the tragical history of life and death of doctor faustus

Shall I make spirits fetch me what I please,

What doctrine call you this, Che serà, serà:Īnd gaze not on it lest it tempt thy soulĪnd heap God's heavy wrath upon thy head.

In the first two lines, Marlowe is quoting 1 John 1:8. Forgive me the cliché but final scene, as Faustus begs God to save him from the demons come to deliver him to Lucifer, gave me goose bumps.We deceive ourselves, and there is no truth in us.

Admittedly that was partially due to the fact we were in the middle gallery and we got a better view that way, but it was also because neither of us wanted to miss a signal syllable. I spent the entire production on the edge of my seat.

Okay, that and seeing Rory from Dr Who in the flesh. To let you in on secret, whilst I knew it was a ‘good play’ I was actually more looking forward to finally seeing The Globe’s method for myself. It was a birthday treat for my sister, who had fallen in love with the play after studying it for her A Levels. My first encounter with it was in 2011, at Shakespeare’s Globe in production starring Arthur Darvill as Mephistopheles. It’s a complex play, but also entirely enthralling. I’ve sat for the best part of an hour attempting to pin point just what it is about The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus that is so enduring, but I’ve half-written and deleted at least five paragraphs now so I’m beginning to think it’s impossible. There’s no ruins, castles or heroines, but you get my drift.) And as for Faustus itself? I don’t think you can get more Gothic than the tale of a gifted man who tires of his mortal confines and sells his soul to the devil only to ultimately fail to achieve his desired greatness and be dragged to hell by devils. As an undergraduate, my 17th century literature tutor explained The Spanish Tragedy to us as the ur- Hamlet and certainly many of the dramas of Elizabethan and Jacobean period may be considered ur-Gothic. But continuing our tradition of picking texts that may not be technically considered Gothic (I will fight you over Blade Runner), Faustus seemed a perfect choice.

Considering its date of origin (which in itself is hotly debated as the play was certainly performed during Christopher Marlowe’s lifetime but it was not published until sometime after his death) The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus may not initially seem like an appropriate text for the Gothic reading group given its general focus on texts from the 1790s to today.

The tragical history of life and death of doctor faustus