Study Questions &
Essay Topics
Study Questions
1. Is D
octor
Faustus a Christian tragedy? Why or why not?
2. Scholar R.M.
Dawkins once called Faustus “a Renaissance man who had to pay the
medieval price for being one.” Do you think this is an accurate characterization
of Marlowe’s tragic hero?
3. Discuss
the character of Mephastophilis. How much
of a role does he play in Faustus’s damnation? How
does Marlowe complicate his character and inspire
our sympathy?
Suggested Essay Topics
1. How does Faustus use the magical
gifts that he receives? How are the uses to which he puts his powers
significant? What do they suggest about his character or about the
nature of unlimited power?
2. What is the role of the comic
characters—Robin, Rafe, the horse-courser, and the clown, for example?
How does Marlowe use them to illuminate Faustus’s decline?
3. When does Faustus have misgivings
about his pact with Lucifer? What makes him desire to repent? Why
do you think he fails to repent?
4. Is God present in the play?
If so, where? If not, what does God’s absence suggest?
5. Discuss the role of Faustus’s
soliloquies—particularly his speeches about the different kinds
of knowledge in scene 1 and his long soliloquies
in scene 12—in shaping our understanding
of his character.
6. Is Faustus misled by the devils,
or is he willfully blind to the reality of his situation?
