What Does The Audience Think Now?

This audience seem slightly two-faced if you ask me, but this is arguably down to the way Marlowe chooses to present Faustus to them.

I recently blogged on the what the audience was, in my opinion, supposed to think of Faustus after the chorus' introduction of him. I said they are supposed to reserve their judgement of Faustus as the chorus say "to patient judgements we appeal our plaud". They are, however inevitably weary of Faustus' character, due to the nature of his crime and the highly religious context in which the play is set. However Marlowe aims to counter this by suggesting it wasn't entirely Faustus' fault that he did what he did. From the chorus they also see that Faustus is an intelligent man. So the audience are supposed to think Faustus did terribly wrong, but that the crimes he committed were not necessarily his fault so therefore they should reserve their judgement.

Last lesson we went through the first part of act 1 and re-assessed what the audience's opinion might be now. In this section of act 1 Faustus is alone on stage, in his study contemplating which subject he should study next. One thing which I think doesn't change is that the audience still view Faustus as a very intelligent man, for example his first line is "settle thy studies Faustus". This illustrates his intelligence as he is having to debate what to study, suggesting he has the brains to study anything and everything. The fact that he refers to himself in the third person could also show he has a rational mind, as he is trying to reach a reasoned judgement without becoming emotionally involved. However through this I think the audience may also be feeling that Faustus is arrogant and has an air of self-importance about him. He is nevertheless an intelligent and well-educated character as he reads and understands Latin for example, and in this sense I think act 1's introduction of Faustus follows on from the chorus' introduction of him.
This is, however the only point on which the audience's opinion isn't likely to have changed. I personally think they will now find it near impossible to reserve judgement and feel sympathy for Faustus, as he appears arrogant, selfish, power-hungry and blasphemous.

For example, Faustus rejects four highly esteemed subjects of study, claiming he is better than them and that he has already "attained the end" of them. He first rejects philosophy, saying "a greater subject fitteth Faustus' wit". Then he turns to medicine and rejects it as he feels he has already saved people's lives and that he is highly respected anyway, "Are not thy bills hung up as monuments?". The first thing he mentions about medicine is the opportunity to "Heap up gold and be eternized for some wondrous cure", this shows aspects of Faustus' ambition. He wants to be eternally remembered, thus showing his selfish attitude towards these many professions. He only wishes to study something that will bring him prestige, so in this case he would only be interested in finding a cure to a disease, not to save people, but so that he would be remembered forever. He then moves on to law, which he dismisses as "paltry legacies" and which he believes is "too servile and illiberal" for him. The audience see Faustus' attraction to freedom as selfish as he only wishes his studies to benefit himself and not others. Finally Faustus causes the audience's estimations of his character to really fall by dismissing the study of divinity. He seems to have a narrow understanding of religion, especially for a man who has supposedly "profited in divinity" and the audience may pick up on this and feel sorry for Faustus. However I think a stronger argument would be that the audience resent Faustus more still as he is dismisses everything which an average person of the time is likely to have held dear. Faustus states that you cannot escape sin and therefore death either way by studying divinity and so he cries "Divinity adieu!".

The audience find it particularly hard to sympathise with Faustus due to his blatant misunderstanding of their concept of religion and his blasphemous ambitions. For one he seems to laugh at religion, reading a quote aloud and laughing, "Ha!" which the audience would no-doubt find offensive. However it is in Faustus' ambition that the audience see his blasphemous tendencies and wishes to become apparently on par with god. He says "Yet thou art Faustus, and a man" and talks of his wish to have the power to raise people from the dead or give them eternal life. He therefore appears to want to be more than a man and have powers only god has, that is to grant life to others. Faustus sees limits even in the highest achievements of men, stating that although emperors and kings are "obeyed in their several provinces" even they cannot "raise the wind or rend the clouds".
When Faustus has rejected all the other professions including divinity, he adds injury to insult by picking up a book of magic and stating "necromantic books are heavenly" and that this is what he "most desires". It is the unknown nature of magic which Faustus is drawn to, but this doesn't gain the audience's approval as they think this "devilish" subject should remain unknown as it challenges god. Indeed Faustus wants to be like god, saying he desires "omnipotence" and to control " All things that move between the quiet poles", basically he wants to be all powerful and control the world, which wouldn't help the audience in reserving their judgment as they see this as possibly the most serious sin. Faustus then ends with "try thy brains to become a deity", he wants to become a god. So the audience cannot feel sympathy for Faustus due to his blatant blasphemy, selfishness and power obsession. Plus it seems unlikely, as the chorus warned, that the "heavens conspired his overthrow" as so far we have the impression that he is very arrogant and the type of person who would readily make deals with the devil anyway.

In a way, I think that although the chorus encourages the audience to sympathise with the character of Faustus, they are set up to do the opposite. For example by warning them that they should reserve their judgement, Marlowe prepares the audience to judge him arguably more harshly as they are looking for reasons why they shouldn't reserve their judgement, and act 1 provides them with many. I would argue that in doing this, Marlowe knew that the audience would never really empathise with Faustus and that he was aiming to make a point. For example the audience's opinion is so heavily influenced by their religious beliefs, that they cannot help but judge Faustus negatively, and Marlowe could be playing on this to show his dilemma. He can never create a respected and reasonable character that challenges religion, so therefore he adheres to the stereotype to illustrate the influence that religion has in society.

So, there we have it. I think the audience is now supposed to/does see Faustus' character as arrogant, self important, selfish, power obsessed and most importantly blasphemous. Their judgement is no longer being reserved, nor do they entertain the idea that the heavens, aka god, had a part to play in his downfall.

Cool. Elvis has left the building.