Drama And Tragedy- The Tragical History Of Doctor Faustus By Christopher Marlowe Poem by Z.I. Mahmud

Explore the ways in which Marlowe presents the relationship between Faustus and Mephistopheles. You must relate your discussion to relevant contextual factors.
Mephistopheles have been a poignant character to embody and exemplify Marlowe's crafted edifice of Doctor Faustus, who would have been a scholar prince but he chooses to be a conjurer laureate. Marlowe's Faustus scholarly, skeptical, defiant and desperate; combines in himself the characteristics of a medieval rebel and a Renaissance adventurer. Through Mephistopheles, Faustus imagines aspiring dreams to achieve the supernatural powers and perform miraculous feats with the spirits of hell at his command. "I command you to come back after changing your present shape which is so ugly that you are not fit to attend on me. Just go and then come back in the guise of an old Franciscan monk. The holy appearance befits a devil best of all."Mephistopheles caricatures as a Franciscan monk (friar) . The docile obedience of Mephistopheles elated the Doctor Faustus (magician who had abjured the Holy Trinity, the Bible and cursed God) .
Mephistopheles, the subordinate of the Fallen Angel Lucifer, the Prince of Hell and Darkness, is depicted as a personification and symbolism of atheism and buffoonery of the Roman Catholic Church. Mephistopheles explained that he hadn't appeared at Faustus' behest but because of performances of necromancy which paves the way towards blasphemy, sacrilege, profanity and imprecations. "No doubt, that was the cause of my appearance; but…name of God or renounce faith in the Bible and the holy books, and his Saviour, Christ, we rather rush to him immediately to get hold of his splendid soul". Inevitably Marlowe created Mephistopheles to please Queen Elizabeth as it was her father Henry the VIII who invented the protestant faith in order to marry Anne Boleyn.
"…there is no chief greater than Belzeebub…the word damnation can never frighten him…for makes no distinction between heaven and hell…" Faustus became skeptical and inquisitive about the nature of damnation and particularly interrogates with a discourse about relationship between Lucifer, heaven and hell. "Unhappy spirit that fell with Lucifer, conspired against out God with Lucifer and forever damned with Lucifer…..And tasted the eternal joys of heaven, Am not tormented with ten thousand hells…everlasting bliss..frivolous demands..fainting soul."
Through Mephistopheles' Marlowe personified the psychological conflict and struggle of Faustus mind: dilemma between the devil and the dead seas which revealed the deep agony and anguish of a soul prone to bashfulness, self effacement and vacillation. The exciting climax of the scene such as stabbing of Faustus' arm, writing the deed with blood and the warming of congealed blood all keep the audience spell bind and engrossed. Mephistopheles reenters with two Devils, who gives crowns and riche apparel to Faustus, dance, and then depart. "Faustus, I swear by hell and Lucifer that I will fulfill all the conditions made between ourselves". However, Faustus sporadically refuses the company of being a necromancy and witchcraft patron because of the moral consciousness and the virtue of the divine incarnation of Good Angel. "When I behold the heavens then I repent..And cursed thee, wicked …scarce can I name salvation, faith and heaven". Faustus admonished and despises the disdainful Mephistopheles because he had been disobedient in being acquiescent to Faustus (Faustus questioned Mephistopheles about the Creator of the World) ."Villain, have I not bound thee to tell me anything? " Here soliloquy of Faustus reflects penitence, remorse-sorrow and bashfulness: "Ay, Christ, my Saviour, Seek to save distressed Faustus' soul! ".With the impending of ensuing advent,Mephistopheles' accompaniment with Lucifier and Belzeebub apparition enchanted incantation of The Seven Deadly Sins: Pride, Covetousness, Wrath, Envy, Gluttony, Sloth, and Lechery.
Mephistopheles' character is a comic relief and satirical with the frivolity, jocular humour and carticature who have indeed amused the Elizabethan peasants and groundlings (these people were used to violence in the 16th century England having to pass under beheaded traitors and witness public executions) . At this time it would have been common for witch trials to be conducted which put a bad word against women and the practice of dark arts, therefore further condemning Doctor Faustus to be a play against religion and theology. The Pope and the Cardinal Friars whose summum bonum is in belly-cheer. Marlowe exposes the vanity, superstition and ignorance in a very pungent and waspish satirical mood. Faustus had been inspired by the devilish Mephistopheles' allurement and enticement of the Saint Peter's Day as embellished in these lines: "Nay, Faustus…take some part of Holy Peter's feast." Nevertheless, Mephistopheles proclaimed that they would be cursed with bell, book, and candle, after the Pope crosses himself, and Faustus hits himwith a box of the ear. The Pope thought spirits apparition might have stirred this chakra and mantra. Mephistopheles, is further, shown as a hilarious figure with frolicsome disposition, because of temptation by the rapscallions's foolishness. "Well, villains, for your presumption, I transform thee into an ape and thee into a dog: and so be gone."Critics have denounced the downfall of the character of Mephistopheles because he was lacking the depths of interests which a fallen Angel would demonstrate as highlighted in these starkly poignant lines: "How am I vexed with these villans' charms! " by Lucille Palmer in the 1900s.

"This great symbolic tragedy deals with a theme which was part not only of the author's inner experience but of the very stuff which nourished the Renaissance spirit. The pride of intellect by which both Faustus of Marlowe and the Lucifer of Milton fell, was the most subtlest and dangerous temptation of the age. After wandering for a century through the mists of ignorance, man found himself once more before the tree of knowledge. There, within is reach, burned like a thousand lamps the coveted fruits of his desire; but there too, coiled about the roots, lay the old serpent, still unconquered, still thirsting for his soul's blood." E.A. Baker remarked a vivisection within this in depth analysis and snarled witticism and critical commentary.

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe is the personification and embodiment of the morality and miracle plays of the Elizabethan England with the epoch of the Protestant Reformation.
This is a culmination of annotations and bibliography-
Critical commentaries and reviews from Dr. S. Sen Christopher Marlowe Doctor Fasutus and Exemplar Essays Pearson Edexcel UK