The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus - Context

Wittenberg

The contemporary audience would have associated Wittenberg University with a radical professor of moral theology, Martin Luther, who often criticised the corruption of the Catholic Church. He was a part of one of the key events that resulted in The Protestant Reformation. The Protestant Reformation = society’s move to Protestantism away from Catholicism.

The Renaissance

The Renaissance = re-birth

The Renaissance was an era of intellectual discovery as the ideas of the mediaeval period were called into question and changed.

Faustus is a master of the Mediaeval Era disciplines and seems to reject them as he pursues forbidden, unlimited knowledge.

Dr John Dee

Dr John Dee was a court astronomer and royal advisor of the Queen, as well as a respected scholar who left the royal court in order to pursue more knowledge that concerned magic and the supernatural. It can be argued that Marlowe may have been influenced to fashion his protagonist on Dr Dee, which is relevant as the contemporary audience would have known him

Morality Play

A popular form of drama at the time was ‘morality plays’. Although this play is a tragdey, there are clear influences from other literary styles. For example, the use of an good angel and evil angel is similar to a mortality play, as they are often stock characters (common characters) within a mortality play.

James I

‘The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus’ warns of the dangers of the supernatural and black magic. These topics were a focus of the monarch, James I, who wrote the pamphlet Daemonolgie, which focused on the dangers of necromancy and the supernatural. His rule was nicknamed as the time of ‘satanic panic’. This is due to the large amount of people that were accused of witchcraft, and normally executed.

The Anti-Catholic Agenda

Throughout the play, there is a consistent depiction of anti-catholic propaganda. This is a reflection of the views of Protestant England during the 16th century who viewed the Catholics as the enemy, especially after the Spanish Armada which occurred in 1588. Even the practice of ‘Mass’ was banned in Jacobean England - mass was a Catholic religious ceremony. In ‘The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus’, when Faustus first summoned Mephistopheles, he spoke in Latin, which is the language that is used in mass, which suggested that there was something evil occurring.

Calvinism & Lutheranism

During the time when the play was first being performed (1604), the main religion was Protestantism, which had two main strands that were popular. One of the strands was Calvinism which believed in predestination. Predestination means that at birth, your soul is destined to be damned or saved, no matter what you do, your actions cannot affect your fate. The other strand was Lutheranism, which believed in free will. Free will is the idea that your fate is influenced by your actions, conscious decisions and how strong your relationship is with God.

Grammar Schools & The Classical World

Many scenes in the play refer to the classical worlds (Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, etc,) and their figures like Alexander the Great, Homer, Oenone. These references reflect Marlowe’s education, and the education of the majority of the contemporary audience who would have likely attended a grammar school. At the time grammar schools were a new type of educational environment, and their curriculum introduced the teaching of the classical worlds.

Anti-Catholic Feeling & Indulgences

The contemporary audience would have viewed the Catholic church as being greedy and corrupt. This was a result of the Catholic church selling ‘Indulgences’. These ‘Indulgences’ were monetary gifts provided to the church in order to be forgiven from sins.