Doctor Faustus_ Plot Summary

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00:00Dr. Faustus Introduction

00:03Dr. Faustus or The Tragic History of the Life and Death of Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe

00:09was first performed in 1592. This Elizabethan tragedy is based on German stories about the

00:16title character Faust, that was first performed sometime between 1588 and Marlowe's death

00:22in 1593.

00:25Two different versions of the play were published in the Jacobean era, several years later.

00:31Plot Summary

00:33The play opens with a prologue. Faustus and his story is introduced by the chorus. Faustus

00:39is described as being base of stock, but he is able to become a doctor. During this opening,

00:46the reader also gets a first clue to the source of Faustus's downfall. Faustus's tale is likened

00:52to that of Icarus, who flew too close to the sun and fell to his death when the sun

00:57melted his waxen wings. This is a hint to Faustus's end as well as bringing to the reader's

01:03attention the idea of hubris, excessive pride, which is represented in the Icarus story,

01:10and ultimately Faustus. Faustus comments that he has reached the end of every subject he

01:15has studied. He appreciates logic as being a tool for arguing.

01:20Divine as being unvalued unless it allowed raising the dead and immortality, law as being

01:26upstanding and above him.

01:28Divinity is useless because he feels that all humans commit sin, and thus to have sins

01:33punishable by death complicates the logic of divinity.

01:37He dismisses it as what doctrine call you this? Que sera, sera, what will be, shall

01:44be.

01:45He calls upon his servant Wagner to bring forth Valdez and Cornelius, two famous magicians.

01:52After Valdez and Cornelius teach Faustus how to summon a devil, two angels, the good angel

01:58and the bad angel, appear to Faustus and dispense their own perspective of his interest in Satan.

02:05Though Faustus is momentarily dissuaded, proclaiming, How am I glutted with conceit of this? He

02:11is apparently won over by the possibilities magic offers to him.

02:16Valdez declares that if Faustus devotes himself to magic, he must vow not to study anything

02:21else and points out that great things are indeed possible with someone of Faustus's

02:26standing.

02:27Faustus's absence is noted by two scholars who are less accomplished than Faustus himself.

02:33They request that Wagner reveal Faustus's present location, a request which Wagner haughtily

02:39denies.

02:41The two scholars worry about Faustus falling deep into the art of magic and leave to inform

02:46the king.

02:48Faustus summons a devil, in the presence of Lucifer and other devils although Faustus

02:53is unaware of it.

02:55After creating a magic circle and speaking an incantation through which he revokes his

03:00baptism, Faustus sees a demon, who is the representative of the devil himself, named

03:05Mephistopheles appear before him.

03:09Faustus is unable to tolerate the hideous looks of the demon and commands it to change

03:13its appearance.

03:15Faustus, seeing the obedience of the demon, by changing its form, takes pride in his skill.

03:22He tries to bind the demon to his service but is unable to because Mephistopheles already

03:27serves Lucifer, the prince of devils.

03:30Mephistopheles also reveals that it was not Faustus's power that summoned him but rather

03:35his adjuration of scriptures that results in the devil coming to claim his soul.

03:42Mephistopheles introduces the history of Lucifer and the other devils while indirectly telling

03:46Faustus that hell has no circumference and is more of a state of mind than a physical

03:51location.

03:53Faustus inquires into the nature of hell lead to Mephistopheles saying, Oh, Faustus, leave

03:59these frivolous demands, which strikes a terror to my fainting soul.

04:04Using Mephistopheles as a messenger, Faustus strikes a deal with Lucifer.

04:09He is to be allotted twenty-four years of life on earth, during which time he will have

04:14Mephistopheles as his personal servant.

04:17At the end he will give his soul over to Lucifer as payment and spend the rest of time as one

04:22damned to hell.

04:23This deal is to be sealed in Faustus's own blood.

04:27After cutting his arm, the wound is divinely healed and the Latin words homo, fugue, man,

04:33fly, then appear upon it.

04:36Despite the dramatic nature of this divine intervention, Faustus disregards the inscription

04:42with the assertion that he is already damned by his actions thus far and therefore left

04:46with no place to which he could flee.

04:50Mephistopheles brings calls to break the wound open again, and thus Faustus is able to take

04:55his oath that was written in his own blood.

04:58Wasting His Skills

05:00Faustus begins by asking Mephistopheles a series of science-related questions.

05:06However, the demon seems to be quite evasive and finishes with a Latin phrase, per inno

05:11equalem motem respectotes, through unequal motion with respect to the whole thing.

05:18This sentence has not the slightest scientific value, thus giving the impression that Mephistopheles

05:23is untrustworthy.

05:25After good and evil angels return to Faustus, the good angel urges him to repent and revoke

05:31his oath to Lucifer.

05:33This is the largest fault of Faustus throughout the play, he is blind to his own salvation.

05:39Though he is told initially by Mephistopheles to leave these frivolous demands, Faustus

05:44remains set on his soul's damnation.

05:47Lucifer brings to Faustus the personification of the seven deadly sins.

05:52Faustus fails to see them as warnings and ignores them.

05:56From this point until the end of the play, Faustus does nothing worthwhile, having begun

06:02his pact with the attitude that he would be able to do anything.

06:05Instead, he merely uses his temporary powers for practical jokes.

06:11Realizing that he gave up his soul for no good reason, Faustus appears to scholars and

06:16warns them that he is damned and will not be long on the earth.

06:20He gives a speech about how he is damned and eventually seems to repent for his deeds.

06:25Mephistopheles comes to collect his soul, and the reader is told that he exits back

06:30to hell with him.

06:32At the end of the play, devils carry Faustus off the stage.

06:36In the later B text of the play, there is a subsequent scene 8th where the three scholars

06:41discover his remains strewn about the stage.

06:45They state that Faustus was damned, one scholar declaring that the devils have torn him asunder.

06:5120.

06:52Mephistopheles says to Faustus in the 8th text what are thou, Faustus, but a man condemned

06:58to die.

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