What Is The Audience Supposed To Think Of Faustus?

We started to answer this question in class, after reading the prologue of Doctor Faustus, in which the chorus provide us with the basis of the play and therefore our first impressions of Faustus' character.

So what is the audience supposed to think?

I think the audience is supposed to reserve their judgement of Faustus and to perhaps empathise with him. For example the audience are told by the chorus, "to patient judgements we appeal our plaud", so the audience are told to be open-minded and that if they wait to judge Faustus it will perhaps be beneficial to them. This is all despite the fact that they are told Faustus engaged in "Devilish exercise" and sells his soul to the devil. The audience are helped by Marlowe to appreciate Faustus more as the chorus takes them through his upbringing. "Now is he born...In Germany" etc. The use of the present tense "Now" draws the audience in and gives them a shared experience or even bond with Faustus, which I think is supposed to create sympathy and help them reserve judgement on his "Devilish" deeds. 

The reason the audience needs persuading to be more open-minded in their judgement of Faustus is because they are told what he did, which was to sell his soul to the devil, which at the time was arguably the worst mortal sin that could possibly be committed. On top of this the audience are told he conversed with the dead, "cursed necromancy" and that nothing was as "sweet as magic is to him", which were controversial interests to say the least for an audience in the Sixteenth Century. So he excelled in "heavenly matters of Theology" yet he committed this sinful deed and interfered with magic. Yet Marlowe seems to suggest through the nature of the chorus' introduction, that Faustus deserves their patience. 

Furthermore, Marlowe suggests that what happens to Faustus was not necessarily his fault. He talks of how the "heavens conspired his overthrow", this is again a strange moral view to adopt, to suggest that the heavens, i.e god was the reason for his downfall. Considering Marlowe's own atheistic tendencies, one could infer that he was making a statement here about free will and perhaps even criticising religion. He does this subtly enough, however so as to still to appeal to the audience, as outright criticism of the Church at the time was unthinkable heresy. 

So the audience are supposed to sympathise with Faustus and take into consideration the limited control he may of had in what he did. Also the audience are not told what actually happens to Faustus in the end, thus removing the inevitability of his downfall and perhaps leaving them time and scope to reserve their judgement, For if they were told that Faustus is dragged into hell, they would immediately judge him as an evil sinner who was punished for what he did, but leaving it open, "Faustus' fortunes, good or bad" means they are unsure what to think. For example if it turns out that Faustus is forgiven by god for what he did, then the audience's opinion would mirror this.

In addition, the audience are supposed to think that Faustus is a very intelligent man, but that this may have been a contributing factor in his "overthrow". For example we are told he was "graced with doctor's name", showing him to be of great intelligence and to have earned a higher status for himself. However he was "swoll'n with cunning of a self-conceit", his intelligence may have gone to his head and he seems to have become proud, a typical trait of a gothic protagonist. 

Fertig.