faustus cw marx

To what extent is a Marxist reading of Dr. Faustus fruitful?
PLAN::::
1. Intro. What is Doctor Faustus, and how could it be viewed as a Marxist play? Faustus strives to gain power that he is told he should not have, and Marlowe questions: is this wrong? Because of the strong religious mainstream views at the end of the 16th century, Marlowe would have been much more criticised than he was if Faustus had not been dragged to hell. Could the play have had a different ending if Marlowe was allowed to freely express his views?
2. Faustus, just like Marlowe, pushes the established societal social boundaries. From the very beginning in the chorus we learn that Faustus has greatly moved up the social ladder. The reason the Marxism train of thought first came about was because the unsatisfied lower classes wanted more power and freedom. He wants to challenge every societal boundary possible, to the extent of wanting to ‘fill the schools with silk’ – sumptuary laws gave a strict dress code for students.
3. But is this just a greedy lust for power? His early ambition does end up in tatters. And maybe it is Faustus’s rebellious nature – he challenges everything, even Mephistopheles.
4. The idea of exploration is interesting. Faustus goes travelling, exploring new interesting parts of Europe. Marlowe, through this scene, could be suggesting that this scale of exploration is possible. There is a whole new world of freedom and opportunity unexplored, seemingly open to all. Zeitgeist – representative of the time.
5. Autobiographical reading could be more relevant: Marlowe saw the ships where he lived in the docklands. Could another reading better suit the play? Faustus is Marlowe’s vessel for expressing his own thoughts and feelings, and Doctor Faustus is simply an autobiographical account. The play is supposed to be viewed simply as an entertaining tragedy.
6. However, it is evident that Faustus’ challenging of theology is the key idea. Dr. Faustus lived in a society rooted in medieval theology, a system of ideas that are unchangeable by human hand. Faustus strives to challenge the arbitrary power of God, so becomes an ‘allegory of the historical class dialectic of slave against master. Links to: the representation of social class, choice and its illusory nature. Was F ever able to change this system, no matter how hard he tried? ‘Although we like to think we live in a world full of choices, this idea of choice is an illusion – the choices we have are much more limited than we think.
7. Faustus should not have tried to change the system. Perhaps the play goes against Marxism. Marlowe is using Faustus to show why there should be societal boundaries, as Faustus uses his power to greedy, excessive heights. The fact that he ends up dead is far from insignificant
Conclusion: But his death shows how he and others are locked into human boundaries, ruled by the arbitrary power that is God.
8. Extra paragraph: We could apply a Marxist reading to the play in an entirely different way: Marlowe is the capitolists, who greedily wants much more than others. (is this true and where could I include it?)
Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, is a 16th Century play about a man called Faustus who strives to gain power than he is told he should not have. Marlowe questions, in what could be seen as quite a Marxist way: is this wrong? The challenging of arbitrary tradition is a key theme for Marxists, and this is exactly what Faustus does. But to what extent can we cast Faustus as a revolutionary, and the church as the arbitrary power? There is also evidence that perhaps Marlowe doesn’t agree with Faustus’s challenging of conventions, and we can also argue that other readings are better suited to the play.

