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Home Literature Fiction Atheism in Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe

Atheism in Doctor Faustus by Christopher

Marlowe
Posted by Nicole Smith, Dec 6, 2011 Fiction Comments Closed Print

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 End of Notes from
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Christopher Marlowe,
Doctor Faustus

Christopher Marlowe
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Despite the overall heavy-handed moral

message that comes at the end of Marlowes Dr. Faustus, the text is clearly
promoting an atheist agenda. In other words, even though by the end of Doctor
Faustus, Faustus is condemned and evil is punished, the importance of the text
lies not in this ending, but rather, within the bodys subtext. This essay will
argue that the moral messages contained in the conclusion of Doctor Faustus Top 10 strategies to succeed within
are secondary to the dominant critique, or more correctly, the outright rejection value-based care
of Christian ideology in general. While proving all of this would be a tall order, Wellcentive
more narrowly, this essay will support this theory by claiming that the rituals
surrounding religion are, to Marlowe, meaninglessness and equated with magic
and superstition, rather than divine grace or something higher".
The
character
of Dr.
Faustus
can The Funniest Slang Terms You Can
perhaps be seen as a mouthpiece for Marlowes atheism. Faustus rejects just Hear In Each State
about all forms of institutionalized belief structures and close to our first Frank151
meeting with him, he announces in one of the important quotations from
Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe, Philosophy is odious and obscure, /
Both law and physic are for petty wits, / Divinity is the basest of the three."
(Scene 1, lines 107-109) Faustus is looking for something more substantial than
academia, much as Marlowe himself was engaged with looking beyond academic
religious pursuits. This, which is one of the important quotes from Doctor
Faustus by Christopher Marlowe can be seen as Marlowe speaking" through
Faustus, describing his denial of taking the religious life and instead, seeking A Charming, Quirky home in Puerto
something more (in his case, writing plays, in Faustus case, summoning the Vallarta
devil). Seeing as how Marlowe never achieved great success after his decision to Luxury Retreats
reject a monastic existence, this can, in some ways, be seen as a strange Recommended by
precognition on his part. By that, this essay is suggesting that, Faustus was
condemned by his choice to take on hell as a lifestyle", this hell" can be
connected with Marlowes decision to leave academia for what was considered to
be a much less rewarding and secular life, which ended in an unfortunate early
death and a rough-and-tumble existence. Thus, Marlowes frustrations with the
near impossibility of living a creative life outside of the academic system are
expressed through the above quote by the character of Faustus.

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 While it may be a bit of
stretch as well as perhaps a
misguided attempt at
reconstructing Marlowe
from scant biographical data
and conjecture alone, if we
continue functioning on the
this possible mouthpiece"
theory, we find several
more allusions to
Marlow/Faustus rejection
of Christianity and God, and
in particular, the rituals
connected to these ideas. In
Scene 3, lines 8-10 of
Doctor Faustus, Faustus is summoning a devil for the first time and before he
begins his incantation, states Within this circle is Jehovahs name/ Forward
and backward anagrammatized;/ The abbreviated names of holy saints." What,
if anything, is this but a direct assault on the rituals of religion? Also, as this

