play as well as it allowed some more and different entertainment as women weren’t allowed to preform or act in thoughts days. As we can see Marlowe uses Court Masques in this part of the play as it is a moment of light relief and humour in the play right now, I think that Marlowe uses this in this particular part of the play to give the audience a break of this intense scene and allow them time to process this. It also allows the audience to see the positive and negative of be a Satanist. This was very different to the audience at the time as nearly everyone was religious, this gave them a different perspective religion and allowed them to see Marlowe’s point of view as well.
In Act 2 Scene 2 Faustus he doesn’t get all the answers he wants, questing if he did the right thing by selling his soul, but this is quickly disregarded by humor this shows a lot about Faustus’s character that he does not always think his plans through, this may be due to an element of karma as he is now repenting his sketchy work.
ReplyDeleteDr Faustus is not a morality play however is open to morality interpretation. As the play is titled Tragic history of Dr Faustus. As it is names ‘Tragic’ it shows that Marlowe himself sees this to be a tragedy rather than a morality play, yet has strong religious remarks as talking about heaven and hell and the profound character of the devil whom is shown a lot in the extract. Marlowe demonstrates how morality affects people in different ways. Faustus could of refuse the to heed the words of the Good angle whom would have taken him to Heaven. However, he decided to deal with the devil Lucifer as it is easier This symbolism how you can incorporates the story as a morality story or a tragedy as Marlowe is an atheist he set out the story to be a tragedy in my opinion. Marlowe incorporates Court Masques represented by the humor. I think that Marlowe does this to tone down the tragic atmosphere, and allow the audience to process this.