Right from the very beginning of the play in the chorus, we are given an example of Faustus pushing against societal boundaries in quite a Marxist way: ‘his parents base of stock…shortly he was graced with Doctor’s name’. Karl Marx believed that all people from all social backgrounds should have as much freedom to pursue whatever lifestyle they chose. In fact, this idea was the basis of Marxism: not being forced into a certain social role by tradition – and this is what Faustus himself has done. He challenges all the traditions of the time, for example when he speaks about what he wants to achieve with his magical powers: “ I’ll have them fill the public schools with silk’. The old tradition of sumptuary laws gave a strict dress code for public schools – laws that Faustus thinks of breaking. It is interesting, in this speech, that the words ‘king’ and ‘prince’ appear frequently – he wants the power and ‘secrets’ of a monarchy – a system of government rooted in tradition. Karl Marx was one of the biggest criticizers of ruling through heritage and bloodline, a system that perhaps Faustus here questions.
But does Faustus simply have an unhealthy, greedy lust for power, rather contrary to Marxism? In this same speech that he calls for the silk in the schools and the power of kings, he also thinks about having his ‘spirits fetching me what I please’ whether it be ‘to fly to India for gold, to ransack the ocean for pearl’ or having them search the world for ‘pleasant fruits’. Maybe he simply wants material wealth and power over others, and to underline this fact Marlowe shows his few good ambitions ending up in tatters. For example, when Faustus goes exploring to ‘prove cosmography’, he ends up playing childish tricks on the pope. His admiral ambition of wanting to become learned is twisted because of the nature of the power he has.
However, we could read the play as Marxist in an entirely different way. A key Marxist theme is the idea of zeitgeist, and how all literature reflect the mainstream of the time. The idea of exploration is interesting in relation to this theme. Faustus uses his power to go travelling, exploring interesting places: first he ‘passes the stately town of Trier, with airy mountain tops’, ‘from Paris next, coasting the realm of France, whose banks are set with fruitful vines, then up to Naples, rich Campania…’. The list of exotic locations goes on. Marlowe is telling us that exploration on this scale in now conceivable – and he would have believed this because he was living in an age of exploration, where not just new countries but new continents were being discovered. He lived in the Deptford area, and would have certainly seen ships built in the Deptford shipyards that would have done in reality what the magical powers of Faustus does in his imagination.
But does this instead suggest that an autobiographical reading would be more relevant to the play? Faustus could be a Marlowe’s vessel for expressing his own thoughts and feelings about exploration, and even religion. He was widely thought of as an atheist, accused of ‘persuading men to atheism, willing them not to be afraid of bugbears and hobgoblins’. Indeed, there is evidence to suggest that Marlowe is inciting atheism in Doctor Faustus. Faustus, when we first meet him, rejects all forms of mainstream belief in one sentence: ‘Philosophy is odious and obscure, both law and physics are for petty wits, divinity is the basest of the three’. Faustus is looking for something more substantial than mainstream academia, just as Marlowe did. And there is more and more subtle evidence for Marlowe’s personal rejection. In the scene where Faustus summons Mephistopheles: ‘Within this circle is Jehovah’s name, forward and backward annegrammatized; the abbreiviated names of holy saints’. The connections here to black magic are affront to all that is ‘holy’, so this appears to be a blunt attack on Christianity. Holy symbolism, holy saints and holy language become the necromantic circle, idols and the name of Christ – a twisted parody of Christianity. What is significant is that they are being used for evil, and God does nothing to prevent it.
Instead however we could see this as another way in which Faustus challenges the mainstream. It is evident that Faustus’ challenging of theology is a very key theme of the play. Faustus lived in a society rooted in medieval theology, a system of ideas that are unchangeable by human hand. Faustus, quite admirably, strives to challenge the arbitrary power of God, so ‘becomes an allegory of the historical class dialectic of slave against master’. He wants to ‘become a mighty god, a deity’ to change the norm. And this fighting of the mainstream could be seen as Marxist in more than one way. He seems to be locked into a social role. There is power that he is disallowed, and this does not seem fair. Furthermore, Marxism questions whether we have free will or choice in a capitalist society. Was Faustus ever able to change society? We learn that he never has any real power, when Mephistopheles tells him: ‘No Faustus, I came here on my own accord’. Furthermore, he doesn’t achieve anything of note that he would have been prevented from achieving without his power. We can see this in the scene where he goes exploring. He sees ‘Campania’, ‘France’, ‘Naples’ and ‘Rome’. The fact that they are real places only serves to remind us that he didn’t need magical powers to see them. The comic scenes emphasise his lack of power.
But is Marlowe showing a fight against unfair power or a greediness? Maybe Faustus should not have tried to change the system. Marlowe could be using Faustus to show why there should be societal boundaries: if we are given inhuman powers, would we use them correctly? Faustus’s ambition certainly deteriorates. He plays tricks on fools, selling a horse courser a fake horse that ‘vanished’ when entering water. He fetches out of season grapes for a Duchess. Is it really worth him having this power? This power, Marlowe also sets up as a sin – he gives up his eternal soul for a few cheap laughs. It is hardly insignificant that Faustus has a ‘Hellish fall’ and is dragged to Hell.
There is no clear cut answer. Faustus’s death and subsequent denial from heaven could be pro Marxism: he believed he had the choice to gain power and freedom from human restraints, but in reality he didn’t. Or it could be evidence against Marxism: Marlowe uses the visual representation of the devils leaving the stage with Faustus to emphasise that he should not have been allowed to have this very un-human power. What we can say though is that Marlowe’s play does include some ideas key to Marxism.

1248 I know it gets messy at the end but at least there are paragraphs.