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thesis statement for Doctor Faustus suggests, the connections to magic are an
affront to all that is holy" as in this statement; symbolism (the magic circle),
idols (the holy saints), and language (the anagrammed name of Christ)all of
these are of high importance to religion and here they are not only being
subjected to use for evil, but it shows they are not protection from evil nor do
they offer any help from God.
Continuing with Marlowes atheistic theme of rejecting ritual and equating it
with base magic, in this same section (Scene 7), there is a long Latin incantation,
lasting through for an exhaustive seven lines (16-23). This recitation of Latin to
invoke a spirit is directly connected to Catholic ideas that deal with the same
thing (saying prayers in Latin to call upon the Holy Spirit for instance). Marlowe
subverts the Catholic use of the Latin incantation and replaces God with the
Devil. This brings me to an interesting question that presents a counter to my
argument that Marlowe is a complete atheist. If he doesnt believe that rituals
to summon divine or hellish creatures, then why are incantations successful in
his play? Is there some belief that Marlowe holds that would ground my
argument to dust? My answer to this refutation would be that while Faustus is
able to use Catholic-styled magic" to summon his supernatural creature, why
cant the Pope and all his men do this? Marlowe is equating Catholic and
religious ritual to harmful black magic, necromancy, but the power to invoke the
divine is impossible. One could argue at length why this would be, but for now,
well work with the assumption that Marlowe believes religious ritual and the
idea of Gods existence are more closely aligned with the fantastical or silly"
practices of dark magic rather than anything substantial or real. If there is
something silly about his summoning of a devil, then isnt there something silly
about summoning anything elseGod included?

As a side note, Marlowes use of the

long Latin summoning spell tells us two things. First, Latin is the language that

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has been used for centuries to conduct church ceremony even though it was a
language of high learning and most common people couldnt understand a word
of it. The fact that this nonsense" was being repeated to this devout peoples in
a foreign tongue that they couldnt make head nor tails of, is important since it
reveals the superstitious nature of belief and again, how these superstitions are
equated to magic and the fantasticbelieving something that is quite, literally,
nonsense and gibberish. Second of all, there may be an underlying joke
contained in the very length of the spell. While it doesnt say much of any real
importance, it is a jab at the long drawn-out nonsense that is repeated to an
uncomprehending mass that nonetheless, believes what the nonsense anyway
and even sits through long periods of it.
Scene 7 from Doctor Faustus also has another example of the mouthpiece
theory". When Faustus goes before the Pope, he makes a statement (lines 83-
86) How! Bell, book, and candle, book and bell, / Anon you shall hear a hog
grunt, a calf bleat, and an ass bray, / Because it is St. Peters holy day."
Imagining Faustus is speaking for Marlowe, we can intuit yet again how he
considers ritual and God. Instead of using the candles, bells, and Holy Book to
summon God, all that would (or could according to his desire) appear would be
common animals making comical noises, all of these comical noises converging to
sound like animal laughter (grunting, braying, and bleating). Could this animal
laughter be suggesting that even the basest of creatures are aware of the trick
humanity has played on itself by creating all these drawn-out rituals to summon
a God that even they know doesnt exist? This is a rather disturbing image
when you envision it; a pope in a giant hat surrounded by a gaggle of uniformly
dressed comrades, wielding candles and waggling bells at a group of laughing
animals. If any image in this text solidifies Marlowes atheism, this is certainly it
the very picture of pomp and silliness.
The Popes men as presented in Doctor Faustus, in retaliation for Faustus
behavior begin chanting a curse, asking the Lord to condemn Faustus (Scene 7
lines 89-90) Cursed be he that stole away his holiness meat from the table.
Maledictat Dominus." Not only do they ask the Lord for intervention for
something minor (i.e. pertaining to their own pride), they seal the deal" with
this incantation by again, invoking the Latin. However, the use of the curse and
the subsequent Latin only goes to show how silly the whole process of ritual is
and of course, there is no God that intervenes. Its difficult to get around the
question of how (and if) Marlowe can believe in the Devil and not God. The only
answer to this is that the Devil isnt something Marlowe believes in, but he uses
him as a narrative devicehes an otherworldly character meant to represent
an idea rather than an actual being. In some senses then, Mephistopheles in
Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe, could also be seen as a mouthpiece
for Marlowe since he argues against all that the system of Marlowes society
believes in (strong faith despite lack of evidence, the academic world which
seems servile to the Church, etc.). Still, Faustus himself remains the closest
opportunity to know Christopher Marlowe that the modern world has and
viewing the character of Faustus as his mouthpiece lends credence to the idea
that Marlowe was, in fact, an atheist and worked hard to integrate these themes
into his play.

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